I was all pleased with myself for generating a WAV IR file (with 6 channels, no less) from REW (not an easy process first time through). After successfully enjoying the results with Redbook rips I now realise that 'things aren't right' when playing anything that isn't sampled at 44.1khz (the rate I'm working in in REW). After a bit of research I find that MC is capable of switching between IR files at different sample rates to match the audio being played, but it seems that REW can only operate at either 44.1 or 48k. I cannot justify the expense of Acourate or Audiolense no matter how terrific I'm assured they are.
Do I have any other options? Have I misunderstood the way any of this works?
Thanks.
Your convolution filters need to match the sampling rate at which playback is happening or you'll get wonky results (as you discovered), which requires multiple sets of filters. It sounds like you can generate 44.1 and 48 in REW, but need something for the higher sample rates? I know of two non-acourate/audiolense workarounds:
1) Resample everything to 44.1 or 48 Khz in JRiver's Output Format DSP module. This works for some people and not for others, and obviously results in not bit-perfect output. When I enable resampling my convolution starts acting up (weird latency, etc.) so I don't use this approach, but some users have reported success with this method.
2) If you don't mind fiddling, there's a free convolution filter generating tool called "RePhase" that can be used to replicate many of the same effects that REW replicates and can encode the WAVs at an arbitrary sample rate. The catch? It's not automatic or measurement based, so you'd need to manually dial in the filters that REW is applying which might be easy or kind of hard depending on the number and complexity of the filters. I use RePhase to do linear phase crossovers without doing general room correction, and it's filters work a treat but it's definitely not as "automatic" as REW.