GPU Audio IR Creation Competition

GPU Audio has launched an IR Creation Competition with a $6,000+ prize pool.

Here's what they say:

An 'Impulse Response' is an audio file which contains the sonic characteristics of an acoustic space (e.g. a church, a cave, or a library), music equipment (e.g. guitar pedals, audio effects) or playback system (e.g. vintage amplifiers). This file is created by playing a sine wave sweep through the frequency range from low to high, while recording how the space or equipment responds to the various frequencies.

Using dedicated software (see below) an IR can be created by computing the original sine wave sweep against the recording made while playing it back. The outputted wave file can then be saved and used as an impulse response in all kinds of Convolution programs including the GPU Audio FIR Convolver. It could be a single effect or an entire processing chain made up of pitch shifting, distortion, delay, modulation or any combination of effects.

The competition is supported by AMD, NVIDIA, Sonible, Scan.co.uk, BedroomProducerBlog, MusicByLukas and PresentDayProduction - with one Grand Prize winner, two Second Place winners and three runners up sharing the $6,000+ prize pool.

There are 3 steps to enter the competition:

• Register an account on gpu.audio
• Create an IR using hardware, software or acoustic spaces and upload your IR processing the sounds from the Asset Pack to YouTube with the hashtag #GPUAudioIR.
• Send your IR, a description of how it was made and your YouTube video link to ircompetition@braingines.com

Prizes include a 3XS Scan Music Production Laptop, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080Ti or 3080 GPU, AMD Radeon Pro W6600, the Sonible smart:bundle, Flame Sound Inferno SFX, Music by Lukas Planner Bundle and a track Mastered by Present Day Production.

GPU Audio recommends Windows users use Voxengo Deconvolver while Mac users can use MLSTool from WaveArts to create IRs.

Once you've created an IR, you'll need to process the sounds from the GPU Audio's Asset Pack to show off your work on YouTube. A collection of the best IRs submitted for the competition will be made available for free once competition has ended.

It's open now, with all the details at gpu.audio/ircompetition

The closing date is the 23rd February 2023.