Reflections and Diffusion

The REFLECTIONS tab holds two stages, each under its own header: REFLECTIONS MIX for the early reflections and DIFFUSION MIX for the diffusion chain. Each has its own MIX and BYPASS, and one SOLO covers both.

REFLECTIONS

Three groups of early reflections follow one another in time, each in its own window with its own level: near (close walls, 6 reflections), mid (room boundaries, 12) and late (distant surfaces, 24). Within each window the reflections are evenly spaced, and each one arrives from its own direction.

Control	Range	Default	What it does
near level	-24 to 0 dB	-6 dB	Level of the near group.
mid level	-24 to 0 dB	-9 dB	Level of the mid group.
late level	-24 to 0 dB	-12 dB	Level of the late group.
near end	5 to 80 ms	20 ms	When the near window closes. The near group starts at 1 ms.
mid end	20 to 200 ms	60 ms	When the mid window closes. The mid group starts at near end.
late end	60 to 400 ms	120 ms	When the late window closes. The late group starts at mid end, and after it the reflections hand over to the late tail.

All six controls are in the EXPERT view. In MINIMAL the Reflections macro moves the three levels together. The stage adds the reflections to the signal passing through it, so its MIX sets the reflections’ level.

DIFFUSION

A chain of nested allpass filters smears the signal in time without changing its level, blurring the individual reflections into a diffuse cloud.

Control	Range	Default	What it does
stages	1 to 12	12	Number of allpass stages. More stages decorrelate more and use more CPU. EXPERT view.
smear length	2 to 40 ms	15 ms	Longest allpass delay. Longer sounds more like a room; shorter sounds more like a plate. EXPERT view.

In MINIMAL the Room macro on this card moves smear length together with the three end times of the REFLECTIONS card. On a stereo output diffusion sits in series in the audible chain. On a multichannel output it shapes only the signal feeding the late tail. See Signal Chain.