Opens in a new tab

AES E-Library

← Back to search

Convention Paper

Reducing Binary Masking Artifacts in Blind Audio Source Separation

Authors: Stokes, Toby; Hummersone, Christopher; Brookes, Tim

AES Convention 134 · Paper 8853 · May 2013

Abstract

Binary masking is a common technique for separating target audio from an interferer. Its use is often justified by the high signal-to-noise ratio achieved. The mask can introduce musical noise artifacts, limiting its perceptual performance and that of techniques that use it. Three mask-processing techniques, involving adding noise or cepstral smoothing, are tested and the processed masks are compared to the ideal binary mask using the perceptual evaluation for audio source separation (PEASS) toolkit. Each processing technique's parameters are optimized before the comparison is made. Each technique is found to improve the overall perceptual score of the separation. Results show a trade-off between interferer suppression and artifact reduction.

Details

Published in
AES Convention 134
AES Convention
134
Paper number
8853
Publication date
May 6, 2013
Session subject
Audio Processing and Semantics
Affiliation
University of Surrey, Guildford, Surrey, UK (See document for exact affiliation information.)
Type
Convention Paper