Amplitude panning produces virtual sources between a pair or a triplet of loudspeakers by applying the same signal to the loudspeakers with different gains. The gains should be normalized in some way to ensure a constant perceived loudness of the panned source. Due to distance differences from the loudspeakers to the ear canals, the superimposed sounds at the ear canals are affected in a frequency-dependent manner. Namely, coherent summation can be assumed at low frequencies while at higher frequencies larger phase differences lead towards incoherent summation. Furthermore, the spectral effects caused by phase differences are larger in dry spaces than in reverberant ones. These features relate to the perceived loudness of different frequency components of the virtual source and motivate a frequency- and room-dependent gain normalization for amplitude panning. In this study, a practical gain-normalization strategy is proposed that is based on simulations. The proposed normalization predicted well the results of a formal listening test in different room types.
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