Antti Kuusinen

Concert hall acoustics assessment with individually elicited attributes.

Concert hall acoustics was evaluated with a descriptive sensory analysis method by employing an individual vocabulary development technique. The goal was to obtain sensory profiles of three concert halls by eliciting perceptual attributes for evaluation and comparison of the halls. The stimuli were gathered by playing back anechoic symphony music from 34 loudspeakers on stage in each concert hall and recording the sound field with a microphone array. Four musical programs were processed for multichannel 3D sound reproduction in the actual listening test. Twenty screened assessors developed their individual set of attributes and performed a comparative evaluation of nine seats, three in each hall. The results contain the distinctive groups of elicited attributes and show good agreement within assessors, even though they applied individual attributes when rating the samples. It was also found that loudness and distance gave the strongest perceptual direction to the principal component basis. In addition, the study revealed that the perception of reverberance is related to the size of the space or to the enveloping reverberance, depending on the assessor.

Disentangling preference ratings of concert hall acoustics using subjective sensory profiles

Subjective evaluation of acoustics was studied by recording nine concert halls with a simulated symphony orchestra on a seat 12 m from the orchestra. The recorded music was spatially reproduced for subjective listening tests and individual vocabulary profiling. In addition, the preferences of the assessors and objective parameters were gathered. The results show that concert halls were discriminated using perceptual characteristics, such as Envelopment/Loudness, Reverberance, Bassiness, Proximity, Definition, and Clarity. With these perceptual dimensions the preference ratings can be explained. Seventeen assessors were divided into two groups based on their preferences. The first group preferred concert halls with relatively intimate sound, in which it is quite easy to hear individual instruments and melody lines. In contrast, the second group preferred a louder and more reverberant sound with good envelopment and strong bass. Even though all halls were recorded exactly at the same distance, the preference is best explained with subjective Proximity and with Bassiness, Envelopment, and Loudness to some extent. Neither the preferences nor the subjective ratings could be fully explained by objective parameters (ISO3382-1:2009), although some correlations were found.

Relationships between preference ratings, sensory profiles, and acoustical measurements in concert halls

Preferences of concert hall acoustics are explored with preference mapping. The investigation is performed on previously gathered data from individual vocabulary profiling of nine concert halls and three pieces of symphonic music, namely, excerpts of compositions by Beethoven, Bruckner, and Mozart. Individual preferences are regressed onto a latent three-dimensional sensory space obtained by multiple factor analysis of descriptive sensory data. Overlaying individually estimated preference surfaces onto one another produces preference maps which illustrates both the overall preference of the stimuli as well as differences between individual listeners. A comparison of the maps between music motifs illustrates how each music signal affects the weighting of different acoustical qualities in preference judgments. Differences in preferences between individuals are pronounced in the excerpts of Beethoven and Bruckner, while the responses are more homogeneous for Mozart music motif. Overall, proximity is identified as the main aspect associated with preference, but also loudness, envelopment, and bass are important. A correlation analysis of objective parameters and subjective perceptions substantiates the importance of lateral sound energy for good concert hall acoustics. Particularly, the lateral early energy fraction at high frequencies is found to be associated with the perception of proximity, and hence, also with preference.

Concert hall acoustics: Repertoire, listening position, and individual taste of the listeners influence the qualitative attributes and preferences

Some studies of concert hall acoustics consider the acoustics in a hall as a single entity. Here, it is shown that the acoustics vary between different seats, and the choice of music also influences the perceived acoustics. The presented study compared the acoustics of six unoccupied concert halls with extensive listening tests, applying two different music excerpts on three different seats. Twenty eight assessors rated the halls according to the subjective preference of the assesors and individual attributes with a paired comparison method. Results show that assessors can be classified into two preference groups, which prioritize different perceptual factors. In addition, the individual attributes elicited by assessors were clustered into three latent classes.

Investigation of auditory distance perception and preferences in concert halls by using virtual acoustics

Virtual acoustics with multichannel sound reproduction was used to study auditory distance perception in four concert halls with multiple sound sources on stage. Eight subjects reported apparent auditory distances in five seating positions from 10 to 26 m to the middle of the sources on stage. The distance estimates were collected by absolute distance estimation procedure as well as a free modulus estimation procedure including both within and between halls evaluations. In addition, pairwise preferences were collected for two positions within each hall and for one position between halls. Results reveal that the perception of distance is dependent on the hall acoustics and show how the strength factor G and direct-to-reverberant energy ratio covary in relation to perceptual distances in these halls. The results also indicate that in such large spaces the overestimation of short distances may continue up to and further than 10 m from the sound sources. Preference results show that closer seats were liked more than further ones and that the strength of this preference is associated with the difference in perceptual distances.

Wheel of concert hall acoustics

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Insights from three profiling studies of auralized concert hall acoustics: Support for a three dimensional perceptual space?

Since 2009, we have now completed three individual vocabulary profiling studies of auralized concert hall acoustics. In-line with the work of others, these studies have verified that the main perceptual aspects describing acoustic differences are, more or less, loudness, reverberance, width, envelopment, definition/clarity, brightness, bass, and proximity/intimacy. Our studies, however, do not indicate that these aspects would vary independently when moving from hall of to hall, but that the perceptual changes in many aspects generally co-occur. While independency can be understood in terms of attention, and the number of perceptual aspects by considering the different “tastes“ of listeners, it seems that the perceptual differences between halls are actually governed by three main factors. The interpretation of these factors depends on the viewpoint and here we discuss some possible interpretations based on these three profiling experiments and the literature as well as the implications concerning the obj...

Design and outcomes of an acoustic data visualization seminar

Recently, the Department of Media Technology at Aalto University offered a seminar entitled Applied Data Analysis and Visualization. The course used spatial impulse response measurements from concert halls as the context to explore high-dimensional data visualization methods. Students were encouraged to represent source and receiver positions, spatial aspects, and temporal development of sound fields, frequency characteristics, and comparisons between halls, using animations and interactive graphics. The primary learning objectives were for the students to translate their skills across disciplines and gain a working understanding of high-dimensional data visualization techniques. Accompanying files present examples of student-generated, animated and interactive visualizations.

The role of early reflections for definition and source separation

The density and spatial distribution of early reflections change the perception of individual instruments in an orchestral concert. Here, we present results of a listening test that aims to find the role of early reflections to perceptual phenomena related to source separation. The stimuli are anechoic symphony orchestra recordings convolved with different impulse responses that comprise of simulated direct sound and early reflection patterns combined with the late reverberation measured from a real hall. The differences between samples are investigated with various listening test methods, enabling the simultaneous comparison of samples. Quantitative data are also collected with the applied test methods. The results are expected to confirm our hypothesis that listeners can distinguish individual instruments better if the early reflection patterns in conjunction with individual sources differ more from each other.

The preference is driven by intimacy—which is furthermore provided by lateral reflections

Nine concert halls were measured with a calibrated loudspeaker orchestra which eliminates all variables except the acoustics of the halls. The loudspeaker orchestra was located on the stage and the microphone array at 12 m distance from it in the audience area. Subjective data including preference ratings of 17 assessors and subjective sensory profiles were collected with the individual vocabulary profiling process. The objective room acoustic parameters were also calculated. All data were analyzed in a common factorial space with the hierarchical multiple factor analysis and preference mapping. The results show that the preference of assessors is divided into two groups and the factors influencing the preference can be explained with sensory profiles. However, the most interesting result is that the overall preference is driven by the intimacy, i.e., how close to the listener the sound is perceived by the listener. None of the current objective parameters could explain the perceived intimacy. The present...