Graduate Student: Matthew Neal, Ph.D. 2019
The area of subjective impression of concert hall acoustics can be quite a difficult area to determine clear results, and often times, findings between researchers can even be contradictory or unclear. Many factors can contribute to this, such as drastic differences in how auralizations are presented to subjects, methods used to measure or simulate different rooms, and the difficulty in designing a clear, unbiased research study to find meaningful results. As well, many different subjective impressions have been defined in concert hall acoustics, such as reverberance, clarity, intimacy, presence, enveloment, etc., but it is quite difficult to determine exactly how these impressions help to inform one of the most important questions: “Do you like this hall?”
This project aims to use state-of-the art room acoustics measurement techniques and virtual acoustics auralization techniques to help answer this very question. First, a comprehensive measurement trip will be conducted throughout the U.S. and Europe, using halls selected from surveying architectural acoustic consultants, to provide comparable database of halls with a wide range of sizes, shapes, and acoustic properties. Concert halls will be measured using the Eigenmike, the three-way omni-directional sound source, and a third-order beam-forming spherical loudspeaker, to simulate different directional radiation patterns of orchestral instruments . This loudspeaker can be used to create arbitrary source directivities using 3rd order spherical harmonics processing, allowing auralization with an array of directional sound sources, such as an orchestra. This setup will allow for highly accurate room acoustic parameter calculation, directional analysis of the sound field, and state-of-the-art auralization using the AURAS facility.
With this database, extensive subjective testing will be done to look into the perception of a wide range of room acoustic parameters, focusing specifically on the perception of listener envelopment, and how it and other parameters contribute to a listener’s overall preference.
Project Publications:
- Neal, M.T.* and Vigeant, M.C. (2020). “A compact spherical loudspeaker array for efficiently recreating instrument directivities.” J. Audio Eng. Soc. 68:796-809
- Neal, M.T.,* and Vigeant, M.C. (2020). “Concert hall preference: Investigating key factors related to overall average and individual preference.” J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 148:2772
- Neal, M. (2019) “A Spherical Microphone and Compact Loudspeaker Array Measurement Database for the Study of Concert Hall Preference.” Ph.D. Dissertation, The Pennsylvania State University.
- Neal, M.T.,*, Vigeant, M.C. (2019). “Predicting an individual’s preference in concert halls from measurement-based auralizations.” Int. Sym. on Room Acoustics, Amsterdam, NL, 8 pages. [Invited, Best student paper award]
- Neal, M.T.,*, Vigeant, M.C. (2019). “The CHORDatabase: a twenty-one concert hall spherical microphone and loudspeaker array measurement database.” 23rd International Congress on Acoustics, Aachen, DE, 7863-7870 [Invited]
- Neal, M.T.* and Vigeant, M.C. (2018). “A measurement database of US and European concert halls for realistic auralization and study of individual preference.” Inst. of Acoust. 10th Int. Conf. on Auditorium Acoust. Hamburg, Germany, 12 pages
- Neal, M.T.,* and Vigeant, M.C. (2018). “The room impulse response in time, frequency, and space: Mapping spatial energy using spherical array beamforming techniques” J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 144:1882 [Invited, Best Student Paper Award, 1st]
- Neal, M.T.,* and Vigeant, M.C. (2018). “A measurement database of US and European concert halls for realistic auralization and study of individual preference.” Proceedings of the Institute of Acoustics Vol. 40 Part 3
- Neal, M.T.,* and Vigeant, M.C. (2018). “Achieving realism and repeatability of an orchestra simulated within a concert hall.” J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 143:1824 [Invited]
- Neal, M.T.,* and Vigeant, M.C. (2017). “A concert hall database of US and European halls: Preliminary measurements and results (A).” J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 142:2717 [Best Student Paper Award, 1st]
- Neal, M.T.* and Vigeant, M.C. (2017). “Room measurement setup for accurate objective analysis and realistic subjective comparison of concert halls (A).” J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 141:3854 [Invited]
