Convention Paper
Visualizing Auditory Spatial Imagery of Multi-channel Audio
AES Convention 116 · Paper 6054 · May 2004
Abstract
To describe a multichannel audio experience in terms of its
spatial features requires us to consider sound imagery in terms of
precedent sound. We mean precedent sound to be that part of a
phantom sound image that contains spatial information about the
virtual sound source. We have developed and tested a Graphical
User Interface (GUI) to allow a listener to describe where they
hear both precedent and environment-related sound in an audio
scene. The GUI has previously been used as a tool for describing
where we hear the precedent sound in two-channel sound
reproduction, and we now extend the experimental paradigm to
investigate phantom imagery for a multichannel loudspeaker
arrangement. We present a category system for describing the
spatial sound attribute ``definition'', and have tested the GUI
using 5 loudspeakers arranged according to BS-775 to replay
multi-channel sound recordings of three different musical
pieces (of which two were duets and one solo). Graduate Tonmeister
students used the GUI to describe these sound scenes, and a
variety of statistical analyses are used to visualize auditory
spatial imagery.
