Sound and Vibration Engineering
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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.
Einsatz und Anpassung von Methoden der Audio-Feature-Extraktion am Beispiel von Indoor Soundscapes
(2022)
Im häuslichen Umfeld erleben Menschen abhängig von ihrer Wohnsituation unterschiedlichste Geräuschumgebungen (Indoor Soundscapes), die einen hohen Einfluss auf das Wohlbefinden haben. Im Rahmen einer Feldstudie wurde daher die theoretisch und praktisch relevante Frage untersucht, welche Merkmale der wahrgenommenen Geräuschumgebungen als besonders ereignisreich oder angenehm bewertet werden. Einhundertfünf Teilnehmer*innen berichteten nach der Experience-Sampling-Methode zeitgesteuert über auftretende Geräuschumgebungen des häuslichen Alltags. Sie bewerteten deren subjektive Wirkung gemäß Soundscape-Standard. Zudem fertigten sie in-situ Audioaufnahmen der Geräuschszenarien an. Die 6594 Tonaufnahmen wurden einer Audioinhaltsanalyse unterzogen und im Zuge dessen wurden vier Featuresets verschiedener Berechnungsansätze extrahiert. Mithilfe der Perzentilen LASSO-Regularisierung wurden lineare gemischte Modelle für Angenehmheit und Ereignisreichtum sowie drei Multilevel-Modelle für Angenehmheit aufgestellt. Die besten Modelle erklären 9 % der Varianz von Angenehmheit und 27 % der Varianz von Ereignisreichtum durch feste Effekte selektierter Prädiktoren aller getesteten Featuresets. Angenehmheit sinkt vor allem, wenn lautheitsbasierte Features hohe Werte zeigen. Ereignisreichtum ist am stärksten abhängig von kurzen Spitzen des C-bewerteten Schalldruckpegels und wird im Vergleich zu Angenehmheit stärker von Zeitschwankungen der Features bestimmt. Durch den Vergleich der Featuresets wird deutlich, dass die Modelleffekte bekannter psychoakustischer Größen durch Hinzufügen von MFCC-Features verbessert werden. Darüber hinaus wird anhand von Multilevel-Modellen gezeigt, dass die Angenehmheit des lautesten Viertels der Tonaufnahmen deutlich besser durch feste Effekte erklärbar ist als der leisere Rest des Datensatzes. Kongruent mit aktuellen Befragungsstudien kann durch Audiofeatures eine Kategorienabhängigkeit der Soundscape-Bewertungen belegt werden: Musik und Sprache werden als angenehmer bewertet, technische Geräusche und Anlagenrauschen hingegen als unangenehmer. Hoher Ereignisreichtum hängt mit
menschgemachten Geräuschen (z. B. Poltern, Stuhlrücken) zusammen. Diese Ergebnisse stellen eine wichtige Komponente in der umfassenden Beschreibung komplexer Geräuschumgebungen dar und ihnen kommt in Zeiten der SARS-CoV-2-Pandemie, in denen Wohnraum vermehrt heterogen genutzt werden muss, eine erhöhte Bedeutung zu.
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.
The soundscape approach highlights the role of situational factors in sound evaluations; however, only a few studies have applied a multi‐domain approach including sound‐related, person‐related, and time‐varying situational variables. Therefore, we conducted a study based on the Experience Sampling Method to measure the relative contribution of a broad range of potentially relevant acoustic and non‐auditory variables in predicting indoor soundscape evaluations. Here we present the comprehensive dataset for which 105 participants reported temporally (rather) stable trait variables such as noise sensitivity, trait affect, and quality of life. They rated 6.594 situations regarding the soundscape standard dimensions, perceived loudness, and the saliency of its sound components and evaluated situational variables such as state affect, perceived control, activity, and location. To complement these subject‐centered data, we additionally crowdsourced object‐centered data by having participants make binaural measurements of each indoor soundscape at their homes using a low‐(self‐)noise recorder. These recordings were used to compute (psycho‐)acoustical indices such as the energetically averaged loudness level, the A‐weighted energetically averaged equivalent continuous sound pressure level, and the A‐weighted five‐percent exceedance level. This complex hierarchical data can be used to investigate time‐varying non‐auditory influences on sound perception and to develop soundscape indicators based on the binaural recordings to predict soundscape evaluations.
Music-related decision-making encompasses a wide range of behaviours including those associated with listening choices, composition and performance, and decisions involving music education and therapy. Although research programmes in psychology and economics have contributed to an improved understanding of music-related behaviour, historically, these disciplines have been unconnected. Recently, however, researchers have begun to bridge this gap by employing tools from behavioural economics. This article contributes to the literature by providing a discussion about the benefits of using behavioural economics in music-decision research. We achieve this in two ways. First, through a systematic review, we identify the current state of the literature within four key areas of behavioural economics-heuristics and biases, social decision-making, behavioural time preferences, and dual-process theory. Second, taking findings of the literature as a starting point, we demonstrate how behavioural economics can inform future research. Based on this, we propose the Behavioural Economics of Music (BEM), an integrated research programme that aims to break new ground by stimulating interdisciplinary research in the intersection between music, psychology, and economics.
Audioinhaltsanalyse und Multilevelmodellierung zur Vorhersage der Bewertung von Indoor Soundscapes
(2022)
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.
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.
Sound and music are well-studied aspects of the quality of experience in restaurants; the role of the room acoustical conditions, their influence on the visitors’ soundscape evaluation and their impact on the overall customer satisfaction in restaurants, however, has received less scientific attention. The present field study therefore investigated whether sound pressure level, reverberation time, and soundscape pleasantness can predict factors associated with overall restaurant quality. In total, 142 persons visiting 12 restaurants in Berlin rated relevant acoustical and non-acoustical factors associated with restaurant quality. Simultaneously, the A-weighted sound pressure level (LA,eq,15) was measured, and the reverberation time in the occupied state (T20,occ) was obtained by measurements performed in the unoccupied room and a subsequent calculation of the occupied condition according to DIN 18041. Results from linear mixed-effects models revealed that both the LA,eq,15 and T20,occ had a significant influence on soundscape pleasantness and eventfulness, whereby the effect of T20,occ was meditated by the LA,eq,15. Also, the LA,eq,15 as well as soundscape pleasantness were significant predictors of overall restaurant quality. A comprehensive structural equation model including both acoustical and non-acoustical factors, however, indicates that the effect of soundscape pleasantness on overall restaurant quality is mediated by the restaurant’s atmosphere. Our results support and extend previous findings which suggest that the acoustical design of restaurants involves a trade-off between comfort and liveliness, depending on the desired character of the place.
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.