Amsterdam Concertgebouw
The Netherlands

The most prestigious classical music concert hall in the world is captured in stereo and quadraphonic impulse responses.

Sydney Opera House
Concert hall, Sydney, Australia

The large concert hall of Sydney Opera House is the largest interior venue at the Sydney Opera House. With its high vaulted ceiling and interior finishes of brush box and white birch timber, it is designed primarily for acoustic performances.

Konzerthaus
Vienna, Austria

The Wiener Konzerthaus (http://www.konzerthaus.at) together with the Musikverrein and the Amsterdam Concertgebouw are the three most sought after locations for symphonic recordings.

Mechanics Hall
Worcester MA, USA

Mechanics Hall is heralded as one of the four finest concert halls in North America. Internationally regarded by performance artists for its superb acoustics, the Hall also houses a complete recording studio.

Filmorchester Studio 1
Berlin, Germany

This magnificent orchestral studio is built in 1952/53 as a box in box construction, where the inner 'box' is suspended from chains from the outer box. It is extremely silent and served The purposes of both communist propaganda and recording of classic music, pop music, big band for the Broadcast of German Democratic Republic.

LA Philharmonic - Disney Hall
Los Angeles, CA, USA

The Walt Disney Concert Hall at 111 South Grand Avenue in Downtown Los Angeles, California is the fourth hall of the Los Angeles Music Center. Bounded by Hope Street, Grand Avenue, 1st and 2nd Streets, it seats 2,265 people and serves (among other purposes) as the home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra and the Los Angeles Master Chorale.

Konzerthaus
large hall, Berlin, Germany

Acoustically, the Berlin Konzerthaus's large hall is considered to be amongst the five best concert venues in the world for music and/or opera. The original building stems from 1817. Severely damaged by Allied bombing and the Battle of Berlin the building was rebuilt from 1977 onwards and reopened as the concert hall of the Berliner Sinfonie-Orchester in 1984. The exterior, including many of the sculptures of composers by Christian Friedrich Tieck and Balthasar Jacob Rathgeber, is a faithful reconstruction of Schinkel's original designs, while the interior was adapted in a Neoclassical style meeting the conditions of the altered use. The large hall is a shoebox shaped hall.

Amaryllis Fleming
Royal College of Music, London, UK

The Amaryllis Fleming concert hall of the Royal College of Music in London, UK, is a performance space of the highest international standard, which can accommodate large orchestral and choral concerts. It is of a classic 'shoebox' design, which is considered acoustically ideal.

Duke's Hall
Royal Academy of Music, London, UK

Duke's Hall was built in 1912 and is the concert hall of the Royal Music Academy in London. Between 1989 and 1992 this hall was restored, while improving the accousic conditions.

De Doelen
Rotterdam, The Netherlands

De Doelen is the number two concert hall of The Netherlands, both in acoustic quality and in amount of visitors per year.
Famous acoustician Leo Beranek surveyed many halls in interviews with musicians, music critics and conductors. He wrote about the Doelen:

There are no echoes in this room. The acoustics of the Doelen have been praised by visiting conductors and musicians because the sound on stage and the inner hall is excellent.

Grand ballroom
Manhattan Center, NYC, USA

The Manhattan Center on West 34th Street houses the spectacular Grand Ballroom. Conveniently connected to two in-house recording studios. This has been the place where orchestral film scores for Noah, Walter Mitty, and True Grit were recorded.

Vredenburg concert hall
Utrecht, The Netherlands

Utrecht the Netherlands based popular CD recording venue for Baroque orchestras. The eight sided arena features lots of wood combined with concrete details. Stereo and quadraphonic impulse responses are available, recorded with both omnidirectional and directional microphones.

Berliner Philharmonie
Main hall, Berlin, Germany

Here you will find no segregation of ‘producers’ and ‘consumers’, but rather a community of listeners grouped around an orchestra in the most natural of seating arrangements.”
(text (c) Bridget Shield, Trevor Cox 1999/2000)

St Davids Hall
Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom

St Davids Hall retains its position as one of the premier Concert Halls in the world. The definitive study of the world Concert Halls by Beranek, placed St Davids Hall in the top ten of Concert Halls Worldwide. Renowned for its natural acoustic and the intimacy of the Auditorium, the building will continue to play a major role in the cultural activities of the citizens of Cardiff and the Principality of Wales beyond the Millennium.

Festspielhaus
Baden Baden, Germany

This is one of the largest classical music venues in Europe. It seats 2500 and its celebrated acoustics were designed by Karlheinz Mueller. Even without government subsidies, the Festspielhaus has become a regular stop for all the classical music superstars, and has grown to be one of the foremost classical music hotspots in central Europe.

Zlin concert hall
Czech Republic

The concert hall of the The Congress Center in Zlín, Czech Republic is one of the very few oval shaped concert halls in the Altiverb library of acoustics. It was recorded by Sonokinetic, in close collaboration with Audio Ease.

Sonokinetic recorded many of their orchestral and choral sample libraries in this very hall.

Berwaldhallen
Stockholm, Sweden

Sweden's main concert hall.
The 1300 seat Berwald Concert Hall, with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Swedish Radio Choir, is one of the most important cultural institutions in the country, reaching far beyond the borders of Sweden.

Auditorium de Dijon
Dijon, France

The hall's acoustics are among the most beautiful of Europe, in part designed by renowned ARTEC from New York, the company that was responsible for excellent sounding Birmingham Opera and Auditorium de Lucerne.

Palau da Musica
Barcelona, Spain

The concert hall of Barcelona’s Palau de la Música Catalana is a magical space, conceived and designed as an enormous glass box crowned with a large central skylight. The unorthodox application of surface materials, for instance the tiled floor, sets this hall apart acoustically from other concert halls.

Snape Maltings
Suffolk, United Kingdom

When the production of malt for brewing ended here in 1965, Britten saw the opportunity to convert the space into a new home for the growing Aldeburgh Festival. Snape Maltings concert hall was opened by the Queen in 1967, but a fire destroyed it on the first night of the 1969 Festival. It re-opened in 1970, and is now a creative campus for Aldeburgh Music's year-round programme of performances, education and artist development.

