The guy in the picture is Fokke van Sanne, a Dutch sound engineer. He's sampling the inside of his mouth, by firing a starter pistol into it and recording the sound on a Neumann U98 microphone. He uses Altiverb software to strip out the sound of the gunshot and create an Impulse Response - a sample of the sound of the space. Using software like Waves IR-1 ($800) or SIR (Free), you can use the sampled reverb just like you'd use any other reverb. And convolution reberb sounds incredible. Fokke has sampled an old PA system in a huge derelict factory. I tried it out using SIR and a sample of Missy Elliot, and suddenly there's Missy, rapping through the PA system in a disused warehouse. It doesn't sound like a reverb effect, it sounds like the real thing. Convolution reverbs have been around for a few years at pro level, but now, with SIR, lots of people are experimenting with the technology, which can also be used to sample effects units, amplifiers and compressors. Noisevault is the centre of the scene.
Posted by Tom Whitwell. 
: 3:56 am : 11:12 pm
