Acoustics of Virtually Coupled Performance Spaces (original) (raw)

Auralisation of Stage Acoustics for Large Ensembles

Computational room acoustics models are frequently used to derive room acoustical parameters, and also for auralisation of sound from stage to audience area of auditoria. Auralisation of sound on stage is much less common. This paper considers how auralisation can be implemented for a musician within a large ensemble. Using a computer model of an auditorium, impulse responses are derived from various source positions on the stage to the auralised position for the musician (also on the stage). For the playback, anechoic recordings of individual instruments within a small or large ensemble are convolved with the appropriatiately synchronised and spatialised impulse responses. The roomreflected sound for the musician's own instrument or voice is auralised separately using a real-time convolution system previously developed for auralising the sound of one's own voice in rooms. This paper describes the integration of these processes, which are illustrated using a case study.

Evaluation of concert hall auralization with virtual symphony orchestra

2011

Authenticity of the simulation of room acoustics is evaluated by comparing auralizations with real recordings. Impulse responses are recorded in two concert halls with 34 loudspeakers positioned on the stage in the shape of an orchestra and a 3D microphone probe for spatial reproduction. The acoustics of the same concert halls are simulated with acoustics modeling software. B-format impulse responses are calculated by using the identical source and receiver positions as in the real halls.

Real-time auralization of room acoustics for the study of live music performance

2016

Studying the influence of room acoustics on musicians requires the possibility of recording a live performance in different acoustic conditions in order to analyze the performance using either perceptual methods or extraction of music features using signal analysis. Due to the great amount of variables present in the acoustics of a room, it is necessary to have a comprehensive set of rooms with different conditions available to perform experiments, which is rarely the case. In addition, the musicians need to perform in every different room, increasing the logistics and procedure complexity. This problems can be solved by using a virtual acoustic environment which provides modifiable room acoustic conditions without the necessity of moving into different rooms, allowing a rapid change of acoustics for direct comparison and detailed control of the acoustic conditions.

Augmented stage support in ensemble performance using virtual acoustics technology

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 2013

Perceptual evaluation of electronically varied acoustic conditions has been perfomed with 15 musicians in a chamber orchestra rehearsal. Using Virtual Acoustics Technology (VAT), a room impulse response based active acoustic enhancement system, four different acoustic conditions were presented to the musicians. Condition 1 was the natural room itself without the VAT system. Condition 2 had a moderate level of VAT enhancement with approximately 18% increased T30 value from the condition 1. Condition 3 duplicated the condition 2 except for another 17% rise of T30, and condition 4 offered enhancement utilizing multiple early reflections IRs without extending the reverb time of the space. The conditions were presented to the ensemble in random order and the loudness of all four conditions was carefully matched. Evaluation results indicated that 60% of participating musicians prefered condition 4 and musicians' preference was highly correlated with perceptual attributes such as 'envelopment', 'feeling of stage support' and 'quality of reverberation'. The objective measurements also confirmed the improvements in stage acoustics support parameters (ST1 and ST2) with the VAT system employed.

The interaction between room and musical instruments studied by multi-channel auralization

2000

The directivity of musical instruments is very complicated and typically changes from one tone to the next. So, instead of measuring the average directivity, a multi-channel auralization method has been developed, which allows a highly accurate and realistic sounding auralization of musical instruments in rooms. Anechoic recordings have been made with 5 and 13 evenly distributed microphones around the musical instrument. The reproduction is made with a room acoustics simulation software using a compound source, which is in fact a number of highly directive sources, one for each of the channels in the anechoic recording. With this technique the variations in sound radiation from the musical instrument during the performance e.g. due to changes in level or movements can be reproduced with the influence of the surrounding room surfaces. Examples include a grand piano and a clarinet.

Spatial acoustic measurements in conert halls with a reduced virtual orchestra

2022

The Virtual Orchestra has previously been used to measure room acoustic conditions of major concert-halls. The idea is to simulate an actual orchestra on stage with an array of loudspeakers and then measure the spatial impulse response in the hall. This approach gives a more complete picture of the acoustic projection and reflection paths between the stage and the audience than traditional measurements with a single omni-directional loudspeaker in few positions. However, the originally proposed system requires over 24 loudspeakers and is therefore not very convenient for consultants to use from the practical perspective. In this paper a scaled-down version of the measurement system is presented. This system uses a total of 8 loudspeakers and the spatial impulse response is recorded by a standard A-format microphone. The results are presented with comparative spatial analyses and preliminary results from practical measurements in halls.

An open-source platform for musical room acoustics research

Proceedings of the 2005 International Congress and Exposition on Noise Control Engineering, 2005

AcMus is an ongoing project to develop a software for estimation, measurement, analysis, and simulation of rooms specially designed for musical performance. The system under development is organized in modules. All modules shall be integrated in a way as to allow seamless flow of data regardless of the variety of data types and structures involved in the system. Portability and accessibility of the software developed have been major concerns in the implementation of the system and, for this reason, it has been developed ...