Audio Ease's decision to include Snape maltings was fuelled by two individuals: a direct invitation by Tom Taylor of Snape Maltings and a remark Britain's most celebrated conductor Sir Simon Rattle once made. He argued that London was lacking quality halls "like Birmingham, Manchester or even Snape maltings". So when we got the invitation, we had to take a listen, and we were not disappointed.

Muziekgebouw aan het IJ
Amsterdam, The Netherlands

A new music building was built on the banks on the river IJ in Amsterdam and was inaugurated by Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands on 15 June 2005.
Read more here..

Hardenbergstrasse
UDK concert hall, Berlin, Germany

The hall at Hardenbergstrasse has been the home of the Berliner Philharmoniker (under Von Karajan) in the 1960's. Now home of the symphonic Orchestra of the Universitaet Der Kuenste of Berlin, this futuristic looking hall is a fine example of 1950's architecture in Berlin.

Konserthuset Stora Salen
Stockholm, Sweden

Home of the Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, this is the principal place to hear classical music in Sweden. The Nobel Prizes are awarded here. Constructed in 1920, the hall seats 1,600 and is best suited to major orchestras. Besides local orchestras, the hall features visiting ensembles, such as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

Vredenburg Leidsche Rijn
Leidsche Rijn, Utrecht, The Netherlands

The Original Vredenburg Concert Hall is being rebuilt until the year 2012. In the mean time symphonic concerts in Utrecht the Netherlands are held in this completely new Vredenburg Leidsche Rijn hall, also known as the Red Box. The large hall sounds open, warm and balanced, and surprisingly loud for its size and appearance.

King's College Chapel
Cambridge, UK

King's College Chapel is the chapel to King's College of the University of Cambridge, and it is considered one of the finest examples of late Perpendicular Gothic English architecture. The chapel derives much of its fame from the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols read more...

Cathedral Notre Dame
Chartres, France

Partly built starting in 1145, the dark Chartres Cathedral marks the high point of French Gothic, all in remarkable condition.

Cathedral Saint-Etienne
Caen, France

In about 1050, William the Conqueror founded the Abbaye-aux-Hommes. The Eglise Saint-Etienne is a beautiful structure done in the Norman Romanesque style, and both were constructed of ‘Caen stone’, a light creamy-yellow Jurassic limestone. This stone was also a popular building material with the Normans in England. 

Cathedral St Ouen
Rouen, France

Constructed from 1318 to mid XVIth century this is one of the most beautiful Gothic monuments in France. XVIIIth century choir gates. Superb organs renovated by Cavaillé-Coll during the XIXth century.

Saint Alain de Lavaur
Lavaur, France

The construction of Saint-Alain, in the south of France, goes back to 1255. Its single naves width measures 13.8 meter, and its overall length is 73 meter. The cathedral is widely known for its famous organs, and many commercial recordings.

Selimiye mosque
Edirne, Turkey

Selimiye mosque, (1575) was built by the most important of Ottoman architects, Mimar Sinan, who designed several hundreds of buildings during the one hundred years he lived. According to Sinan himself Selimiye mosque is his absolute Masterpiece. This can therefore be considered to be one of the highest achievements of Islamic architecture.

Wembley Stadium
London, UK

Concert PA and Genelec samples of the large Wembley stadium in London.

Antwerp Sports Stadium
Antwerp, Belgium

On Januari 11, 1932 building of the Antwerp Sports Palace started. 88.7 m wide, 132 m long and with a roof totalling 11.600 square meters, without any support pillars. It is the premiere venue of choice in Belgium for large European touring acts.

TUI - Hannover
Hannover, Germany

The Arena is used for concerts and for large scale TV productions such as "Wetten Das". It is the home of ice hockey team Hannover Scorpions, and seats 10767 fans during a play, and 14000 during a concert. The ice hockey world championships 2001 were held at The TUI Arena.

Lanxess Arena
Köln, Germany

Peter Brandt recorded this room with a number of flying microphone systems ranging from wide setups to narrow to shotgun. Lanxess arena is an indoor arena, in Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The arena opened in 1998 and can accommodate 20,000 people, and is in frequent use for concerts.

Arnhem Gelredome
Arnhem, The Netherlands

The Gelredome is the home stadium of Vitesse in Arnhem. It was built in 1998, featuring a retractable roof as well as a convertible pitch that can be retracted when unused during concerts or other events held at the stadium although its capacity was rather modest with only 29,600 spectators at most.

Festhalle
Frankfurt, Germany

The Festhalle in frankfurt Germany is a much copied key example of the architectural Historismus. It opened in may 1909 and is used for concerts, sports and tradeshows.

Stadium
USA, recorded by D. Magger

A large football stadium somewhere on this planet.

Indoor Arena
USA, recorded by D. Magger

A large and famous indoor hockey arena sampled by D. Magger. Including PA.

Semperoper
Dresden, Germany

The Semperoper in Dresden is one of Europe's most elegant opera houses according to Leo Beranek. Beranek even states that the acoustical quality of the Semperoper is next to that of the highest, the Opera Colon (Buenos Aires) and equal to that of La Scala (Milan).

Opera of Ghent
Ghent, Belgium

This Opera theatre opened in 1840, and was restored in 2007.
The hall seats 1008. Together with the Antwerp Opera this is a theatre of the Flemish Opera. It shares a rare quality with some other large theaters: you hear a big room with a short reverb tail.

London's National theatre
London, UK

The Royal National Theatre, London, England, is generally known as the National Theatre and commonly as The National. Founded in 1963, it is one of the United Kingdom's two most prominent publicly funded theatre companies, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Royal Opera
Stockholm, Sweden

The old opera was demolished in 1892 to give way to the construction of a new Opera by Axel Johan Anderberg. It is a majestic neo-classical building with a magnificent gold foyer and elegant marble grand staircase leading to a three-tiered auditorium somewhat smaller than the old theatre. It presently seats 1,200

Opera of Antwerp
Antwerp, Belgium

This Opera theatre opened in 1907, and was restored in 2007.
The hall seats 1081. For an Opera theater, the reverb time is exceptionally long and therefore the applications for this impulse response include symphonic material.

