AES Berlin 2017
Engineering Brief EB06
Monday, May 22, 13:30 — 14:45 (Salon 2+3 Rome)
EB06 - Recording, Live Sound, Effects, Other
Alfred Svobodnik (Chair)
EB06-01 The DFA Fader: Exploring the Power of Suggestion in Loudness Judgments
Jack Haigh (Presenting Author), Malachy Ronan (Author)
Anecdotal evidence suggests that when performers request loudness increases in their on-stage monitoring device, feedback regarding task completion is sometimes sufficient for the performer to perceive a loudness change. This is colloquially known as a DFA fader. Given the dearth of empirical evidence, qualitative interviews were conducted with live sound engineers to investigate the type of feedback required to successfully deliver a suggestion of a loudness change. Following this, 22 participants completed a paired comparison listening experiment to determine whether verbal suggestions produce perceived loudness changes. The experimental results demonstrate a significant difference between participants receiving a verbal suggestion and those that did not in 12 out of 20 presentations. These results support the use of verbal suggestions to convey loudness increases in live sound contexts.
Engineering Brief 336
EB06-02 Quantization Noise of Warped and Parallel Filters Using Floating Point Arithmetic
Balázs Bank (Presenting Author), Kristóf Horváth (Author)
For audio filter and equalizer design it is desirable to take into account the frequency resolution of hearing. Therefore, various specialized filter design methodologies have been developed, from which warped and parallel filters are particularly appealing options due to their simple design and good approximation properties. This paper compares the quantization noise of two different warped IIR implementations with that of fixed-pole parallel filters in single-precision floating point arithmetic. It is shown by simulations that the parallel filter provides the best compromise between quantization noise and computational complexity, since it significantly outperforms the series second-order warped IIR implementation in terms of noise performance, while requires less computational resources compared to the original warped IIR structure.
Engineering Brief 337
EB06-03 Warped Implementation of Parallel Second-Order Filters with Optimized Quantization Noise Performance
Balázs Bank (Presenting Author), Kristóf Horváth (Author)
Fixed-pole second-order parallel filters provide an efficient way of implementing IIR filters with a logarithmic frequency resolution. However, the fine frequency resolution needed at low frequencies can only be achieved by poles near the unit circle. This may lead to large roundoff noise at low frequencies when the filters are implemented using bit-depths of 24 bits or lower in fixed-point arithmetic. This paper investigates the performance improvement when the parallel second-order sections are implemented as warped IIR filters. In addition, an analytical expression is given for computing the warping parameter as a function of the pole location of the original second-order section so that the quantization noise power is minimized.
Engineering Brief 338
EB06-04 Power Out of Thin Air: The Harvesting of Acoustic Energy
Charalampos Papadokos (Presenting Author), John Mourjopoulos (Author)
Recent evolution in Acoustic Energy Harvesting (AEH) indicate that beyond its communication function, sound can be a potential energy resource for powering contemporary and future applications operating in the range nW - mW. Acoustic energy can be either ambient or produced via speech and music reproduction, portable and mobile devices, jet and automobile engines, means of transport, electroacoustic transducers, etc. This work provides a short review of relevant studies in the art and focuses on AEH inside closed-box loudspeaker enclosures.
Engineering Brief 339
EB06-05 Fully Digital Development of Automotive Audio Systems
Alfred Svobodnik (Presenting Author), Christof Faller (Author), Marc Levasseur (Author)
This paper describes the building blocks of a fully digital development environment for automotive audio systems. The whole development process, including all major engineering disciplines, has been virtualized—up to the realistic audibility of the sound systems by means of auralizations. All building blocks are based on simulations, and thus fully digital prototypes can be used already in the early concept phase. Hence, product quality, i.e., reproduced sound performance, can be assessed, and improved, long before any hardware exists.
Engineering Brief 340