Apple Impulse Response Utility User Manual
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Note:
You may also need additional microphone pre-amplifiers if you find that your
microphones can’t capture a strong enough signal, or your audio interface doesn’t offer
enough mic pre-amp inputs.
It is possible to make discrete multi-track impulse responses—even if you don’t have
enough speakers or microphones. As you’ll only be recording one sine sweep at a time,
you can set up as many speakers as you have, record them into Impulse Response
Utility, then move the speakers to new positions, and repeat the process. To give you
an example, imagine you only have a stereo pair of speakers, but want to create a
quadraphonic impulse response, which requires the recording of four tracks in four
different speaker positions. You could set up your pair of monitors, record their output,
then move them to record the other pair of tracks in the other two speaker positions.
This method of creating impulse responses is obviously more time consuming, and not
having all your speakers set up at once makes optimal monitor placement—relative to
each other—difficult. With time and careful planning, however, you can still achieve the
same results.
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Tip:
You can also create multi channel impulse responses in Impulse Response Utility
through use of the Mono to Omni Discrete impulse response format. This only requires
the recording of one speaker by as many “channel” microphones as needed (for the
chosen format). The resulting impulse response places a lower strain on your CPU. See
“
Recording a Mono to Omni 5 Channel Impulse Response
If you have enough monitors, but not enough microphones, you can set up the
required speakers, and simply move your available microphones between them. This
makes optimal microphone placement—relative to other microphones—difficult, but
you still have the advantage of optimal speaker placement (and let’s face it, it’s way
easier to move microphones than speakers!).
Example of speakers and microphones set up to capture a 5.1 multi-channel impulse response
Computer
Audio interface
Surround
microphone
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