Theatre le Capitole
Toulouse, France

Le Théâtre du Capitole is one of the most famous operas of France. Operas, ballets, operettas, recitals, chamber music, it's an eclectic place of creativity. With four centuries of history, it is today one of the large international scenes of many art forms.

Teatru Manoel
Malta

Built in 1731 by Grand Master Antonio Manoel de Vihea as a public theatre. In 1950 started a 10 year restoration, and the theatre has been in operation again since 1960.

Halle Aux Grains
Toulouse, France

This majestic building was formerly a market hall for the grain market. In 1974, the place acquires a new use: it becomes the official residence of the Orchestra of Capitole, thanks to the acoustic quality of the building it hosts a broad array of performances: orchestral pieces, operas, ballets, and, occasionally, variety shows.

Södra Teatern
Stockholm, Sweden

Södra Teatern is a theatre in Stockholm, Sweden. Located in the popular "Söder"-district (Södermalm - the south Stockholm district), it's one of Stockholms most appreciated private theatres. Established in 1851, it's Stockholm's oldest private theatre.

St James Cavelier Theatre
Malta

St James Cavelier, Centre for Creativity first opened its doors to the public on the 22nd of September 2000. As the Maltese Government's Millennium Project it has taken on the role of pushing forward Malta's cultural aspirations.

King's College Chapel
London, UK

The College Chapel forms part of the King's building at Strand, London. It was originally designed by Sir Robert Smirke in 1831. It is an intimate sounding medium to large wooden space.

Singelkerk
Amsterdam

The location is stunning for music, a wooden interior of ideal proportions with a somewhat muffled but very open and spacious ambiance. A dead-silent location in the very heart of Amsterdam this delightful church from 1639 has seen many recording sessions so far, and from the sound of it, it has not seen the last yet.

Margaretakyrkan
Oslo, Norway

Margaretakyrkan is the Swedish church located in Oslo, Norway. It is a stone church located in the centre of the city and played an important role during the 2nd world war serving the "Swedish Soup" to over 7000 people a day. The Margaretakyrkan is well known for its great acoustics. It was built in year 1922.

St Botolph's church
Iken, UK

It is widely believed that this is 'Icanhoh', where St Botolph built his minster, making the remote place of Iken one of the earliest centres of christian activity in east anglian. Marvel at your sounds bouncing off of craftsmanship spanning over a thousand years.

Hallgrimskirkja
Reykjavik, Iceland

This iconic Islandic church is the tallest building in Reykjavik, making it a true landmark. The modern church features a surprisingly natural, clean reverb tail that is longer than one would expect at first.

Grythyttans Kyrka
Sweden

This is a typical timber church for the region Bergslagen in Sweden. Built in 1680 and restored in 1953 this beautiful cross shaped wooden church is a valuable addition to the Altiverb Ir library.
For Altiverb XL Surround this IR set includes speaker positions on the rear of the system.

St Joseph Church
Utrecht, The Netherlands

With its length of 43 meters, this medium sized neo-gothical catholic church features very smooth reverb tails. The church is used for choir and organ concerts. Stereo and quadraphonic impulse responses are available, recorded with both omnidirectional and directional microphones.

Wooden church
Zuidervermaning, The Netherlands

A popular recording venue for small ensembles, de Zuidervermaning church from 1731 is a wooden construction with white sand on the floor.

Saint Mary's church
Coddenham, Suffolk, England

There's no church in the collection that sounds anywhere near Coddenham's Saint Mary's. This small stone church adds a short clean reverb that sits somewhere in between a large recording studio and an echo chamber: a room (tone) you do not expect to find under churches/religious buildings in Altiverb.

Dome Chapel
Renswoude, The Netherlands

The dome chapel in Renswoude the Netherlands has a symmetrical floor plan that measures 18 m X 18 m. This, combined with the relatively high dome, creates one of the finest acoustics available for small ensembles. Stereo and quadraphonic impulse responses are available.

Saint Jean Baptiste - Chapel
Toulouse, France

This pretty chapel, with its entrance to a narrow and busy southern French street, is known in Toulouse for its regular music recitals. It is narrow and high and features a wooden floor, which is carpeted at the round end.

Gol Stave Wood Chapel
Oslo, Norway

Possibly the smallest church in the Altiverb IR Library to date: Gol Stave Church at Norsk Folkemuseum - the Norwegian Museum of Cultural History. The Open-Air Museum features 155 authentic buildings from different national regions, i.e. Gol Stave Chuch, from the 13th century. Gol Stave is one of the few stave churches left in Norway.

Palace Chapel, Schloss Esterázy
Eisenstadt, Austria

This small, partly carpeted chapel, features heavy stone walls and plastered dome shaped ceilings. A good build-up in the low end, and a smooth tail starting short after the direct sound.

Utrecht Music College Chapel
Utrecht, The Netherlands

With a 14 by 6 meter floor plan this is one of the smallest chapels you'll find. The acoustics are remarkably bright and ideal for acoustic guitar. Mono to stereo, stereo to stereo, mono to quad and stereo to quad impulse responses.

Uranienborg
Oslo, Norway

Uranienborg Kirke is located at Frogner in Oslo. It was built in 1886 and is well known for its warm acoustics. The church has for many years been a popular place for concerts.

Iglesia de San Miguel
Cuenca - Spain

The remainder of the church was rebuilt in the 18th century and restored in the 20th century. It has a magnificent Renaissance main front and is often used for concerts and other cultural events.

Castle of de Haar Chapel
Haarzuilens, The Netherlands

De Haar's separate long and narrow chapel has wooden ceilings and hard stone flooring. The sound is very open and clean and the reverb tail is pretty long for the size of the church.

Castle of de Haar Main Hall
Haarzuilens, The Netherlands

The Castle of de Haar (http://www.kasteeldehaar.nl) is the largest and most luxurious of Netherlands many castles. The central Main Hall features a large, high damping carpet and lots of ornaments. A beautiful complex, open and asymmetric reverb.

Wigmore Hall
London, UK

The Wigmore Hall is a leading international recital venue that specialises in performances of chamber music and song. It is at 36 Wigmore Street, London, UK, and was built to provide the city with a venue that was impressive yet intimate enough for recitals of chamber music. With near-perfect acoustics, the hall quickly became celebrated across Europe and featured many of the great artistes of the 20th century.

