AES Fall Online Convention

A method for representing the three-dimensional radiation patterns of instruments/performers within artificial reverberation using multichannel direct sound files convolved with channel-based spatial room impulse responses (SRIRs) is presented. Two reverb conditions are studied in a controlled listening test: a) all SRIR channel positions are convolved with a single monophonic direct sound file, and b) each SRIR channel position is convolved with a unique direct sound file taken from a microphone array surrounding the performer. Participants were asked to adjust the level of each reverberation condition (relative to a fixed direct sound stream) to three perceptual thresholds relating to source- and room- impression. Results of separate three-way within-subject ANOVAs and post-hoc analysis show significant interactions between instrument / room type, and instrument / reverb condition on each of the three thresholds. Most notably, reverb condition b) required less level than condition a) to yield perceptual equivalency between source- and room- impression, suggesting that the inclusion of multichannel direct sound in SRIR convolution may increase the salience of room impression in the immersive reproduction of acoustic music.