@inproceedings{HuesenvonBergSteffens2025, author = {H{\"u}sen, Jonsa and von Berg, Markus and Steffens, Jochen}, title = {Evaluating the Effectiveness of Virtual Listening Tests for Balanced Armature Headphone Drivers}, series = {AES International Conference on Headphone Technology 2025 August 27-29, Espoo, Finland}, booktitle = {AES International Conference on Headphone Technology 2025 August 27-29, Espoo, Finland}, number = {3}, publisher = {Audio Engineering Society}, year = {2025}, language = {en} } @article{HimmeleinvonBergPoerschmannetal.2025, author = {Himmelein, Hendrik and von Berg, Markus and P{\"o}rschmann, Christoph and Steffens, Jochen}, title = {Influence of mental effort on sound evaluations in virtual and real experimental environments}, series = {Frontiers in Virtual Reality}, volume = {6}, journal = {Frontiers in Virtual Reality}, publisher = {Frontiers Media SA}, issn = {2673-4192}, doi = {10.3389/frvir.2025.1672595}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:hbz:due62-opus-57985}, year = {2025}, abstract = {Psychoacoustic research increasingly relies on virtual reality (VR) to account for the complexity of acoustic scenarios and enhance the ecological validity of laboratory findings. However, recent studies suggest that virtual environments can alter mental effort compared to real-world settings, for example, through increased perceptual complexity which in turn may affect auditory perception.This could bias experimental outcomes and compromise the ecological validity of studies conducted in VR. To investigate this, a 2 × 2 between-subjects experiment was conducted to assess whether VR environments increase mental effort and thereby influence auditory perception. A real office environment was visually reconstructed in Unity and presented to the participants via a head-mounted display (HMD) and compared to its real counterpart. Participants in both environments were asked to retrospectively rate the loudness and unpleasantness of dynamically rendered binaural office noise scenarios presented via headphones and to report perceived sound sources. Moreover, participants were divided into two groups to induce different levels of mental effort. One group was asked to listen only to the sounds, while the other performed the Stroop Color-Word interference test in parallel. The results show no significant difference in the overall induced mental effort between environment conditions. Furthermore, performing the Stroop test had an effect on loudness and unpleasantness that was mediated by subjective effort. The results also suggest that auditory jugment depend primarily on individual sound properties, regardless of the visual environment.}, subject = {Psychoakustik}, language = {en} } @misc{vonBergVersuemerSteffensetal.2025, author = {von Berg, Markus and Vers{\"u}mer, Siegbert and Steffens, Jochen and Bitta, Joshua}, title = {Reproduction levels of outdoor soundscapes in the lab after in-situ exposure: participant responses and recording level envelopes}, publisher = {Zenodo}, doi = {10.5281/zenodo.17663267}, year = {2025}, abstract = {Supplemental material for https://doi.org/10.1051/aacus/2025062 To investigate loudness biases in the lab, where outdoor sounds are perceived as being too loud if reproduced with physically accurate levels in the lab, a listening experiment was conducted, where thirty-one participants visited a street and listened to the environmental sounds for one minute. These sounds were also recorded using a dummy head. Afterwards, participants listened to the recording in a quiet laboratory and adjusted its level as they remembered it. About half of the sample did this immediately, the other half about 20 min after the recording, during which the performed another listening tests. Afterwards, previous experience with acoustics, musical sophistication and noise sensitivity were assessed. The results revealed a mean gain adjustment of 8.9 dB below the original. The data uploaded here comprises participants gain adjustment, the recording levels averaged other A) the entire recording and B) the first and last 7.5s or 15s, respecitvely and all questionnaire responses as well as aggregate scores for musical sophistication and noise sensitivity, as well as a binary categorization of the respondent into laymen and experienced, based on their previous experience with acoustics. For sociodemographic information, participants