Philips Hall
small auditorium, Eindhoven, The Netherlands

Among recording engineers the modern Philips Hall is known as the finest small auditorium available in the Netherlands. Impulse Responses were recorded with a variety of microphones and microphone setups, including quadraphonic configurations.

La Salle de Musique
Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland

Over the past 6 decades the major classical labels have turned to this hall as a recording venue many hundreds of times.
Read on here about this spectacular sounding hall...

Mozart Hall
Vienna, Austria

This particular room has often been credited as the best chamber music recording venue in the world. It is a top favourite with leading ensembles and soloists - as well as a popular venue for recordings. The perfect setting for all types of chamber music, an ideal size in which to experience the intimacy of chamber music and recital performances.

Schubert Saal
Vienna, Austria

1913 Schubert Saal (Hall) is the smallest of the three world class concert halls in the Vienna Konzerthaus (http://www.konzerthaus.at). It is intended for small chamber music ensembles, also used in many piano recital recordings.

Konzerthaus
small hall, Berlin, Germany

The original building stems from 1817. Severely damaged by Allied bombing and the Battle of Berlin the building was rebuilt from 1977 onwards and reopened in 1984. The exterior, including many of the sculptures of composers by Christian Friedrich Tieck and Balthasar Jacob Rathgeber, is a faithful reconstruction of Schinkel's original designs, while the interior was adapted in a Neoclassical style meeting the conditions of the altered use. The small hall is a shoebox shaped hall. These impulse responses were recorded in March 2014, using DPA 4006 Microphones and a Genelec 1037 speaker.

Joseph Joachim
UDK concert hall, Berlin, Germany

A beautiful intimate brick and plaster chamber music hall in the heart of one of the buildings of the Universitaet Der Kuenste of Berlin, Germany. The room is flooded with daylight in its most wet setting, and becomes significantly dryer when the curtains are lowered.

Zeeuwse concertzaal
Middelburg, The Netherlands

This is a high concert hall for its size. Long, narrow and high. It is a shoe box, which acoustically is the perfect shape for a hall. It is built in the beginning of the 20th century, made of stone, plaster and pinewood it adds warmth and brightness in a pretty balance.

Kammermusik Saal
Berlin, Germany

The interior features an optimum of reflective surfaces to allow for a small gap between direct and early reflections at any listening position. It causes a desirable combination of intimacy and sufficient reverb length in mid frequencies.

Harpa Eldborg
Reykjavik, Iceland

Designed in corporation with the Icelandic-Danish artist Olafur Eliasson, this concert hall in Reykjavik provides Iceland with a top class concert hall. The medium sized hall offers around 1600 seats. read more..

King's Place, Hall one
London, United Kingdom

King's Place Hall One, the main concert hall, is a separate structure within the building, it is a box that sits on rubber springs to give it complete acoustic separation from the rest of the building. It is built to a regular geometry, a double cube, that is considered most successful for small concert halls. Read more...

King's Place, Hall two
London, United Kingdom

Hall two is a large and versatile room connected to the recording facilities of King's place. The recording engineer of these impulse responses was immediately reminded of the voluminous yet contained acoustics of the major hollywood scoring stages.

Lully Hall
Ghent, Belgium

The Lully Hall of 1840 is a performance room in the Opera building of Ghent in Belgium. Due to hard flooring and many plaster details the reverb is rich and long.

Trakai Castle - Lithuania

The castle, which is located about 28 km west of Vilnius, was founded during the 13th Century. The chapel is not big for a castle chapel (it is only bout 3 meters high) but all the hard bricks from the floor to ceiling make it an interesting and useful room.

Beaufort House
Austerlitz, The Netherlands

Het Beaufort Huis is a former Gothic church built in 1861 and is located in the forests of Austerlitz in The Netherlands. The ‘church room’ has been rebuilt in order to function as a small theatre and because of its nice acoustics and unique location this venue is very popular.

Empire Hall, Schloss Esterázy
Eisenstadt, Austria

The Empire Hall samples are of exceptional acoustic quality, and among the engineers favourite of the complete set. They are intimate, reverberant in a smooth manner, and reveal little resonances in the low frequencies.

Grünewaldsalen
Stockholm, Sweden

Grünewaldsalen, restored in 1994, is a stunningly beautiful chamber music hall recognized in many recordings. It was named after its decorator Isaac Grünewald (1888-1946) who was an artist tought by Matisse, and a sought after stage designer in the 1920's. THe has 460 seats.

Haydn Hall, Schloss Esterázy
Eisenstadt, Austria

The Haydn Hall, with its very distinct slap-backs, offers very diverse sounds at the different microphone positions. The stereo image is quite 'open' possibly due to the presence of strong lateral reflections. For 17th century sized orchestras, Haydn saal is considered the ideal hall.

Allaire Studios
Shokan NY, USA

It's hard to imagine a recording environment more physically beautiful than Allaire. The place is the epitome of the residential studio, in that it offers the best of all worlds technologically and acoustically: a huge Neve tracking/mixing room (the Neve Room) and an even bigger SSL studio (the Great Hall).

Hansa Studios
Berlin - Meistersaal & Live Room

Hansa Tonstudio is a recording studio located in Berlin and it ranks among the most wanted studios in europe. The spacious Meistersaal and the tight sounding live room have witnessed many legendary recordings throughout the decades by a.o. David Bowie, Depeche mode, Iggy Pop and U2.

Cello Studios - Live room 1
Los Angeles, CA, USA

Cello Studios, at 6000 sunset Blvd. in Los Angeles, is fortunate to have what many people consider to be some of the best sounding large live rooms ever built. Live Room 1 is the large bright room.

Cello Studios LA - Live room 2
Los Angeles, CA, USA

Cello Studios, at 6000 sunset Blvd. in Los Angeles, is fortunate to have what many people consider to be some of the best sounding large live rooms ever built. Live Room 2 is the tight and mellow room.

Bill Putnam Echo Chambers - Cello Studios
Los Angeles, CA, USA

Echo chambers 2 4 and 5 at Cello Studios (LA, USA) are legendary ‘artificial’ reverberators built by Bill Putnam. They were used extensively on Beach Boys and Sinatra recordings.

