TY - JOUR A1 - von Berg, Markus A1 - Steffens, Jochen A1 - Weinzierl, Stefan A1 - Müllensiefen, Daniel T1 - Assessing room acoustic listening expertise JF - Journal of the Acoustical Society of America N2 - Musicians and music professionals are often considered to be expert listeners for listening tests on room acoustics. However, these tests often target acoustic parameters other than those typically relevant in music such as pitch, rhythm, amplitude, or timbre. To assess the expertise in perceiving and understanding room acoustical phenomena, a listening test battery was constructed to measure the perceptual sensitivity and cognitive abilities in the identification of rooms with different reverberation times and different spectral envelopes. Performance in these tests was related to data from the Goldsmiths Musical Sophistication Index, self-reported previous experience in music recording and acoustics, and academic knowledge on acoustics. The data from 102 participants show that sensory and cognitive abilities are both correlated significantly with musical training, analytic listening skills, recording experience, and academic knowledge on acoustics, whereas general interest in and engagement with music do not show any significant correlations. The regression models, using only significantly correlated criteria of musicality and professional expertise, explain only small to moderate amounts (11%–28%) of the variance in the “room acoustic listening expertise” across the different tasks of the battery. Thus, the results suggest that the traditional criteria for selecting expert listeners in room acoustics are only weak predictors of their actual performances. Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0006574 VL - 150 IS - 4 SP - 2539 EP - 2548 PB - Acoustical Society of America ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Brettschneider, Nico A1 - Herder, Jens A1 - de Mooij, Jeroen A1 - Ryskeldiev, Bektur ED - Herder, Jens T1 - Audio vs. Visual Avatars as Guides in Virtual Environments T2 - 21th International Conference on Human and Computer, HC-2018, March 27–28, 2019, Shizuoka University, Hamamatsu, Japan. N2 - Through constant technical progress, multi-user virtual reality is transforming towards a social activity that is no longer only used by remote users, but also in large-scale location-based experiences. We evaluate the usage of realtime-tracked avatars in co-located business-oriented applications in a "guide-user-scenario" in comparison to audio only instructions. The present study examined the effect of an avatar-guide on the user-related factors of Spatial Presence, Social Presence, User Experience and Task Load in order to propose design guidelines for co-located collaborative immersive virtual environments. Therefore, an application was developed and a user study with 40 participants was conducted in order to compare both guiding techniques of a realtime-tracked avatar guide and a non-visualised guide with otherwise constant conditions. Results reveal that the avatar-guide enhanced and stimulated communicative processes while facilitating interaction possibilities and creating a higher sense of mental immersion for users. Furthermore, the avatar-guide appeared to make the storyline more engaging and exciting while helping users adapt to the medium of virtual reality. Even though no assertion could be made concerning the Task Load factor, the avatar-guide achieved a higher subjective value on User Experience. Due to the results, avatars can be considered valuable social elements in the design of future co-located collaborative virtual environments. KW - Virtual Reality KW - Co-located Collaborations KW - Networked Immersive Virtual Environments KW - Head-mounted Display KW - Avatars KW - Lehre Y1 - 2019 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:hbz:due62-opus-23859 UR - https://vsvr.medien.hs-duesseldorf.de/publications/hc2018-avatar/ PB - Hochschule Düsseldorf CY - Düsseldorf ER - TY - CHAP A1 - von Berg, Markus A1 - Schwörer, Paul A1 - Prinz, Lukas A1 - Steffens, Jochen T1 - Analysis of physical and perceptual properties of room impulse responses: development of an online tool T2 - Forum Acusticuum 2023: 10th Convention of European Acoustics Association, Turin, Italy, 11th-15th September 2023 N2 - Over the past decades, research in room acoustics has established several derivative measures of an impulse response, some of which are incorporated in the ISO 3382 standards. These parameters intend to represent perceptual qualities, but were developed without a consistent modeling of room acoustical perception. More recent research proposed comprehensive inventories of room acoustic perception that are purely based on evaluations by human subjects, such as the Room Acoustical Quality Index (RAQI). In this work RA-QI scores acquired for 70 room impulse responses were