Perceived feasibility of computer-generated auralization in concert halls

Over the years auralization has become a useful tool for simulating and evaluating the listening experience in virtual environments. Psychoacoustic phenomena, embodied by the human hearing system, highly determine the accuracy of sound-field recreation that is required for seemingly feasible auralization. In this scenario, the main aim of this study is to assess the suitability of computer-generated room impulse responses when used for auralizing spaces. To this purpose, simulated and experimentally measured binaural room impulse responses (BRIRs) have been convolved with iconic musical excerpts for various representative seats within a medium-sized concert hall. Listening tests have been thereby conducted and their results will be shown, analyzed and discussedEn estos últimos años, la auralización se ha convertido en una herramienta útil para la simulación y evaluación de la experiencia del oyente en entornos virtuales. En este ámbito, son de especial importancia los aspectos psicológicos y perceptivos, derivados del funcionamiento del sistema auditivo y del cerebro humanos, que determinan la precisión que se requiere para una recreación aparentemente creíble del campo sonoro. En este contexto, el principal objetivo de este estudio es evaluar la validez de respuestas al impulso de la sala generadas por ordenador para su utilización en la auralización de espacios. Con este propósito, para algunas localidades representativas de una sala de conciertos de tamaño medio, se han convolucionado varias respuestas al impulso binaurales (BRIRs), simuladas y medidas experimentalmente, con fragmentos musicales conocidos. Con los datos obtenidos, se han llevado a cabo pruebas de audición, cuyos resultados se presentan, analizan y discuten en esta comunicació

Measurement and analysis of the acoustics of the Roman theatre of Segobriga (Spain)

Segobriga (Cuenca) was the capital of the Celtiberia region. The specular gypsum of its mines, used as glass in windows, was exported across the whole Empire through the port of Cartago Nova (Cartagena). Its Roman theatre has one of the best conserved cavea of Hispania, although there is no scaenae frons. Its construction dates back to the year 79 A.D. In this work, experimental results and analysis are presented of impulse responses and of the values of the monaural and binaural acoustic parameters recorded in situ. These results correspond to the source-receiver combinations of three positions of the source, located in the proscaenium(2), and in the orchestra (1), and of 19 reception points, distributed across the cavea, the proedria, and the proscaenium. This theatre features as part of one of the study cases of a research project that aims to evaluate and revalue the acoustics of the principal Roman theatres of Spain

Reverberation perception in Spanish cathedrals

Listening tests based on paired comparisons have been employed to investigate the subjective perception of the acoustic environment in highly reverberant large spaces. Seven cathedrals in the southern half of Spain have been included in the survey, thereby covering a wide range of reverberation-time values from 4.32 s in Murcia cathedral to 8.96 s in Cadiz cathedral at mid-frequencies. These cathedrals present a common architectural typology, known as the "Spanish style", which allows similar source-receiver points to be selected when comparisons are made between two different cathedrals. The tests were carried out in the listening room of the Acoustics Laboratory of the Applied Physics II Department of the School of Architecture of the University of Seville. Several types of anechoic sound signals (choral pieces, extracts of Baroque instrumental music, and a speech) were auralised with the impulse responses measured in the cathedrals to be used in the tests. Such auralisations were reproduced through headphones, thereby ensuring that all audio signals were perceived at the same level during each test. The results indicated the existence of a threshold, whose value depends on the type of stimulus, from which the objective reverberation differences are subjectively remain almost indistinguishable to the listene

Characteristic function of impulse responses in churches

The tool presented enables the sound behaviour of a room to be objectified on the basis of the representation of the characteristic function (CF) of said room.In this paper, we study characteristic functions, defined from the impulsive responses measured at different points in the room, that are obtained in churchesand cathedrals. These CFs show a variation that correlates with the distance from the point of measurement and the source. An analysis is carried out on the relationship between this variation with those acoustic parameters that depend on the distance to the source: C50, C80,and G. In addition, the differentiating features between these types of spaces are shown,therebyallowing the characteristic function to offer an overall assessment of the room, which in turnenables the classification of similar sound space