Let me ask, why this room?
From the paper:
"The results showed that the measurement room exhibits low reverberation times and high clarity, which indicate a suitable environment for simulating acoustic scenes."
Basically the room adds nothing to the reproduction, so it is suitable for simulation. In your case bypassing the whole simulation, gives the same or better result. Why did't you pick a room, where music really performed?
I figured since the RT60 value was close to that of studio spaces, it would work well for "virtual studio".
I notice you prefer to add more reverberation to your playback, which just seems to be a different approach. Since I produce and mix music that is considered modern, the reference mixes I listen to are all mixed in a room with similar traits. I would even explain this further.
If a mix engineer mixes, for example, a pop record, he then manipulates reverberation behind different elements to make them appear closer or further back. A good reverberated mix will almost create an illusion of elements being "placed" in the sound field. If I then listen back to such a mix and add lets say, concert hall reverberation, it would send all the nuanced reverberation balance the mix engineer created to hall reverb - so I would be playing back reverberation inside reverberation, essentially breaking the intended sound image. I think you see where I am going with this. Adding reverb might work for classical music if the recording is reverberated naturally during the recording process, and there isn't too much reverb already present. But again, if I listen to a good orchestral Atmos mix in 7.1.4 through Virtuoso, it sounds very immersive to me, like I would be sitting in a concert hall.
Now you might say, why add all this very short reverb to the virtual speaker room at all if there is a reverb already added to every instrument in the mix? The thing is, we perceive reverberation differently when we listen to mixed music in a room and when we listen to it through headphones. For example, if I add a certain amount of reverb to a guitar or a vocal when mixing just on headphones without room simulation, it might sound proper to my ears, but if I then go and listen to the same audio in the studio mixing room on speakers, I will hear that there is too much reverb all of a sudden. That is because the natural room reverb makes us feel reverberation levels differently inside the mix. But! If I mix a track on speakers inside a room, the balance always sounds correct on headphones. Hence, the desire to create "virtual mixing rooms" for headphones with very balanced, minimal reverberation.
That's all, of course, if you mix or produce music. For just listening purposes, I think we can all choose what we prefer and whether we want to hear precisely what the artist and mix engineer intended, or whether we want to make listening more fun.
I also understand there is no way of making a stereo classical piece feel like you are sitting inside the concert hall without adding reverb channels to the sides and back. But I also think that's what the Atmos mix does anyway (or maybe the mix engineer decides to pan sources around you and make a soprano run circles around your head, which I hope nobody does
)
@variance, many thanks, I will check the new scripts out! Also, a silly question - if you plot personal or other HRTFs in REW, do you run a sweep trough Sparta plugin with a sofa file inserted, or do you have a simpler way of doing it?