predicted from room acoustical parameters. Except for Reverberance, the prediction of RAQI factors performed rather poor. In most cases, the sound source had a greater impact on RAQI scores. All analyses are published in an online tool, where users can upload omnidirectional and binaural impulse responses, and instantly obtain and visualize several physical descriptors, as well as predicted RAQI scores for three different sound sources. So far, acceptable prediction accuracy is achieved for Reverberance, Strength, Irregular Decay, Clarity and Intimacy. Larger data sets of evaluated impulse responses are required to improve the model performance and enable reliable predictions of room acoustical quality. Therefore, the administration of RAQI evaluations within the website is currently being developed. Y1 - 2023 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:hbz:due62-opus-41955 PB - EAA ER - TY - GEN A1 - von Berg, Markus A1 - Schwörer, Paul A1 - Prinz, Lukas A1 - Steffens, Jochen T1 - OPRA: Akustische Analyse musikalischer Aufführungsräume im Browser T2 - Akustik Journal N2 - Der Aufführungsraum leistet einen substantiellen Beitrag zum Erleben von Musikdarbietungen. Zur Beschreibung der Akustik von Aufführungsräumen haben sich dabei zahlreiche Messgrößen etabliert, welche bestimmte Wahrnehmungsqualitäten, wie z. B. die Halligkeit, abbilden sollen. Dem stellt jüngere Forschung rein perzeptive Messinventare gegenüber, die den Wahrnehmungseindruck als solchen, losgelöst vom physikalischen Ursprung, beschreiben. Dieser Artikel beschreibt einen Versuch, diese beiden Forschungsrichtungen zusammenzuführen, indem Bewertungen von Aufführungsräumen nach dem perzeptiven Room Acoustical Quality Index (RAQI) durch physikalische Messgrößen modelliert wurden, welche aus einfachen Impulsantwortmessungen ermittelt werden. Dazu wurde eine Auswahl raumakustischer Messgrößen auf fünf Dimensionen reduziert und diese als Prädiktoren für die einzelnen Wahrnehmungsgrößen des RAQI getestet. Die Berechnung dieser Prädiktionsmodelle wird vorgestellt und deren Präzision diskutiert. Anschließend wird die OPRA-Webanwendung vorgestellt, die sowohl die Berechnung der raumakustischen Messgrößen als auch die Prädiktion von RAQI-Wahrnehmungsgrößen für die drei Quellsignale Sprache, Orchester und Solotrompete im Browser ermöglicht. Auch wenn die Präzision der Prädiktionsmodelle noch nicht für alle RAQI-Faktoren zuverlässige Ergebnisse liefert, erlaubt OPRA eine umfangreiche akustische Analyse und eine erste Einschätzung der perzeptiven Wirkung von Aufführungsräumen. N2 - Performance spaces have a substantial influence on the experience of musical performances, and numerous physical measures have been proposed to describe different aspects of the perceptual impact singular of a performance space. Recent research complements these physical measures with purely perceptual inventories that describe the auditory impression as such, and somewhat detached from its physical origin. This article describes an attempt to bring these two research directions together by modelling evaluations of performance spaces according to the subject-centered Room Acoustical Quality Index (RAQI) based on physical measures obtained from simple impulse response measurements. A selection of room acoustical parameters was reduced to five dimensions which were tested then as predictors for the perceptual qualities of the RAQI. The calculation of these prediction models is presented and the models’ prediction performance discussed. Then, the OPRA-online-tool is presented that enables both the calculation of the physical measures and the prediction of RAQI factors for the three source signals speech, orchestra and solo trumpet within the web browser. Even though the precision of the prediction models does not yet provide reliable estimates of all RAQI factors, OPRA allows a first assessment of the perceptual effect of performance spaces on speech and music. T2 - OPRA: acoustical analysis of musical performance spaces in a web browser KW - Raumakustik KW - Webandwendung KW - akustische Wahrnehmung Y1 - 2023 UR - https://www.dega-akustik.de/fileadmin/dega-akustik.de/publikationen/akustik-journal/23-03/akustik_journal_2023_03_online_artikel4.pdf SN - 2569-1600 IS - 3 SP - 41 EP - 52 ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Klein, Paula A1 - von Berg, Markus A1 - Birwe, Dagmar A1 - Steffens, Jochen T1 - Can the Perceived Spatial Impression of Classical Recordings Be Predicted by Audio Descriptors? [Vortrag] T2 - Fortschritte der Akustik - DAGA 2024 N2 - The perceived spatial impression is an important factor in the aesthetic appreciation of classical music recordings. Crucial aspects of spatial perception can be described by the attributes ensemble width, depth, envelopment, and reverberation duration. In a listening experiment, a sample of 30 experts