Modal Decompositions of Impulse Responses for Parametric Interaction

A modelling system for the impulse responses (IRs) of reverberators is presented. The overarching purpose of this system is to offer similar levels of control over captured IRs to that of algorithmic reverberators whilst retaining their acoustic plausibility and, where desired, realism. Specifically, an approach to estimating the parameters of the model is presented which offers a significant reduction in the computational requirements of the matrix decomposition method ESPRIT, whilst offering vastly improved quality than is possible by using a single Fourier analysis. These methods are compared, first on large sets of short-duration synthetic signals, and then on a wide range of typical IRs, some many seconds in duration. Finally, systems that employ the model described and the analysis method it uses, are discussed.