age, sex and educational degree are reported as well. Content - 00_Description: - Description of the data files - Includes a list of explanation of the columns names in "data_questionnaires_aggregateLevels.csv - data_questionnaires_aggregateLevels.csv - Participants' adjusted recordings levels - Several level and loudness aggregates of each participant's recording that were analyzed in the paper - Participants' responses to the administered questionnaires - level_envelopes.zip - Archive with 31 CSV files containing level envelopes of each participant's recording. - A-weighted and unweighted level envelope for the dummy head's left and right ear - One-minute recordings with a temporal resolution of 125ms}, subject = {Psychoakustik}, language = {en} } @article{vonBergVersuemerBittaetal.2025, author = {von Berg, Markus and Vers{\"u}mer, Siegbert and Bitta, Joshua and Steffens, Jochen}, title = {Reduced reproduction levels of outdoor soundscapes are deemed appropriate - even after real-world exposure}, series = {Acta Acustica}, journal = {Acta Acustica}, publisher = {EDP Sciences}, issn = {2681-4617}, doi = {10.1051/aacus/2025062}, pages = {16}, year = {2025}, abstract = {Laboratory experiments in psychoacoustical and soundscape research indicate that participants perceive a reproduction sound level lowered by 8-10 dB as more plausible than the original level. This bias supposedly roots in an adaptation of perceptual loudness scaling to the laboratory environment, that is overall quieter than urban outdoor soundscapes. To gain further insights into the nature of such loudness bias, we conducted a listening experiment in both field and laboratory using a within-subjects design. Thirty-one participants visited a street and listened to the environmental sounds for one minute, while these sounds were also recorded using a dummy head. Thereafter, they listened to the recording in a quiet laboratory nearby and adjusted its level as they remembered it. About half of the sample did this immediately, the other half about 20 minutes after the recording. Results confirm a bias towards lower levels with a mean of about 8.9 dB, regardless of the time between the recording and the reproduction in the laboratory. Also, participants with higher musical abilities tended to select higher, more accurate levels, whereas noise-sensitive participants deemed lower levels appropriate. Results suggest that the hypothesized adaptation of perceptual scaling to the laboratory happens immediately and is affected by individual factors.}, subject = {Psychoakustik}, language = {en} } @inproceedings{HuesenvonBergSteffens2025, author = {H{\"u}sen, Jonas and von Berg, Markus and Steffens, Jochen}, title = {Evaluating the Effectiveness of Virtual Listening Tests for Balanced Armature Headphone Drivers [Abstract]}, series = {DAS|DAGA 2025: 51st Annual Meeting on Acoustics, March 17-20, 2025, Copenhagen}, booktitle = {DAS|DAGA 2025: 51st Annual Meeting on Acoustics, March 17-20, 2025, Copenhagen}, publisher = {Deutsche Gesellschaft f{\"u}r Akustik e.V.}, address = {Berlin}, year = {2025}, subject = {Kopfh{\"o}rer}, language = {en} } @inproceedings{vonBergBittaVersuemeretal.2025, author = {von Berg, Markus and Bitta, Joshua and Vers{\"u}mer, Siegbert and Steffens, Jochen}, title = {Investigation of auditory memory through loudness reproduction in the laboratory [Abstract]}, series = {DAS|DAGA 2025: 51st Annual Meeting on Acoustics, March 17-20, 2025, Copenhagen}, booktitle = {DAS|DAGA 2025: 51st Annual Meeting on Acoustics, March 17-20, 2025, Copenhagen}, publisher = {Deutsche Gesellschaft f{\"u}r Akustik e.V.}, address = {Berlin}, year = {2025}, subject = {Ged{\"a}chtnis}, language = {de} } @inproceedings{vonLauerMuenchhofenvonBergSteffens2025, author = {von Lauer-M{\"u}nchhofen, Jakob and von Berg, Markus and Steffens, Jochen}, title = {Applicability of Common Room Acoustic Parameters for Music Recording Spaces in Recording Studios}, series = {Proceedings of DAS|DAGA 2025: 51st Annual Meeting on Acoustics March 17-20, 2025, Copenhagen}, booktitle = {Proceedings of DAS|DAGA 2025: 51st Annual Meeting on Acoustics March 17-20, 2025, Copenhagen}, editor = {Dau, Torsten and Epp, Bastian}, publisher = {Deutsche Gesellschaft f{\"u}r Akustik e.V.