DIY Stair Well Reverb IR

Very Quick and Easy

I’m sure there are much more professional ways to capture the sound of a space or room as an impulse response, but I wasn’t too worried about perfection.

My Stairwell to Heaven?

I had a little time on my hands and I wanted to use it effectively, so I created an IR of my stair well without labouring over too many small details. I threw up a couple of mics (cheap mics) and made the appropriate sound (by bursting a couple of plastic packaging cushions/bags) and recorded the resulting sound, along with the reverberation in the mic’d up area.

It worked. I wouldn’t say it sounds that great, but after adding it to some recorded drum tracks it had a similar kind of sound to what you would get with a room mic capturing the kit from a distance… In other words, the sound of a particular room or space.

In fact it worked perfectly, but the only snag was that perhaps my stairwell won’t become an iconic sound like that of Headley Grange!