A new active acoustics enhancement system was developed that utilizes measured room impulse responses to generate virtual sound field in a performance space. Three acoustical conditions were prepared to represent distinct room acoustics characteristics including reverb time, clarity, stage support, early lateral energy and inter-aural cross correlation coefficient. Eleven professional string quartets were invited for subjective evaluations where they responded to surveys after performing in each acoustic condition. The results showed a strong preference for the enhanced acoustic conditions over the inherent acoustics of the space. Factor analysis revealed three primary underlying perceptual dimensions: stage support parameters, spatial impressions and tonal balance. Moreover, ‘Quality of reverberation,’ ‘Amount of reverberation,’ ‘Hearing other musicians’ and ‘Height sensation’ were the four salient attributes that were highly correlated with musicians’ preferences.

Authors: Ko, Doyuen; Woszczyk, Wieslaw
Affiliations: Belmont University, Nashville, TN, USA; McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada(See document for exact affiliation information.)
AES Conference: 59th International Conference: Sound Reinforcement Engineering and Technology (July 2015)
Paper Number: 3-2
Publication Date: July 10, 2015 Import into BibTeX
Subject: Electronic Architecture and Reverberation Enhancement
Permalink: https://www.aes.org/e-lib/browse.cfm?elib=17832

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