Space Designer is a convolution reverb effect. You can use it to place your audio signals in exceptionally realistic recreations of real-world acoustic environments.

Space Designer generates reverb by convolving, or combining, an audio signal with an impulse response (IR) reverb sample. An impulse response is a recording of a room’s reverb characteristics—or, to be more precise, a recording of all reflections in a given room, following an initial signal spike. The actual impulse response file is a standard audio file.

To understand how this works, imagine a situation where Space Designer is used on a vocal track. An IR recorded in an actual opera house is loaded into Space Designer. This IR is convolved with your vocal track, placing the singer inside the opera house.

Convolution can be used to place your audio signal inside any space, including a speaker cabinet, a plastic toy, a cardboard box, and so on. All you need is an IR recording of the space.

In addition to loading impulse responses, Space Designer includes an on-board impulse response synthesis facility. This enables you to create completely unique effects, particularly when the synthesized IR doesn’t represent a real space.

You can also record and edit impulse responses with Impulse Response Utility, which is accessed from Space Designer’s IR Sample menu.

Space Designer also offers features such as envelopes, filters, EQ, and stereo/surround balance controls, which provide precise control over the dynamics, timbre, and length of the reverberation.

Space Designer can operate as a mono, stereo, true stereo (meaning each channel is processed discretely), or surround effect.