}, address = {Berlin}, isbn = {978-3-939296-23-2}, pages = {1224 -- 1227}, year = {2025}, subject = {Raumakustik}, language = {de} } @inproceedings{SteffensJoschkoGiangetal.2025, author = {Steffens, Jochen and Joschko, Marcel and Giang, Hien and Huber, Florian}, title = {Using machine learning to identify acoustic fingerprints of concert halls in classical audio recordings [Abstract]}, series = {DAS|DAGA 2025: 51st Annual Meeting on Acoustics, March 17-20, 2025, Copenhagen}, booktitle = {DAS|DAGA 2025: 51st Annual Meeting on Acoustics, March 17-20, 2025, Copenhagen}, publisher = {Deutsche Gesellschaft f{\"u}r Akustik e.V.}, address = {Berlin}, year = {2025}, subject = {Datenanalyse}, language = {en} } @inproceedings{BlaettermannVersuemerSteffens2025, author = {Bl{\"a}ttermann, Patrick and Vers{\"u}mer, Siegbert and Steffens, Jochen}, title = {Loadings of Acoustical Metrics on Soundscape Items and their relation to Soundscape Dimensions across different datasets [Abstract]}, series = {DAS|DAGA 2025: 51st Annual Meeting on Acoustics, March 17-20, 2025, Copenhagen}, booktitle = {DAS|DAGA 2025: 51st Annual Meeting on Acoustics, March 17-20, 2025, Copenhagen}, publisher = {Deutsche Gesellschaft f{\"u}r Akustik e.V.}, address = {Berlin}, year = {2025}, subject = {Soundscape}, language = {en} } @inproceedings{VersuemerBlaettermannSteffens2025, author = {Vers{\"u}mer, Siegbert and Bl{\"a}ttermann, Patrick and Steffens, Jochen}, title = {Nonlinearities in generalized models based on different soundscape datasets [Abstract]}, series = {DAS|DAGA 2025: 51st Annual Meeting on Acoustics, March 17-20, 2025, Copenhagen}, booktitle = {DAS|DAGA 2025: 51st Annual Meeting on Acoustics, March 17-20, 2025, Copenhagen}, publisher = {Deutsche Gesellschaft f{\"u}r Akustik e.V.}, address = {Berlin}, year = {2025}, subject = {Soundscape}, language = {en} } @inproceedings{SerditovaTangSteffens2025, author = {Serditova, Dana and Tang, Kevin and Steffens, Jochen}, title = {Automatic Speech Recognition Biases in Newcastle English: an Error Analysis}, series = {Interspeech 2025, 17 - 21 August in Rotterdam}, booktitle = {Interspeech 2025, 17 - 21 August in Rotterdam}, publisher = {ISCA}, doi = {10.21437/Interspeech.2025-1973}, pages = {3204 -- 3208}, year = {2025}, subject = {Automatische Spracherkennung}, language = {en} } @article{SteffensBlaettermannSattleretal.2025, author = {Steffens, Jochen and Bl{\"a}ttermann, Patrick and Sattler, Maximilian and Tang, Kevin}, title = {How does a credible voice sound?}, series = {The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America}, volume = {157}, journal = {The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America}, number = {5}, publisher = {Acoustical Society of America}, issn = {1520-8524}, doi = {10.1121/10.0036646}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:hbz:due62-opus-53133}, pages = {3780 -- 3792}, year = {2025}, abstract = {Credibility is a crucial social factor that influences people's perception and decision-making. This study explores the acoustic attributes that define credible speech compared to neutral and ironic speech. A custom-built German corpus was developed, containing speech samples recorded from amateurs to enhance ecological validity. The study extracted a broad set of audio features from these samples, employing recursive feature elimination to identify the most influential attributes. These were then analyzed using a machine-learning-supported multinomial logistic regression model. The results indicated significant differences in the acoustic features associated with credible speech compared to neutral and ironic speech. Key findings include the role of a higher energy level (1st mel-frequency cepstral coefficient) in credible compared to neutral and ironic speech and a higher speaking rate in both credible and ironic compared to neutral speech. Also, irony is characterized by more high-frequency content (mean spectral centroid) compared to credible or neutral speech. Gender differences in spoken irony involve a greater influence of speaking rate in women's speech, while high pitch plays a more significant role in men's speech. This research thus contributes to the understanding of how credibility is conveyed through speech and offers insights for applications in communication, media, and artificial intelligence. The study also highlights the methodological advancements made by incorporating a diverse range of acoustic features and employing a robust machine-learning framework.