Acoustic guitar impulse

[bozmillar]

I've seen this question asked before and it always seems to go down the wrong road. What I'm looking for is the impulse response of an acoustic guitar body resonating. The purpose of this is to convolve an electric violin with the impulse to make it sound more like an acoustic violin. I know it won't work perfectly, but it actually does work pretty darn well.

I have found 2 impulses that are what I'm looking for, but both of them are sampled at 22kHz. I'd like to find one that is sampled at at least 44.1kHz. I've looked everywhere but can't seem to find any.

Just to hear what I'm going for, this is the sound of my electric violin dry:

and this is what it sounds like after convolving it with the 22kHz impulse that I found + some reverb:

it's not perfect, but I think it's about a zillion steps up from the dry sound.

If there don't exist any, anyone know of any good ways to make one? I can't really think of a good way to do it without attaching some sort of driver to it and doing a swept sine wave. I guess I could try dropping a speaker inside a guitar and doing it that way. I guess it's worth a shot.

 

[gecko zzed]

If you can't find an impulse file, there are a couple of possibilities:

1 Make your own. You got an acoustic guitar hanging around? Set up a mike somewhere near the guitar, tap the guitar and record that. Top and tail it, then load it into your convolution reverb. No guitar? then do it with your violin.

2 Record the violin using a mike.

 

[bozmillar]

1 Make your own. You got an acoustic guitar hanging around? Set up a mike somewhere near the guitar, tap the guitar and record that. Top and tail it, then load it into your convolution reverb. No guitar? then do it with your violin.

yeah, I was trying to avoid that because I heard one done this way once that I thought sounded really crappy, but I just tried banging my guitar with a spoon and I think I've changed my preconceived notions on using this technique. Plus, it's really easy to try.

2 Record the violin using a mike.

It's 100% electric, not acoustic electric. It sounds even crappier in the air than it does through the piezo pickup.

i'll try the tap thing and post a sample. I'll try a few different instruments to see if any works better than the others.

 

[somegeezer]

is it bad that I prefer the dry sound? =P

 

[bozmillar]

For anyone who's interested, I went ahead and made my own impulses. I made impulses of my acoustic violin and my viola. I tapped the bridge with various items I had lying around the house. Each item created a very different sounding impulse. I did close samples and room samples and got the best results blending a spoon tap and a popsicle stick tap.

he's the result, blending about 5 impulses together + a little reverb. It's still a little thin and/or honky for my tastes, but I think I'm getting closer to what I want.

 

[bozmillar]

is it bad that I prefer the dry sound? =P

Yes it is. That's ok though, nobody is perfect. In fact, I hear that some people even like to eat olives.

 

[somegeezer]

Yes it is. That's ok though, nobody is perfect. In fact, I hear that some people even like to eat olives.

Ah, I love olives too. I'm an awful, awful person. ^_^

 

[gecko zzed]

is it bad that I prefer the dry sound? =P

It depends on how dry it is. It is rare for a violin performance to be held in a completely dry venue, and I contend that it is the natural reverb of the venue that adds to the sonic qualities of the violin. If that natural reverb is not present in the studio, then I think it needs to be added back in.

 

[somegeezer]

It depends on how dry it is. It is rare for a violin performance to be held in a completely dry venue, and I contend that it is the natural reverb of the venue that adds to the sonic qualities of the violin. If that natural reverb is not present in the studio, then I think it needs to be added back in.

I'd certainly expect a lot of natural reverb if it were an orchestra, which has a lot of violins. But when I hear a single violin, it feels more up close and personal and too much reverb just ends up making it sound like it's at the back of the room.

Once it's in a mix with a full band, again, I expect there will have to be that reverb added, but on it's own, it sounds better dry I think.

I have similar feelings when playing my bass alone or witha band. In a band setting, I tend to add more to my mids and even turn my low end down, just to be able to punch through.

So perhaps with a band around it, I would enjoy the wet violin more than the dry.