Case Study: Schroeder Reverberator: L. Liu Department of Computer Science, ETH Zürich Fall Semester, 2012

Reconfigurable Computing Systems (252-2210-00L)
Fall 2012
Case Study: Schroeder Reverberator
L. Liu
Department of Computer Science, ETH Zürich
Fall semester, 2012
1
Room Impulse Response
Repeated multiple reflections result in the reverberation

characteristics of the listening space that we usually
associate with a room, hall, cathedral and so on.
Source:
V. Valimaki, J.D. Parker, L. Savioja, J.O. Smith, and J.S. Abel. Fifty years of
artificial reverberation. Audio, Speech, and Language Processing, IEEE
Transactions on, 20(5):1421 – 1448, Jul. 2012.
Reverberation
Reverberation is produced naturally by the reflection of sounds off
objects; it’s effect on the overall sound that reaches the listener
depends on the environment in which the sound is travelling.
The reverberation effect depends on
the characteristic of the space,
and the type, shape and number of objects that the sound encounters
Example reflection paths occurring between source and listener

Reflections
During the travelling process, the sound is not only

delayed , but it also decays.
Direct path
• the sound reaches the listener first travels along this path
Early reflection
• the listener receives more delayed sound reflected once or twice from
nearby objects and surfaces
Late reflection or reverberation
• In the end, the listener receives the dense and attenuated sound
reflected several time from the distant objects
Can we use feedback comb filter to

simulate natural reverberation sounding?
Artificial Reverberation
Using electronic circuit to simulate natural reverberation

is called artificial reverberation.
As a reverberator, the feedback comb filter suffers from
two main defects:
Coloration
• The amplitude-frequency response is not flat, and therefore impart the
“colored” quality to the reverberated sound
Fluttering
• The echo density (i.e. the number of echoes per second) at the output of
the reverberator for a single pulse (δ function) input is too low
compared to the real room. This leads to a “fluttering” of the
reverberated sound. That is individual echoes can be heard.
Source:
M.R.Schroeder, Natural sounding artificial reverberation,
Journal of the audio society, 1962.
Feedback Comb Filter As Reverberation Unit
Equation
y (t ) = x(t ) + gy (t − τ )
Impulse response Frequency response
“colored”
reverberated sound
Echo Density
After the initial reflection, the rate at which the echoes reach the
listener begins to increase rapidly
A listener can distinguish differences in echo density up to a
density of 1 echo/ms (1000 echoes / sec)
A feedback comb filter with 40ms delay line produces 25 (1000/40) echoes
The amount of time required to reach this threshold influences the
character of the reverberation. In a good situation, this is typically
100ms.
This time is roughly proportional to the square root of the volume
of a room. So that small spaces are characterized by a rapid
buildup of echo density
Source: 7
http://www.cs.sfu.ca/~tamaras/delayEffects/
Design an Artificial Reverberator
The reverberation unit must have a flat frequency

response
The network of reverberation unit should achieve
required echo density
8
All-pass Filters
Equation
y[n] = − gx[n] + x[n − M ] + gy[n − M ]
Frequency Response
All-pass filter has flat frequency response
Hardware architecture
9
Network of Reverberation Units
Parallel connection
When reverberation units are connected in parallel, their
impulse responses add.
Series Connection
When placed in series (cascade), The number of pulses
produced in one unit is the product of 3 and the number of
pulses produced by its preceding units.
Delay of each unit (apart from the first unit) is made about 1/3
of the preceding delay. Therefore the echoes of each unit is 3
times of its preceding unit.
10
Highly Irregular Response
Psycho-acoustic experiments indicate that the human ear cannot

distinguish the highly irregular response of a room and the flat
response of a filter
There are about 15 response peaks in every 100Hz interval for a room.
Connecting several feedback comb filter in parallel can simulate

this highly irregular response of a room
For a delay of 0.04 sec, the number of response peaks per 100Hz is 4.
Therefore roughly 4 feedback comb filters in parallel can approximate the
number of peaks in the frequency response of a room.
11
Schroeder Reverberator
12
Reverberation Time (RVT)
The time required for a sound to die away to 1/1000 (-60db),

represented as T60
Proportional to how long a listener will hear a sound, but depends
also on other factors such as the amplitude of the original sound
and presence of other sounds
Depends on the volume of the room and the nature and number of
its reflective surfaces
Rooms with large volume tend to have long reverberation times
With a constant volume, reverb time will decrease with an increase in
surface area available for reflection
Absorptivity of the surfaces
Roughness of the surfaces
13
Loop Gain, Delay and Reverberation Time
y[ n ] = x[ n ] + gy [ n − M ]
loop gain
Given the loop (delay) time τ, M and g can be computed

via following equations
M = τ / (period of sampling clock) = τ / (1/samplingRate)
g = 0.001(τ / T60)
14
Choosing Control Parameter Values
Choose loop times that are relative prime to each other

so the decay is smooth
If the delay line loop times have common divisors, pulses will
coincide, producing increased amplitude resulting in distinct
echoes and an audible frequency bias.
Shorter loop times are used to simulate smaller spaces.

In a smaller room, the first reflections will arrive sooner
and the echo density will increase more rapidly.
15
Element Reverb time Delay time
C1 T60 29.7ms
C2 T60 37.1ms
C3 T60 41.1ms
C4 T60 43.7ms
Element Loop gain Delay time

A1 0.7 5ms
A2 0.7 1.7ms
Parameters for a Schroeder Reverberator

simulating a medium-sized concert hall
16

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Reconfigurable Computing Systems (252-2210-00L)

Case Study: Schroeder Reverberator

Repeated multiple reflections result in the reverberation

Example reflection paths occurring between source and listener

During the travelling process, the sound is not only

Can we use feedback comb filter to

Using electronic circuit to simulate natural reverberation

Impulse response Frequency response

The reverberation unit must have a flat frequency

Psycho-acoustic experiments indicate that the human ear cannot

Connecting several feedback comb filter in parallel can simulate

The time required for a sound to die away to 1/1000 (-60db),

Given the loop (delay) time τ, M and g can be computed

Choose loop times that are relative prime to each other

Shorter loop times are used to simulate smaller spaces.

Element Loop gain Delay time

Parameters for a Schroeder Reverberator

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