Sound Kitchen
Nashville, TN, USA

Sound Kitchen, the Southeast's most prestigious recording and production facility, had two recording spaces to offer to Altiverb's library of acoustics.
Big boy and Studio A are both included.

UMRK - Zappa recording studio
Hollywood, CA, USA

The Utility Muffin Research Kitchen is the name of the recording studio that Frank Zappa built and used extensively at his home for many of his recordings. The studio was completed on September 1, 1979 and the recording of several songs that were eventually released on the album You Are What You Is began in July, 1980...(more)

SARM West Studios
London, UK

This is one of those rare places that has produced records in everyone's collection. Samples were made of the spacious, open sounding live room, known from the Live Aid video. And also from studio 2 and 3, read more here...

The Church studio
London, UK

The church has been a professional recording studio since the 1980s, under ownership of the Eurythmics. read more... As The Eurythmics' fame and fortune grew to huge heights over the remainder of the 1980s and beyond, they purchased the building from Bura and Hardwick and set about building on its legacy. Much of the band's own catalogue was recorded here, as was Dave Stewart's many other projects. But The Church also went on to welcome anyone from Bob Dylan to Radiohead, Elvis Costello to Depeche Mode. Leading UK Producer Paul Epworth, alongside the renowned Walters-Storyk Design Group and Miloco Builds, set about transforming The Church into a world class recording complex fit for the 21st Century. The impulse responses are made while a large sesison was set up, and several curtains were drawn, so the room sounds both large and intimate.

Clearmountains Echo Chambers
Mix This !

Producer Bob Clearmountain (Springsteen, Rolling Stones, Brian Adams, Robbie Williams, Toto, Bon Jovi and 235 others) shares his purpose built echo chamber with Altiverb customers. These echo chambers are heard on basically everything Clearmountain mixed since 1994

Hook End, SARM Studios
England

SARM studios Hook End facility west of London competes with Allaire studios (upstate New York) as the absolute ultimate of residential studios. These samples were made in the spacious but acoustically contained live room, the wonderful brick drum iso booth, and a smaller iso booth that is more damped.

Dark Horse cabin drum room
Franklin, TN, USA

One of the reasons for bands to drive the 30 miles out of Nashville must certainly be the extraordinary drum sound produced by the stone wall and high ceilings of the drum room in the Cabin, one of Dark Horse's many recording rooms.

Omnisound
Nashville, TN, USA

Among the top of Nashville recording studios is well know name Omnisound. I went there to record their most precious main tracking room one busy sunday to record this set of impulse responses with George Massenburg's Genelec 1032 and our trusted DPA 4006's mounted on the spider.

Westlake Audio - Studio D
Los Angeles, CA, USA

For over 30 years Westlake Audio (http://westlakeaudio.com/Studios/studios.html), at 7265 Santa Monica Blvd., Los Angeles, has been the home of top artists. Studio D is Westlake Audio's signature studio. It features an expansive control room, a lounge and a 1120 square feet tracking room.

Clubhouse
Rhinebeck, NY, USA

Clubhouse is a Word class residential recording facility in a beautiful tranquil region. Apart from the relaxed atmosphere at clubhouse, emphasis lies on the 31 by 29 feet central tracking room. It sounds spacious and lively, and was recorded for this session with minimal damping, resulting in an open, wooden drum sound.

Edison
Manhattan, NY, USA

Edison recording, right in the heart of Manhattan is a spacious room that has quite a contained, flat, and evenly distributed room sound. The room has a rich history, but has closed its door as a commercial studio. Right now it is a studio for the private use of the owners amongst which is Lenny Kravitz.

Ferber studio A and B
Paris, France

This is the famous room of Ferber, designed by René Ameline in 1973.
Over the last 40 years close to all famous French artists and also international (like recently Franz Ferdinand, Jamiroquai, Muse, Feist) came here to record and mix.

Davout Studios
Paris, France

Studio A is one of the largest tracking rooms we have come across in Europe. A massive area with superb accoustics, four isolation booths and a gallery. The history of tis place is staggering. Studio C is the facilities echo chamber.

Jet Studios
Brussels - Belgium

JET Studio is located in Brussels, right in the heart of Europe. Founded by DECCA RECORDS in 1942, it is the oldest studio in Belgium and one of the oldest studios in Europe. This set contains not only the live room and two iso booths but also the echo chamber and lobby (also used for adding more ambient to recordings).

Fattoria Musica
Osnabrück, Germany

Fattoria Musica Recording Studios is a residential recording studio facility in Osnabruck, Germany. It is located on a beautiful old farm and is considered to be one of the leading facilities for music production in Germany and beyond.

Wisseloord - Studio 1
Hilversum, The Netherlands

One of the most prestigious live rooms in the region of Northwest Europe.

Sound on Sound Studio
Manhattan, NY, USA

Sound On sound Recording, on Manhattans 45th Street, Houses the popular multipurpose larger tracking room Studio A, which caters to top clients ranging from 50 cent to Eric Clapton. The medium to lively sounding 30 by 26 feet studio is supplemented by several iso booths.

Chapel Studios
Tilburg, The Netherlands

Until 1990, the chapel of this national monument was still used as a place of worship. In 1991, the Technical University of Eindhoven carried out an acoustic concept, transforming there premises into a recording studio. It was the birth of Chapel Studio.

Garden Hall, Schloss Esterázy
Eisenstadt, Austria

The Garden Hall has a smooth early reflection pattern, and for the size of the room it has an unusual long reverb tail, which is also quite bright and dense.

Coll's Place - Living Room
NY, USA

We stayed the night in the country house of (Emmy nominated sound designer) Coll Anderson. The living room sounded pretty nice he told me. He actually recorded a band in there once and got good reviews for it. I agree. Coll's living makes a very nice drum room. We sampled it thoroughly for music purposes.

Castle of de Haar - Library
Haarzuilens, The Netherlands

Famous dutch architect P.J.H. Cuypers, known for the Rijksmuseum and the Amsterdam Central Railway Station, rebuilt the Castle of De Haar at the end of the 19th century from ruins dating back to the 13th century. The intimate library is mostly built of wood and has various carpets on the floor and the wall.