}, subject = {Sprechen}, language = {en} } @misc{SteffensBlaettermannSattleretal.2025, author = {Steffens, Jochen and Bl{\"a}ttermann, Patrick and Sattler, Maximilian and Tang, Kevin}, title = {How does a credible voice sound? [Project Repository]}, publisher = {Open Science Framework}, doi = {10.17605/OSF.IO/MTCUH}, year = {2025}, abstract = {A project repository for the paper: Steffens, Bl{\"a}ttermann, Sattler and Tang (2025, "How does a credible voice sound?"). It contains three components: the dataset, data analyses and the materials to elicit the speech data.}, subject = {Sprechen}, language = {en} } @article{HunkeHuberSteffens2025, author = {Hunke, Til and Huber, Florian and Steffens, Jochen}, title = {The Evolution of Song Lyrics: An NLP-Based Analysis of Popular Music in Germany from 1954 to 2022}, series = {Music \& Science}, volume = {8}, journal = {Music \& Science}, publisher = {Sage Publications}, issn = {2059-2043}, doi = {10.1177/20592043251331155}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:hbz:due62-opus-52618}, pages = {20}, year = {2025}, abstract = {Music is an indispensable cultural product, reflecting changes in social, psychological, and cultural contexts. This study analyzes the historical evolution of topics and conveyed affect in popular music lyrics in Germany from 1954 to 2022, using LDA-based topic modeling and transformer-based sentiment analysis. These results show that Love \& Relationships is the most referenced topic, with Dreams \& Longings prominent until the mid-1960s and Society \& Status rising from 2017. The sentiment analysis reveals a significant decline in positive sentiment since the mid-1960s, accompanied by increases in negative, ambiguous, and neutral sentiments. These trends may reflect broader societal changes, including shifts in cultural values, rising individualism, and increasing mental health issues. The study highlights the evolving nature of popular music and its reflection of social dynamics.}, subject = {Popmusik}, language = {en} } @article{ErdmannvonBergSteffens2025, author = {Erdmann, Matthias and von Berg, Markus and Steffens, Jochen}, title = {Development and evaluation of a mixed reality music visualization for a live performance based on music information retrieval}, series = {Frontiers in Virtual Reality}, volume = {6}, journal = {Frontiers in Virtual Reality}, publisher = {Frontiers}, issn = {2673-4192}, doi = {10.3389/frvir.2025.1552321}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:hbz:due62-opus-51110}, pages = {18}, year = {2025}, abstract = {The present study explores the development and evaluation of a mixed reality music visualization for a live music performance. Real-time audio analysis and crossmodal correspondences were used as design guidelines for creating the visualization, which was presented through a head-mounted-display. To assess the impact of the music visualization on the audience's aesthetic experience, a baseline visualization was designed, featuring the same visual elements but with random changes of color and movement. The audience's aesthetic experience of the two conditions (i.e., listening to the same song with different visualizations) was assessed using the Aesthetic Emotions Scale (AESTHEMOS) questionnaire. Additionally, participants answered questions regarding the perceived audiovisual congruence of the stimuli and questionnaires about individual musicality and aesthetic receptivity. The results show that the visualization controlled by real-time audio analysis was associated with a slightly enhanced aesthetic experience of the audiovisual composition compared to the randomized visualization, thereby supporting similar findings reported in the literature. Furthermore, the tested personal characteristics of the participants did not significantly affect aesthetic experience. Significant correlations between these characteristics and the aesthetic experience were observed only when the ratings were averaged across conditions. An open interview provided deeper insights into the participants' overall experiences of the live music performance. The results of the study offer insights into the development of real-time music visualization in mixed reality, examines how the specific audiovisual stimuli employed influence the aesthetic experience, and provides potential technical guidelines for creating new concert formats.}, subject = {Virtuelle Realit{\"a}t}, language = {en} }