Create any acoustic environment

[fas42]

Saw this on WBF, seeing this is smack bang on focus for this forum, I will note it here:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...this-lab-can-recreate-the-sounds-of-any-space

 

[Kal Rubinson]

Saw this on WBF, seeing this is smack bang on focus for this forum, I will note it here:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...this-lab-can-recreate-the-sounds-of-any-space

As I said in the other forum, it is hard to judge from such a report what is really being attempted and/or accomplished.

 

[amirm]

Oh, these setups are pretty common and have been used for research for many years. By having multiple speakers in an anechoic chamber you can simulate many things with the key one being the effects of reflections in real rooms (each speaker plays one reflection point). By having enough of them, and recording the same points in a real-room, that sound can be approximated in the chamber. Søren Bech who is referenced as the advisor to the students there, has done such experiments years back as have Fraunhofer Institute (FHG), Harman, etc. Here is a paper in my library from Bech which I have referenced before: Timbral aspects of reproduced sound in small rooms, JAES, 1995

I. EXPERIMENTAL SETUP
An examination of the influence of individual parts of the sound field (e.g., reflections) necessitates the use of a simulation technique. Several techniques were examined and it was decided that electroacoustic simulation offered the best possibilities. Electroacoustic simulation of a sound field requires a listener surrounded by loudspeakers in an anechoic chamber. Reichardt and Lehmann (1978) have shown that a simulated sound field should include (1) the direct sound, (2) discrete early reflections, and (3) a subjectively diffuse sound field in order to convey a sufficient degree of room impression to the listener.

That is one of many things that a million dollar anechoic chamber enables you to do.

Creating such rooms became a lot easier once everyone could play many channels on a standard computer courtesy of multi-channel pro sound cards.

 

[Blumlein 88]

With no more than the stream of hype in that article it could have been written about that first Yamaha 5 channel pre-amp that had DSP for synthesizing different spaces.

What they are talking about sounds cool. Yet the article is really saying nothing more than here is this neat new thing which makes sound real for real. Uses more speakers than before and people are fooled into believing fake spaces. And we don't have any specifics.

Same as Auro3D, DTS-X, Atmos, Ambeo, whatever they call the Qualcomm 3d sound process, and a couple more being worked on currently. All hot stuff now because of VR and everyone wants a piece of the sound pie for gaming VR 3D sound.

 

[fas42]

Oh, these setups are pretty common and have been used for research for many years. By having multiple speakers in an anechoic chamber you can simulate many things with the key one being the effects of reflections in real rooms (each speaker plays one reflection point). By having enough of them, and recording the same points in a real-room, that sound can be approximated in the chamber.

Yes, that makes sense. The point here seems to be that the software driving the multi-channel sound is "cleverer" than previously used, so the subjective result is that much closer to being 'correct'.

 

[Kal Rubinson]

Yes, that makes sense. The point here seems to be that the software driving the multi-channel sound is "cleverer" than previously used, so the subjective result is that much closer to being 'correct'.

We will find out when/if they tell us what they are doing.

 

[amirm]

Yes, that makes sense. The point here seems to be that the software driving the multi-channel sound is "cleverer" than previously used, so the subjective result is that much closer to being 'correct'.

There is really little that is clever or fancy about it. It is a simple matter of capturing multiple points in a venue with say, an impulse response and then using that in the anechoic chamber to transform whatever music you want to play. The magic here is the anechoic chamber which makes the playback environment to not have a sound of its own.

 

[fas42]

You could be right - the man at the heart of it is Neo Kaplanis, http://uk.linkedin.com/in/neokaplanis, and a recent paper is this, http://www.aes.org/e-lib/browse.cfm?elib=18051.

At least a browse of his publications would bring one up to date on the latest thinking ...

Another link: http://www.dreams-itn.eu/index.php/component/contact/contact/10-researchers/30-neo-kaplanis