Using your own IRs in Logic’s Space Designer

Let’s get straight to the point; audio convolution does more than just reverbs.

You can spend large amounts of cash on reverbs based on impulse response collections and the IR convolver (see Altiverb (€1000), Inspirata (£1,300) and the more reasonably-priced Reverberate ($99)) but Logic users get Space Designer for free and a tonne of real-world captured IRs plus a load of equipment with speakers (old phones and radios for example).

But there are thousands of freely available IRs, both real-world and digitally created, spread far and wide across our old friend, the internet. How do you find them though?

The largest collection of free IRs is contained in a thread on KVR. This thread was first posted in October 2005 and has now 53 pages of links to free impulse responses. Everything from your normal everyday rooms and halls down to strange public spaces, water towers and toilet bowls can be found in this thread. Also guitar cabinets and microphones.

And that’s where this post leads into the video below. It shows, first of all, how easy it is to drag your impulse response files into Space Designer, and secondly, the different positions in your signal chain where you might place Space Designer the impulse responses to be most effective.

For example, where might you put SD when you have a microphone impulse loaded? Or perhaps a guitar cabinet?

This video should help you understand where and how to use your impulse response collection in your signal chain.