Wayverb

Realistic, fast impulse-response synthesis.
GPU accelerated.
Free and open source.

What does Wayverb do?

It simulates reverberation: Given a 3D model of a room (perhaps made with Sketchup or AutoCAD), Wayverb allows you to predict the impulse response of that room. Simulations can be customised by adjusting the frequency response of the reflective surfaces, and the source and microphone positions.

Perfect for sound design: Generated impulse responses are intended for use with convolution reverb tools such as Altiverb, for music production and sound design applications. They may also be useful to architects, for checking the acoustic properties of spaces (such as reverb time and speech intelligibility), without having to physically build anything.

How does it work?

Accurate: The simulator combines an image-source model for precise early reflections, a statistical ray-tracing model for fast envelope prediction, and a physically-based waveguide model for low frequencies.

Fast: Built in C++14, using OpenCL, to make the most of modern hardware.

Implementation details

You can jump straight to the documentation on each of these topics, or you can start by reading from the beginning.

Image-source early reflection finder

Early reflections are found using the image-source method, retaining accurate directional and temporal information.

Ray-tracing late reflection estimator

Late reflections are found using a statistical ray-tracing method, which estimates the envelope of the late energy decay.

Waveguide low-frequency simulator

Low frequencies are found by modelling the change in air pressure over time, taking into account wave effects such as reflection, interference, and diffraction.

Hybrid

The three simulation methods are automatically and seamlessly combined to produce a single result.

Microphone modelling

Replicate traditional microphone set-ups to mimic a concert-hall recording, or use the built-in HRTF functionality to produce binaural impulse responses.

Boundary modelling

Modify the frequency response of any surface in the model. Each surface has 8-band absorption and scattering parameters, which can be used to mimic real materials - or you can invent your own.

Download

You’ll need a machine running macOS 10.11, ideally with a discrete graphics card.

Background

Wayverb is written by Reuben Thomas.

It is the product of a MA by Research in Music at The University of Huddersfield, supervised by Alexander Harker, and submitted January 2017.

The code is free and open-source, licensed under the terms of the GNU GPL v2. You can find it here.