Create impulse response of other plugins?

[deviljames68]

Hi, i'm working on a tune with a buddy that uses a plugin I don't own. I know that when I get home and open the project in my logic the plugin will be crossed out so I think i've come up with an ingenious solution.....

 

 

I could create an IR of the plugin and load this into sound designer to recreate the sound of the effect.

 

 

Would this work though and how the hell would I go about it? I don't want to bounce the audio down as the effect is placed on a buss and I want to have the option of changing the levels of the different instruments at the mixdown.

 

Can anyone help with this cheers,

 

James

[beej]

It kinda depends on what the effect is, which you don't specify.

 

Not everything is suitable for convolution - reverbs, delays, EQ's and non-dynamic amp sims and so on work well, but more dynamic processing like compression, limiting, full on guitar amp sims that react dynamically to your playing, and modulation effects don't really work too well with static convolution.

 

So if it's a reverb plugin, then yes, you can make an impulse of it and have a reasonable approximation of the effect, particularly if the reverb doesn't use spin or modulation on the tails to make them thicker.

 

But if it's some random, dynamic, constantly varying filter vocoder thing, then convolution won't necessarily give you the same sound.

[deviljames68]

Yeah sorry I forgot that, the plugin in is Soundtoys Decapitator. I tried making an IR last night of it but don't know if I got it working or not

[beej]

Yeah, Decapitator is a highly dynamic plugin - the processes it applies to a low amplitude signal will be different to the processes applied to a loud signal (as a simplification).

 

This means it isn't a good fit for convolution - not that you can't do it, but that all you would be doing with static convolution is taking a snapshot of that process for that one signal - it might be enough depending on your usage, or it might not be.

 

Try it and see - but don't expect convolution to give a complete emulation of the plugin, because static convolution alone won't let you do it properly.