rated 24 orchestra recordings by these attributes. To compare these ratings to signalrelated measures of spatial impression, an audio descriptor for the interaural cross-correlation coefficient in music recordings was chosen as a measure of perceived ensemble width. A second algorithm estimated the reverberation time from decay segments in the recorded music. Linear mixed-effects models were then used to test whether these two descriptors, combined with other audio features related to timbre, are suitable for predicting participants’ ratings of the perceptual attributes. Overall, results confirmed that the signal-related measures used can indeed predict perceptual attributes, with 41% of rating variance explained in the case of reverberation duration. In contrast, these objective measures turned out to be less accurate predictors of the perceived ensemble width, with a variance explanation of 21%. This study can thus be regarded as a starting point for further studies aiming to predict the perceived spatial impression in music recordings. KW - Audio Desciptors KW - räumliche Wahrnehmung KW - Raumakustik KW - Räumliches Hören KW - Klassische Musik KW - Musikaufnahme Y1 - 2024 UR - https://pub.dega-akustik.de/DAGA_2024/files/upload/paper/213.pdf SN - 978-3-939296-22-5 SP - 1034 EP - 1037 PB - Deutsche Gesellschaft für Akustik e.V. CY - Berlin ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Versümer, Siegbert A1 - Blättermann, Patrick T1 - Predicting real indoor soundscapes based on auditory and non-auditory factors across different loudness ranges with linear and nonlinear models T2 - INTER-NOISE and NOISE-CON Congress and Conference Proceedings, Conference Proceeding 8, 4 October 2024 KW - Soundscape KW - Lautstärke KW - Psychoakustik Y1 - 2024 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3397/IN_2024_3386 SP - 3882 EP - 3892 PB - Institute of Noise Control Engineering ER - TY - JOUR A1 - von Berg, Markus A1 - Himmelein, Hendrik A1 - Steffens, Jochen T1 - Effects of noise sensitivity and listening effort on perceptual ratings of background noise JF - JASA Express Letters N2 - Previous research suggests that noise sensitivity is related to inefficient auditory processing that might increase the mental load of noise and affect noise evaluation. This assumption was tested in an experiment using a dual-task paradigm with a visual primary task and an auditory secondary task. Results showed that participants' noise sensitivity was positively correlated with mental effort. Furthermore, mental effort mediated the effect of noise sensitivity on loudness and unpleasantness ratings. The results thus support the idea that noise sensitivity is related to increased mental effort and difficulties in filtering auditory information and that situational factors should be considered. KW - noise sensitivity KW - listening effort KW - Geräuschempfindlichkeit KW - Höranstrengung KW - HSD Publikationsfonds KW - DFG Publikationskosten Y1 - 2024 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:hbz:due62-opus-45747 SN - 2691-1191 N1 - Funding: Gefördert durch die Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) – 532148125 und durch den zentralen Publikationsfonds der Hochschule Düsseldorf University of Applied Sciences. VL - 8 IS - 4 PB - AIP Publishing ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Versümer, Siegbert A1 - Steffens, Jochen A1 - Weinzierl, Stefan T1 - Day-to-day loudness assessments of indoor soundscapes: Exploring the impact of loudness indicators, person, and situation JF - The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America N2 - This study investigates loudness perception in real-world contexts using predictors related to the sound, situation, or person. In the study, 105 participants recorded 6594 sound environments in their homes, which were then evaluated based on the Experience Sampling Method. Hierarchical linear regressions using a loudness level based on ISO 532-1 allowed for obtaining the best model fits for predicting perceived loudness and explaining the highest variance. LAeq and LAF5 provided comparable results and may require less computational effort. However, the analysis shows that only one-third of the variance explained by fixed effects was attributable to the loudness level. Sixteen percent stemmed from perceived properties of the soundscape; 1% were attributable to relatively temporally stable, person-related predictors like participants' age; non-auditory situational predictors made no additional contribution. The results thus did not confirm previous findings on loudness perception under laboratory conditions, emphasizing the importance of the situational context. Along with the current paper, a comprehensive dataset, including the assessed person-related, situational, and sound-related measures as well as LAeq time-series and third-octave spectrograms, is