Castle of de Haar - Ballroom
Haarzuilens, The Netherlands

The Ballroom of the Castle of de Haar is quite spacious but has many carpets on walls and floor. The reverb tail is very short for the size of the room and has a distinct high-damped quality.

Mirror Hall, Schloss Esterázy
Eisenstadt, Austria

The Mirror Hall has a dome shaped plastered ceiling, which avoids vertical standing waves. Apart from that half of the floor was covered with carpets.

Train station
Spoorwegmuseum, Utrecht, The Netherlands

The Utrecht Maliebaan Station, a train station from the 19th century, has completely been renovated to its original state from the year 1874. This set contains the station hall, a royal waiting room and a 1st and 2nd class wating room.

Oratorium, Schloss Esterázy
Eisenstadt, Austria

Hardly any offensive features can be heard in the acoustics of the Oratorium. The small room with plastered dome shaped ceiling combined with a thick wooden floor has a bright and long decay, without distant slap-backs normally associated with reverbs of this length. Excellent acoustics for vocals...

Organ Study Room
Utrecht Music College, The Netherlands

One of the larger study rooms. The impulse responses were shot with the shutters closed, creating and almost completely wooden surface in the entire room. Mono to stereo, stereo to stereo, mono to quad and stereo to quad impulse responses.

Kaufman Astoria
New York, USA

KAS Music's Live room A is one of the largest Live rooms on the East Coast. It can handle a 70 piece orchestra in terms of space and reverb and at the time of this IR release it is undoubtedly one of the best sounding, if not the best sounding scoring stage in Altiverb. Full and open sounding with very little high roll-off. This is where Placido Domingo and Tony Bennett go to to record their vocals. (Tony Bennett / Lady Gaga - Cheek to Cheek, Placido Domingo - Verdi: The Tenor Arias).
Recorded using 6 DPA 4006 omnis and a Genelec 1032.

Fox Scoring Stage
Los Angeles, USA

The contributions of Fox Music over the last seventy years transcend the field of film and television music. ntroduced by this department are such monuments of culture as "Love is a Many Splendored Thing", "On the Good Ship Lollipop", the score from "Laura" and the "Theme from M*A*S*H". The history...more

The Tracking Room
Nashville, TN, USA

The tracking room was constructed in the mid-1990’s under the supervision of famed studio architect Tom Hidley.
Hidley’s impressive implementation of German-built “floating floors,” literally created a building within a building and made for impeccable sound quality, drawing some of the world’s most famous artists and musicians.

Teldex Recording Studio
Berlin, Germany

For many decades the present Teldex Studio Berlin was the home of recording teams from Telefunken and later from Teldec Classics. The studio was also the venue for hundreds of legendary recordings, from classic to pop, as well as the place where revolutionary technical developments, like DMM and DVD-Audio, were accomplished.

Filmorchester Studio 2
Berlin, Germany

This magnificent orchestral studio is built in 1952/53. This is the smaller of two orchestral radio studios from the former East German Broadcast. For 40 years this was the home base for two symphony orchestras, one string-dance orchestra, one Big Band and one radio choir.

Paramount stage m
Los Angeles, CA, USA

The 4,500-square-foot stage was especially good for 20–65 musicians. Paramount recordist Paul Wertheimer added that he heard some composers describe the room as "warm and controllable," and that musicians liked the fact that, unlike larger scoring stages, "they could hear each other clearly so that they could play (more effectively) with each other."

Todd-AO, Studio City
Los Angeles, CA, USA

The Todd-AO stage is historic and is on a short-list of such large facilities in the U.S. Original owner Republic Pictures was awarded a special Oscar in 1945 for building "an outstanding musical scoring auditorium which provides optimum recording conditions.” The Stage earned its position in the 1959 printing of the Audio Cyclopedia. More...

Netherlands Broadcast studio MCO 1
Hilversum, The Netherlands

MCO1 is the second largest studio of the Netherlands Broadcasting Music Center and home of the Netherlands Radio Chamber Philharmonic. It is famous for its acoustic qualities and suitable for rehearsals and recordings of ensembles that may vary from a few people to a complete symphony orchestra.

Netherlands Broadcast studio MCO 3 & MCO 10
Hilversum, The Netherlands

MCO 3 was designed especially to accommodate the Metropole Orchestra. It has been equipped to a very high standard which ensures an optimal performance by the musicians. The Metropole Orchestra both rehearses and records here.
MCO 10 is ideal for solo or group rehearsal. This is the smallest studio of the MCO.

Netherlands Broadcast studio MCO 4
Hilversum, The Netherlands

MCO4 is the home of the Netherlands Radio Choir. This studio has been fitted with several acoustically well-balanced panels to enable the best possible acoustics for vocal music.

Netherlands Broadcast studio MCO 5
Hilversum, The Netherlands

This is the largest hall of the Netherlands Broadcasting Music Center and home of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra. The studio has a large multi-leveled stage. There's also a spacious balcony to accommodate the Netherlands Radio Choir, and even - if applicable - another choir. MCO 5 has a control room for recordings.

Trackdown Scoring Stage
Sydney, Australia

Trackdown Scoring Stage - Built in 2003, TSC features the latest in acoustic design resulting in one of the finest rooms available for orchestral scoring anywhere in the world.

Clinton Recording
Manhattan, NY, USA

Leading New York facility Clinton Studios on 10th Ave. Manhattan, is particularly well-known for Studio A, one of the last big rooms on the east coast. Studio A is a large soundstage-style room that can hold up to 85 musicians. It is contained yet lively, and has pleased clients such as Frank Sinatra, Steely Dan, James Taylor, REM and Celine Dion.

Hammerstein
Manhattan Center, USA

The Hammerstein Ballroom is one of New York City's most renowned performance venues.
This popular 2200 capacity hall in Midtown Manhattan hosted countless rock and pop concerts, award ceremonies and fashion shows.
Originally constructed in 1906 as an alternative opera house to the Metropolitan Opera.

