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Let's Write a Reverb (2021)

signalsmith-audio.co.uk

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Re: Let's Write a Reverb (2021)

#31

Post by signalsmith »

22c wrote: post #28
signalsmith wrote: post #24

Whoah - the author (Signalsmith) here! This was a fun way to wake up, and I'm happy to answer any questions.

Thanks for the enjoyable article! Possibly off-topic, but I am coder with hobbyist interest in the DSP space. I have never really had a "penny drop" moment when it comes to starting from nothing and generating sound. Even generating simple sine wave seems like either a big chore or a completely abstract concept (depending on the tools/libraries/environment), I have not been able to find a middle-ground where I feel l…

First, join a good community! If you're on Discord, TAP is great: https://discord.gg/aBghGGcfYs - it's beginner-friendly while also having some heavy-hitters in there, and it's generally wholesome. You're not the only hobbyist learner, and it's important to have a place you can ask questions without feeling awkward.

If you swap language/environment later, you'll carry your understanding/intuition with you, so you don't have to start with C++ if that's not your bag (even though it's still the industry standard). There are audio-specific languages with JIT runtimes (which can be used in Logic/Reaper/GarageBand/etc.), Rust/JS frameworks, etc. so find the one that feels good to tinker with, and keep that momentum/motivation going. :)

Re: Let's Write a Reverb (2021)

#32

Post by signalsmith »

chaosprint wrote: post #30
signalsmith wrote: post #24

Whoah - the author (Signalsmith) here! This was a fun way to wake up, and I'm happy to answer any questions.

Thanks for writing so many blogs. The adc talk was also great. Have you considered doing some demos with wasm on the web? Also, have you considered porting these packages to rust?

I haven't done anything with Rust yet, but it's on my free-time wishlist.

I'm working on WASM demos! I've been playing with WASM builds of my plugins, and it's great for prototyping/sharing, but it could definitely be set up better for demos/teaching: https://signalsmith-audio.co.uk/tmp/web-audio/?url=/tmp/basi...

Re: Let's Write a Reverb (2021)

#33

Post by codedokode »

Interesting article, however in drums demo the reverb sound increases after the drum is hit, and this doesn't seem natural. I would expect the reverb to have only decay phase, but here the reverb has a slow attack as well.

Re: Let's Write a Reverb (2021)

#34

Post by codedokode »

22c wrote: post #28
signalsmith wrote: post #24

Whoah - the author (Signalsmith) here! This was a fun way to wake up, and I'm happy to answer any questions.

Thanks for the enjoyable article! Possibly off-topic, but I am coder with hobbyist interest in the DSP space. I have never really had a "penny drop" moment when it comes to starting from nothing and generating sound. Even generating simple sine wave seems like either a big chore or a completely abstract concept (depending on the tools/libraries/environment), I have not been able to find a middle-ground where I feel l…

You could start with making sounds using a software synth or PureData. There will be no issues with generating sine waves. And there are lot of tutorials for this.

If you aim for performance, you will have to use SIMD and language that supports it (for example, C, Rust).

Re: Let's Write a Reverb (2021)

#35

Post by signalsmith »

codedokode wrote: post #33

Interesting article, however in drums demo the reverb sound increases after the drum is hit, and this doesn't seem natural. I would expect the reverb to have only decay phase, but here the reverb has a slow attack as well.

*EDIT*: I just realised that the demo you're talking about doesn't include the "early reflections"! So that demo only includes echoes which have gone through the main feedback delays at least once.

If you mix in some of the diffused signal directly, it bridges the gap between the initial sound and the feedback echoes: https://signalsmith-audio.co.uk/writing/2021/lets-write-a-re...

---

You can tune the diffuser to have an almost-instant onset. I can't remember what I did last time, but at a guess, having the largest diffuser stage increase by a factor of N (number of channels) instead of 2 might do it.

But also, if you're playing acoustic drums in a big space like a concert hall (instead of a long one like a staircase), the first echoes coming back from the walls are actually a bit delayed (1 foot ~= 1ms, at the speed of sound). So if your nearest wall is 10ft away, the first wall-echoes will come 10-20ms after the initial direct sound.

Re: Let's Write a Reverb (2021)

#36

Post by codedokode »

I wonder where do you find information like this? E.g. how a reverd is made, how those electronic drum sounds from classic drum machines are made and so on? Is there something like a big catalogue of different tricks and algorithms?

Re: Let's Write a Reverb (2021)

#37

Post by signalsmith »

codedokode wrote: post #36

I wonder where do you find information like this? E.g. how a reverd is made, how those electronic drum sounds from classic drum machines are made and so on? Is there something like a big catalogue of different tricks and algorithms?

Some stuff is around the web, some is from other people. Particularly for classic kit, someone's usually analysed it before, but it's not always in a good tutorial kind of form. Personally, I did a lot of messing around with audio/programming from my early teens onwards, and built my intuition about how the maths and sound link up from years of tinkering without many reference resources.

A lot of this stuff can be made from relatively simple building-blocks though, and you don't have to copy a previous configuration. My thought process was pretty much exactly as written in the blog-post! I just wanted to make something which didn't require any special tuning skills.

Re: Let's Write a Reverb (2021)

#38

Post by chr15m »

signalsmith wrote: post #24

Whoah - the author (Signalsmith) here! This was a fun way to wake up, and I'm happy to answer any questions.

Thanks so much for taking the time to write this up clearly. I now have a much better understanding of how recent work than I did before. Really appreciate it!

Re: Let's Write a Reverb (2021)

#39

Post by bambax »

signalsmith wrote: post #24

Whoah - the author (Signalsmith) here! This was a fun way to wake up, and I'm happy to answer any questions.

Brillant article! Thanks!

Are you also "Geraint"? (The home page https://signalsmith-audio.co.uk/ says "we" but the Geraint page https://geraintluff.github.io/jsfx/ says "I"...?)

Geraint's plugins are a great collection of excellent (and free) effects for Reaper, with a superb GUI (which isn't easy to do in Reaper/JSFX). So thanks also for this! ;-)

Re: Let's Write a Reverb (2021)

#40

Post by signalsmith »

bambax wrote: post #39
signalsmith wrote: post #24

Whoah - the author (Signalsmith) here! This was a fun way to wake up, and I'm happy to answer any questions.

Brillant article! Thanks! Are you also "Geraint"? (The home page https://signalsmith-audio.co.uk/ says "we" but the Geraint page https://geraintluff.github.io/jsfx/ says "I"...?) Geraint's plugins are a great collection of excellent (and free) effects for Reaper, with a superb GUI (which isn't easy to do in Reaper/JSFX). So thanks also for this! ;-)

Yes, I'm Geraint. :D I'm the tech side of Signalsmith Audio, and my partner is the Business Brain. The JSFX plugins are mostly from before we made a proper company (back when Signalsmith was just my username) - I'm glad you're enjoying them!
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