Background Ducking to Produce Esthetically Pleasing Audio for TV with Clear Speech

Torcoli M, Freke-Morin A, Paulus J, Simon C, Shirley B. Background Ducking to Produce Esthetically Pleasing Audio for TV with Clear Speech. In: AES Convention 146. Audio Engineering Society; 2019. Paper 10175. Available from: https://aes.org/publications/elibrary-page/?id=20308

@inproceedings{Torcoli2019_20308,
  author = {Torcoli, Matteo and Freke-Morin, Alex and Paulus, Jouni and Simon, Christian and Shirley, Ben},
  title = {{Background Ducking to Produce Esthetically Pleasing Audio for TV with Clear Speech}},
  booktitle = {AES Convention 146},
  note = {Paper 10175},
  year = {2019},
  month = mar,
  publisher = {Audio Engineering Society},
  url = {https://aes.org/publications/elibrary-page/?id=20308}
}

TY  - CPAPER
TI  - Background Ducking to Produce Esthetically Pleasing Audio for TV with Clear Speech
AU  - Torcoli, Matteo
AU  - Freke-Morin, Alex
AU  - Paulus, Jouni
AU  - Simon, Christian
AU  - Shirley, Ben
T2  - AES Convention 146
M1  - Paper 10175
PY  - 2019
DA  - 2019/03/06
UR  - https://aes.org/publications/elibrary-page/?id=20308
PB  - Audio Engineering Society
LA  - en
AB  - In audio production background ducking facilitates speech intelligibility while keeping the background track enjoyable. Technical details for recommendable ducking practices are not currently documented in literature. Hence, we first analyze common practices found in TV documentaries. Second, a subjective test investigates the preferences of 22 normal-hearing listeners on the Loudness Difference (LD) between commentary and background during ducking. Highly personal preferences are observed, highlighting the importance of object-based personalization. Statistically significant difference is found between non-expert and expert listeners. On average, non-experts prefer LDs that are 4 LU higher than the ones preferred by experts. Based on the test results, we recommend at least 10 LU difference between commentary and music and at least 15 LU between commentary and ambience.
ER  -