A study was undertaken to compare three immersive sound capture techniques optimized for acoustic music recording, within the context of binaural audio reproduction. 3D audio stimuli derived from 9-channel (4+5+0) recordings of a solo piano were binaurally rendered and presented to listeners over headphones. Subjects compared these stimuli in terms of several salient perceptual auditory attributes. Results of the double-blind listening test found no significant differences between two of the sound capture techniques, “spaced” and “near-coincident,” for the perceptual auditory attributes “envelopment,” “naturalness of sound scene,” and “naturalness of timbre.” The spaced technique, however, was shown to create a larger virtual image of the sound source than the near-coincident technique. The coincident technique was found to create an immersive sound scene that occupies a different perceptual space from the other two techniques, delivering less envelopment and naturalness.

Authors: Howie, Will; Martin, Dennis; Kamekawa, Toru; Kelly, Jack; King, Richard
Affiliations: CBC/Radio–Canada, Vancouver, BC, Canada; McGill University, Montréal, QC, Canada; Tokyo University of the Arts,Tokyo, Japan(See document for exact affiliation information.)
AES Convention: 150 (May 2021) Paper Number: 10455
Publication Date: May 24, 2021 Import into BibTeX
Subject: Reproduction: 3D Audio
Permalink: https://www.aes.org/e-lib/browse.cfm?elib=21048

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