Convention Paper
New Data Format to Describe Complex Sound Sources
AES Convention 119 · Paper 6631 · October 2005
Abstract
Originated by the evolution of modern sound systems and the resulting need to describe them formally, a new data format was developed to contain the mechanical, electronic and acoustic properties of complex sound sources, such as loudspeaker clusters, column speakers or line arrays. The GLL (Generic Loudspeaker Library) format can utilize measurement data such as impulse responses or transfer functions directly, or include already post-processed fractional-octave data. To conveniently manage the amount of data involved, a specialized storage algorithm was developed. Furthermore, a freely available software is presented that was created during the research work. It allows for utilizing these import and export functions as well as for investigating the data. As a part of the EASE acoustic simulation program, the software will allow loudspeaker manufacturers and users of acoustic prediction software to create and exchange complex loudspeaker data in a high-resolution format.