Tivoli rock club
Utrecht, The Netherlands>

Concerts at Tivoli have a capacity of 1000 people. It is considered one of the foremost venues for alternative live music in the Netherlands.
The concert hall was captured in surround using Audio Eases trusted DPA 4006's and Genelec 1037 studio monitor, as well as with Tivoli's own PA system for extra authenticity.

Tonic
New York City, USA

Avant garde and experimental music club Tonic ( 107 Norfolk Street, lower east Side, Manhattan) operates on a curatorial system. Each month, different musicians program Tonic's New Music, Songwriter & Klezmer series. Its performance space was captured in surround using Audio Eases trusted DPA 4006's and Tonic's own PA system for extra authenticity.

Paradiso
Amsterdam, The Netherlands

The venue is inside an old church, which has been transformed into a "temple of music". The acoustics are rather echoey, but improvements have been made over the years. On May 26-27, 1995, the Rolling Stones played two semi-acoustic concerts at the Paradiso. Keith Richards said that the Paradiso concerts were the best live shows the Stones ever did. (Wikipedia.org)

The Great Pyramid of Giza, King's Chamber
Giza, Egypt

The king's chamber is a lonely, dark, and silent place. It measures 10.47 metres (34.4 ft) from east to west and 5.234 metres (17.17 ft) north to south. It has a flat roof 5.974 metres (19.60 ft) above the floor and is entirely faced with granite. The only object in it is a rectangular granite "sarcophagus". read more here....

Gol Gumbaz
 

Gol Gumbaz
Bijapur, India

"If you walk into the place the internal size of it is humbling, but you soon forget because you'll be taken by the acoustics as soon as you start making sound. The reverb in Gol Gumbaz is so staggering that Indian people travel for days just to hear it. It took us two years to get the proper permissions and clearing the place for a couple of hours."

Vigeland Mausoleum
Oslo, Norway

Emanuel Vigeland Museum at Slemdal is one of Oslo's best kept secrets. The museum's main attraction is a dark, barrel-vaulted room, completely covered with fresco paintings. The 800 sq.m. fresco Vita depicts human life from conception till death. In the entire Altiverb IR Library this room’s size to reverb time ration is unmatched.

Domestic spaces
bedrooms, bathrooms, restrooms, living rooms, kitchens, stairwells, hallways, etc

Outdoor: forest

Outdoor: streets & fields

Cars
mostly European, some USA models too

Trains, airplanes & helicopters

Nextdoor: sounds from beyond

Castle of Zuylen

Underground: caves

Tubes
18 different pipes, tubes and hoses

Burglary via air conditioning vents, sewer pipe escapes, talking through pipes in prison, Pokemon jumping through garbage chutes, there is definitely a need for the acoustics of tubes hoses and pipes in the movies. So we recorded 18 of them, small to very large, plastic, concrete and steel, for your post production and sound design convenience.

World's longest reverb: Underground diesel storage tank
Inchindown, Scotland, UK

In search of the longest reverb in the world we landed on the edge of Kinrive Forest in Scotland, where hidden in the side of Kinrive Hill, are two bolted doorways.
The doorways lead to the bombproof fuel tanks of Inchindown, one of three secret fuel stores constructed near the main naval anchorages in Britain, in this case Invergordon naval base. The British government needed to keep stores of fuel, in case the German Navy managed to block the ports or destroy shipping convoys and stop fuel supplies reaching Britain from overseas.

As part of an 2020 Apple TV+ documentary film production (featuring Mark Ronson) about reverb, Audio Ease recorded the 9 meter wide, 237 meter long and 13.5 meter high tank, which indeed holds by far the longest reverb Audio Ease has ever come across.

The tank is constructed from concrete which sits against the hard rock of Kinrive Hill. The only access for humans is through an 18 inch pipe. We recorded inside using 6 microphone stands with DPA 4006's and the largest Genelec that would fit through the hole in the entrance pipes, the 1032 monitor.

RAF aircraft hangar
Bentwaters park, UK

This aircaft hangar was used by the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the Second World War, and by the United States Air Force (USAF) during the Cold War, being the primary home for the 81st Fighter Wing. The structure of this hardened hanger is a dome of solid concrete. It has an exceptionally long and deep reverb. Recorded using a genelec 1037 and 6 DPA 4006 Omnidirectional microphones.

Gasometer
Oberhausen, Germany

A ferocious thunder falls down on you when you make some noise in this very impressive former German gas tank. We sampled these acoustics and you can now shout, play some drums or do whatever you like in this insane space.

The Gasometer Oberhausen is a former gas holder in Oberhausen, Germany, which has been converted into an exhibition space. It has hosted several large scale exhibitions, including two by Christo and Jeanne-Claude. The Gasometer is an industrial landmark, and an anchor point of the European Route of Industrial Heritage and the Industrial Heritage Trail. It was built in the 1920s, but largely reconstructed after World War II.

Subway tunnel
Noordzuidlijn, Amsterdam

A subway tunnel under construction. No tracks are in here yet, so every angle looks identical. Very pretty, and a heavy, deep, satisfying reverb. Just run some low passed noise into it with the direct sound switched off for a nice and deep room tone.

Gas holder
Sneek, The Netherlands

This former gas holder in Sneek has the longest reverb time that we have found so far (2013). Being in there and counting over 10 seconds of reverb to whispers was probably the most stunning experience in our career as reverb hunters.

Alcatraz prison
San Francisco Bay, California, USA

Peter Steinbach kindly shared the IR recordings he did in Alcatraz for all Altiverb users. Peter recorded three depths in the main cell block and some perspectives from the solitary confinement cell. He recorded using DPA 4006 omni mics and a Genelec 1031a speaker on a Deva 4 recorder.

Satsop cooling tower
Elma, Washington, United States

Bob Schwenkler recorded this IR set and kindly asked us to share it with you.

This cooling tower from the Satsop Nuclear Power plant is recorded with a Schoeps CMC64 microphone pair in a modified spaced configuration. Angled apart at about 90 degrees and spaced about 1.75 feet at a height of about 6 inches. The mic configuration was looking upward rather then sideways.

RDM Warehouse
Rotterdam, The Netherlands

The Rotterdamsche Droogdok Maatschappij (RDM), was a shipbuilding and
repair company in Rotterdam (The Netherlands) from 1902 to 1996.