provided to enable further research on sound perception, indoor soundscapes, and emotion. KW - Lautwahrnehmung KW - Akustische Eigenschaft KW - Hörschädigung KW - Lautstärke KW - Audiometrie KW - Sonogramm KW - Regressionsanalyse KW - Gauß-Prozess KW - Auditory perception KW - Acoustical properties KW - Hearing impairment KW - Loudness perception KW - Audiometry KW - Acoustic noise control KW - Spectrograms KW - Acoustic ecology KW - Regression analysis KW - Gaussian processes Y1 - 2023 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:hbz:due62-opus-46127 SN - 0001-4966 VL - 153 IS - 5 SP - 2956 EP - 2972 PB - Acoustical Society of America (ASA) ER - TY - CHAP A1 - von Berg, Markus A1 - Prinz, Lukas A1 - Steffens, Jochen T1 - Comparing individual perception of timbre and reverberance BT - Proceedings of the 24th International Congress on Acoustics N2 - Room reverberation alters the spatial impression and timbre of a sound by modulating its spectral and temporal characteristics. Thus, we argue that, on a perceptual level, reverberation basically breaks down into interaural differences and spectro-temporal cues and that the separation of a perceived timbre into a sound source and a surrounding room is a purely cognitive process. To investigate the connection between the perception of reverberation cues and timbre analysis, the sensitivity for changes in reverberation was compared to timbre perception abilities. The Timbre Perception Test was used to measure the perception of the temporal envelope, spectral centroid, and spectral flux of artificial sounds. Sensitivity for changes in reverberation time was tested with a discrimination task using speech and noise with speech-alike spectral and temporal envelopes as source signals. Musical and acoustical expertise was assessed through the Goldsmiths Musical Sophistication Index and self-reports on experience with and knowledge of acoustics. There was a considerable correlation between timbre and reverberance perception ability, but timbre perception and academic experience predicted only 41% of the variance in reverberance perception. Still, perception abilities related to similar acoustical phenomena seem to be better indicators of listening skills than self-reports on acoustical or musical expertise. KW - Timbre KW - Klangfarbe KW - Reverberation KW - Nachhall Y1 - 2022 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:hbz:due62-opus-38706 UR - https://ica2022korea.org/data/Proceedings_A11.pdf PB - International Commission for Acoustics CY - Gyeoungju, Südkorea ER - TY - JOUR A1 - von Berg, Markus A1 - Wolf, Anna-Christina A1 - Steffens, Jochen T1 - Age- and Sex-Related Differences in Music Requests on a Radio Show for Children JF - Music & Science N2 - In research on the development of musical preferences, children are often asked either to evaluate musical pieces that have been previously selected by adult experimenters, or to give self-reports on preferences for different musical styles. This study involved analyzing a sample of 1,412 freely and publicly expressed music requests from children aged between 4 and 11 years taken from a German radio program, with regard to age- and sex-specific differences. The music was categorized into genres, as listed on Spotify, and examined using methods of music information retrieval provided by the Spotify Developer application programming interface. Results showed that, at younger ages, the requests were generally more evenly distributed across different genres. Regarding single genres, we observed small positive relationships between age and the likelihood of requesting the genres pop or electro and small negative relationships between age and the likelihood of requesting A capella, German songwriter, indie, theme songs, or children's music. Furthermore, we found that boys requested significantly more rock or hip-hop, whereas girls had a higher tendency to ask for pop. Finally, age- (but no sex-) related differences regarding the Spotify features of valence and liveness of the requested music were found, which were related to the preference for children's music at younger ages. The results thus suggest that previous findings regarding differences between boys and girls and an increasing formation of distinct genre preferences during infancy also apply to single song requests made on a radio show. KW - children’s music KW - children’s musical preferences KW - genre preferences KW - music requests KW - musical identity KW - DFG Publikationskosten KW - HSD Publikationsfonds Y1 - 2024 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:hbz:due62-opus-46588 SN - 2059-2043 N1 - Funding: Funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) – 532148125 and supported by the central publication fund of Hochschule Düsseldorf University of Applied Sciences. VL - 7 SP - 1 EP - 16 PB - Sage Publications ER -