Christian Knufinke SIR: Super Impulse Response Processor VST PC

I have been playing and recording for 25 years. My music has been on film and MTV and I have been featured in magazines like Guitar World, Keyboard, and Recording. I use the newest version (it's freeware, remember) with a VST capable multitrack recording program. For producing my industrial, and progressive metal projects, I'm using an Athlon 2800+ machine with a GB of Ram running XP with Digital Audiolabs Card Deluxes with Alesis power amps and monitors and AKG K240DF Headphones.

The interface is extremely powerful but simple to use. No problems with te install, again it's FREEWARE! I don't know about automation because I generally don't use it on verbs. Justload an impulse (it uses .wav instead of .sfi for it's impulse so it's more user friendly than Acoustic Mirror and again did I say it's free?

Sound is as good as the impulses and there are links on the site to some amazing ones done by guys with some SERIOUS gear (we're talking EMT reverbs, Neve preamps, etc.) and all I can say is with these impulses, the thing blows away any program of it's type I've ever heard. The Eventide, Lexicon, TC, and other images completely blow away Waves Rverb, which until this time I thought was king of the heap.

Save your money download this now.

I've been engineering professionally everyday for about 10 years for music, film and radio. I'm also a drummer and software designer.

Put simply, Sir v1.08 roks.

Used on PC with Logic Audio 5.5.1 and Nuendo. Creamware Scope DSP card, A16 converter interface and KRK V8 powered monitors. Also have (as hardware) Lexicon PCM60, Lexicon 4080L and SDE-330 Roland space delay.

simple and functional with everything you need right there.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!

only problem is the fixed latency which means it's not quite real time YET, he's working on a new latency free version...Having said all that, it is easy to work around the problem by inserting a free sample delay for all your tracks (send them to a buss) and then it's perfectly sample accurate...The sound easily justifies any work around.

:)

Totally blown away...Never heard anything software or hardware worth turning off my 4080L for before but this does it....So many types of reverb are possible by using different impulses...The PCM90 impulses from the links page on his site around incredible as stated and there are EMS, Lexicon 9060/4080L impulses which to my ears are indestinguishable from the original units. I have done a straight test to compare my PCM60 with the impulses and every mode was EXACTLY!!! the same between the SIR and the Lexicon. (I laughed out loud...) THis was very easy to do accurately because the PCM60 for those who don't know has push buttons for selecting reverb size and length and room or plate and high end/low end damp so every impulse could be called up and compared in realtime to the PCM60...awesome!!

A must have masterpiece. What more needs to be said...

SIR is a freeware VST convolution reverb effect processor designed by Christian Knufinke that can hold its own against convolution reverb plug-ins that cost hundreds of dollars. A convolution reverb?-often called a sampling reverb--works by extracting the reverb characteristics of a sound impulse recorded in a specific space (such as a church, an opera house, or your bedroom closet) and then applying those characteristics to another source file. With a convolution reverb, you can hear what your music would sound like in Sydney?s famous opera house, or you could hear how Beethoven's "Eroica" would sound in a toilet bowl--the choice is yours.

SIR?s layout is simple and easily understood. On the right-hand side of the screen resides the impulse browser (a wide variety of impulses can be downloaded in .wav format from the Internet). Just click on an impulse, and it will be applied to whatever sounds you have running into SIR. A handy graphic representation of the impulse?s waveform appears at the top of the screen. For strangeness, you can select the ?Reverse? button, and the impulse will be reversed. Immediately below the impulse display, you will find familiar controls: pre-delay, attack, envelope (for tapering off longer impulses), stretch (for stretching or squeezing the impulse file?s length), and stereo in/IR (for controlling the stereo field going into SIR and coming out of it). Below these controls, you will find an equalizer that allows you to selectively remove frequencies for sound shaping. Finally, to the right of the controls and equalizer, you have sliders for adjusting the amount of dry and wet sound.

Considering its price (free) and functionality (the ability to put your sounds in famous acoustic spaces), SIR is a fantastic value. It is easy to install (just drop the .dll file into your VST folder); it?s stable (no crashes or strange behavior); and it sounds great. The only drawback is that convolution reverbs are processor-intensive, and SIR can produce latency issues (some DAWs automatically compensate for this problem). There are many, many impulse responses available on the Internet (some taken from famous concert halls, some taken from hardware reverb units that most of us cannot afford), but there?s nothing to prevent you from being experimental and convolving whatever sound files you have on hand.