ROOM

Simple delay-line room model.

in RTcmix/insts/jg

NOTE: This instrument does not seem to be functioning properly, 6/2012

quick syntax:

roomset(xsize, ysize, xsrc, ysrc, xleftwall, yleftwall, xrightwall, yrightwall, absorpt[, seed])

ROOM(outsk, insk, dur, amp[, inputchan])

ROOM uses a subcommand (roomset) to specify the modeled room’s characteristics.

roomset

ROOM

Because this instrument has not been updated for pfield control, the older makegen control envelope sysystem should be used:

Assumes function table 1 is the amplitude envelope

ROOM is based on a very early room-simulation model by Paul Lansky. Basically, it constructs a set of 13 delay lines based on the distance to a virtually-constructed room.

NOTE: This is an older RTcmix instrument (almost three decades!). Many of the room-simulation programs listed below in the See Also section are much more sophisticated.

Usage Notes

The room is created using the roomset command, and the input sound is then processed by the ROOM instrument.

roomset builds a two-dimensional model of a room and with thirteen delay lines from the source to the listener. This virtual model of a room is created by computing the delay, the speaker (source) location based on the angle from the reflection point, and a decay factor based on the absorption factor and the delay due to distance (1/distance^absorption) for each reflection.

To visualize the room created by this command, imagine a two-dimensional space with [0,0] (the origin) at the lower left-hand corner. In the roomset arguments, p0 (“xsize”) and p1 (“ysize”) are the x and y dimensions of the space in feet.

The “xsrc” and “ysrc” parameters (p2 and p3) specify the position of the sound source in terms of a fraction of the x and y dimensions. The arguments .5, .5 for xsrc and ysrc will position a sound source in the middle of the roomset space while .9, .1 will position it at the right front.

“xleftwall” (p4) and “yleftwall” (p5) specify the point at which the left wall becomes the back wall in terms of a fraction of the left side of the room only. p4 is thus a fraction of the x dimension/2. The arguments .1, .9 for p4 and p5 will form almost a square corner for the left side of the room, while .5, .5 will make the left side a straight line from (0,0) to (x-dimension/2,y-dimension). This will create a triangular room if it is repeated for the “xrightwall” and “yrightwall” (p6 and p7) parameters. p6 and p7 are specified as if the room were “folded over” – if the arguments are identical to the left wall arguments the room will be symmetrical. The basic shape of the room is probably best thought of as triangular. The sides of the triangle can then be pulled back from their midpoints to approach a rectangle.

The absorption factor (p8, “absorpt”) specifies how much the signal will have decayed by the time it reaches the listener (positioned at (x-dimension/2,0). An absorption factor of 2 will approximate an average room while 3 will be rather dry, .5 will be highly reverberant and 0 will create the effect of no absorption at all. A negative absorption factor will actually cause the sound to get louder as a function of increased distance.

The thirteen reflection points along the walls are chosen randomly. The random number generator may be reseeded with the optional tenth argument, “seed” (p9).

ROOM requires stereo output.

Sample Scores

basic use:

   rtsetparams(44100, 2)
   load("ROOM")

   rtinput("mysound.snd")

   x = 300
   y = 200
   xsrc = .9
   ysrc = .1
   xlwall = .1
   ylwall = .9
   xrwall = .1
   yrwall = .9
   absorb = 2
   seed = .1730

   roomset(x, y, xsrc, ysrc, xlwall, ylwall, xrwall, yrwall, absorb, seed)

   outskip = 0
   inskip = 0
   dur = DUR()
   amp = 3.0
   inchan = 0

   makegen(1, 24, 1000, 0,0, 1,1, 9,1, 10,0)
   ROOM(outskip, inskip, dur, amp, inchan)

See Also

DMOVE, FREEVERB, GVERB, MMOVE, MOVE, MPLACE, MOOM, PLACE, REV, REVERBIT, SROOM