Article Preview - Pro Tools Plug-in Masterclass: TL Space : June 2008
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| Article Preview - Pro Tools Plug-in Masterclass: TL Space Pro Tools Notes & Techniques Published in SOS June 2008 Technique : Pro Tools Notes Like many DAW manufacturers, Digidesign offer their own convolution plug-in as an add-on for Pro Tools. We explain how to get the best from TL Space. This month's Pro Tools workshop is the first in an occasional series where we'll take a detailed look at one of the more complex plug-ins that Digidesign distribute. First up is the TL Space convolution reverb plug-in, which is available in both TDM and RTAS flavours. As with all of their plug-ins, a 14-day demo of TL Space can be downloaded from the Digidesign web site (see the 'Links' box), so if you're curious, you can install the demo and use it in conjunction with this workshop, even if you don't yet own TL Space yourself. The TDM version actually comes as three different plug-ins, Short, Medium and Long, which offer progressively longer reverb times at the expense of using more DSP. The longer versions can 'bridge' multiple DSP chips in one instance of a plug-in, up to a limit of eight DSPs for a quad input/true stereo output instance, but the maximum reverb time available in the TDM version is 3.4 seconds. If you want to hear the nuclear cooling tower in all its glory, then, you need to use the RTAS version. This is included with the TDM version as well as being available as separately, and uses the host computer's processing power instead. What Is Convolution? At a mathematical level, convolution multiplies every sample in one waveform or impulse by the samples in another waveform. When that second waveform represents an 'impulse response' created by recording the decay of a gunshot or sine sweep, it can be used to apply reverb 'sampled' from a real acoustic space. Once you have an impulse of your favourite space and put it into a convolution reverb, the result will sound as if the audio was played in that space. However, you can actually use anything you like as the impulse response: for a wacky example, try convolving someone saying 'Hey' with a snare drum hit. You will find that the snare drum says 'Hey' each time it is hit! Space Is The Place It's worth being familiar with TL Space's Preferences page. The 'Embed IRs' option is particularly useful if you need to archive your Sessions and open them on other machines.
Published in SOS June 2008 | Saturday 6th September 2008  September 2008
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