This large industrial factory hall has been recorded with 4 DPA 4006 omni
microphones and the sine sweep has been played back through a powered
Genelec 1037 monitor.

NDSM Warehouse
Amsterdam, The Netherlands

A former shipyard on the northern banks of the IJ and larger than 10 football fields, the NDSM wharf is now a center for underground culture in Amsterdam. This huge area contains the NDSM hall, a hangar-like structure 20,000 sq. meters in area and 20 meters in height, and two historic ship slipways(Hellingen) housing workshops and artists’ studios.
The NDSM wharf offers facilities for a number of artistic disciplines and small crafts. The wharf has also become a sanctuary for individual artists and craftspeople as well as for independent organizations, both established and less known, to cooperate, inspire and create.
(ndsm.nl)

This set has been recorded using the PA installation for sine sweep playback
and two DPA 4006 omni microphones, a metric halo mobile i/o interface on
an apple laptop.

Westergasfabriek
former gas holder, Amsterdam

The Gashouder (Gasometer), built in 1903, is the most characteristic building in the Westergasfabriek and leaves an unforgettable impression on all visitors. The enormous cast iron ceiling construction is breathtaking and regularly used as a backdrop for film and photo shoots.

Until the 1960’s gas produced from coles was stored in this container.

We went here in June 2010 because there was a Holland Festival concert series in this structure, that, for BluRay production, needed some audio post production with original reverb.

Setup: Genelec 1037 and 4 DPA 4006's mounted on the spider.

Bus tunnel
Amsterdam, The Netherlands

This is one of the two tunnels, under the Amsterdam Central Station, that will connect city transportation busses to the new underground tube station. We were lucky to get in this tunnel at this stage (the construction was not completely finished yet). The 120 meters long tunnel sounds very clear and much richer then one might expect. In fact, give it a try on some music piece, it will sound different, but it could very well suit your needs. We used the 4 DPA 4006 mics for recording and the Genelec 1037 with a microtrack2 to play back the sine sweep signals.

Gigantic steel reel
Subsea7, Seven Oceans

On the evening of june 12, Aram and Arjen departed for Schiedam harbour 561, for the Merwede built Rigid reeled pipe laying vessel “Seven Oceans”, owned by Subsea 7 of Aberdeen. A pipe laying vessel winds 45 cm diameter pipe made of 3 cm thick steel on a reel and drops it to the bottom of the ocean, typically between offshore oil rigs and the continent. This reel, the largest of its kind at date of recording, can hold 17 km of this type of pipe, and Audio Ease went to sample the core of it.

It is an acoustic marvel really, perhaps of limited use to you, the audio producer. With over 20 seconds of reverb across the widest part of the frequency range one can softly whistle or sing an arpeggiated chord and listen to the sustaining chord washing away for over 15 seconds afterwards. The sweep was played back through a Tannoy reveal speaker, and recorded using DPA miniature omni capsules (DPA 4090). Apart from the sweep recording, some IR's were added that were made by exciting the hull of the reel's core directly.

The Cistern
Forth Worden, WA, USA

The Cistern is a 2 million gallon underground water storage tank located in Fort Worden State Park, Port Townsend WA U.S.A.. Made by the U.S. Army of concrete in 1907, it is located on top of a hill in the park. Its original purpose was fire suppression and backup water supply.

It is about 150 feet diameter and 14 feet high with 88 columns supporting the roof and a steel ladder in a small opening for access. There is no near source of AC power so all recording and lighting is by battery power. Access is difficult to obtain as the Cistern is closed by dragging a pair of very large steel tanks over the opening with a backhoe when not in use to keep vandals out and lessen liability concerns over the 14' ladder and air quality issues. Access is limited to about 3 uses per year.

Neville Pearsall says: "It is an acoustic wonder and has one of the best long reverb responses in the world with a time of more than 40 seconds. The low frequency characteristics are spectacular and very pleasing. If two people are on opposite sides and place their ears near the wall you can talk very quietly and hear each other; like the whispering gallery."

Train station
Utrecht, The Netherlands

The Utrecht Maliebaan Station, a train station from the 19th century, has completely been renovated to its original state from the year 1874.
First and second class waiting rooms, a luxurous dinner hall and even toilets in 19th century style work like a time-traveling portal: taking you 2 centuries back in history.
The royal waiting room from 1892 origins from the State Railways from The Hague (The Netherlands) and have been transported to Utrecht and built in the Maliebaan train station to complete it.

Recorded using a Tannoy Reveal monitor Speaker, a Sony car radio, 4 DPA omni directional microphones and a powerbook with Digital Performer and the Metric Halo Mobile I/O audio interface.

Ferry
Gozo Ferry Channel Line, Malta

Gozo Channel Line provides a vital "Life Line" between the islands of Malta, the mainland, and Gozo. Its modern fleet includes three state of the art ferries. This is the smallest: M.V. Ta' Pinu (delivered March 2000). Samples were made of the empty loading deck using 4 DPA 4006 mics and a DynAudio monitor to play back the sweeps.

Steel tank factory
Bij de Leij, The Netherlands

Bij de Leij is a beautiful old fashioned stainless steel tank factory in the north of the Netherlands. The Impulse Responses were made simply by banging steel with hammers and mallets. We felt very much ’in charge’ walking around in a place like this, authorized to smash whatever we preferred.

Las Palmas warehouse
Rotterdam, The Netherlands

This warehouse situated in the middle of Rotterdam, in one of the most beautiful parts of the ‘old city’.
Captured between two rivers in the old harbor. This venue has been used as warehouse and also as exposition room. The place is like a parking garage, lots of concrete & pillars and large size spaces, as big as the entire floor. We sampled a big and a smaller room on the 2nd floor of this fantastic building.

Flood tunnel
Utrecht, The Netherlands

Underground flood tunnel in the city Utrecht, The Netherlands. This 120 meter (400 ft) long concrete underground tunnel in the center of the city is not accessible for public. During a transitioning phase of re-opening part of the formerly closed canals in the city we had the chance of getting into this tunnel and sampling it for your pleasure. This place is concrete all over, great for choirs, low frequency synth drones, new age pads or sound effects.