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Source Width in Music Production. Methods in Stereo, Ambisonics, and Wave Field Synthesis

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Book cover Studies in Musical Acoustics and Psychoacoustics

Part of the book series: Current Research in Systematic Musicology ((CRSM,volume 4))

Abstract

Source width of musical instruments, measured in degrees, is a matter of source extent and the distance of the observer. In contrast to that, perceived source width is a matter of psychological organization of sound. It is influenced by the sound radiation characteristics of the source and by the room acoustics and restricted by masking and by localization accuracy. In this chapter perceived source width in psychoacoustics and apparent source width in room acoustical research are revisited. Source width in music recording and production practice in stereo and surround as well as in ambisonics and wave field synthesis are addressed. After the review of the literature an investigation is introduced. The radiation characteristics of 10 musical instruments are measured at 128 angles and the radiated sound is propagated to potential listening positions at 3 different distances. Here, monaural and binaural sound quantities are calculated. By means of multiple linear regression, the physical source extent is predicted by sound field quantities. The combination of weighted interaural phase differences in the sensitive frequency region together with the number of partials in the quasi-stationary part of instrumental sounds shows significant correlation with the actual source extent of musical instruments. The results indicate that these parameters might have a relevant effect on perceived source extent as well. Consequently, acoustic control over these parameters will increase psychoacoustic control concerning perceived source extent in audio systems.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Cf. Blauert [6], pp. 37f and Zwicker and Fastl [56], p. 309.

  2. 2.

    See e.g. Haas [21], Blauert and Cobben [8].

  3. 3.

    The complete investigation is documented in Hirvonen and Pulkki [24]. Contrary to width, they succeeded to replicate perceived source center by different adaptations of Raatgever’s frequency weighting function.

  4. 4.

    Blauert [6], p. 51.

  5. 5.

    See e.g. Gade [18], p. 304.

  6. 6.

    See e.g. Blau [5], p. 720.

  7. 7.

    See e.g. Yanagawa and Tohyama [47] and Yanagawa et al. [48].

  8. 8.

    See e.g. Deutsches Institut f¨ur Normung [15], pp. 20f and Beranek [4], pp. 519 and 161.

  9. 9.

    According to Gade [18], p. 309.

  10. 10.

    Cf. Beranek [4], p. 528 versus Blau [5] and Gade [18], p. 310.

  11. 11.

    See Ando [2], p. 5.

  12. 12.

    See Ando [2], p. 130ff.

  13. 13.

    For details on the spatial fluctuations of BQI and LEFE4 refer to de Vries et al. [14].

  14. 14.

    See Blau [5], p. 721.

  15. 15.

    See Mason et al. [36].

  16. 16.

    See Kaiser [28], e.g. p. 23 and p. 40.

  17. 17.

    See especially Kaiser [27], pp. 33–43 and Friedrich [17], Chap. 13.

  18. 18.

    This promise is made in Levinit [32], p. 157.

  19. 19.

    See e.g. Faller [16].

  20. 20.

    This is especially done for guitar and some vocal parts, see e.g. Kaiser [26], p. 116f and p.127 and Hamidovic [22], p. 57.

  21. 21.

    See e.g. Maempel [34], p. 236.

  22. 22.

    See e.g. Cabrera [11].

  23. 23.

    See e.g. Cabrera [11] and Zotter and Frank [54] versus Faller [16].

  24. 24.

    See e.g. Cabrera [11] and Kaiser [28], p. 154.

  25. 25.

    See Hamidovic [22], p. 57 and Kaiser [28], p. 152 and 156.

  26. 26.

    See Kaiser [26], p. 50 and pp. 57f.

  27. 27.

    See e.g. Faller [16] and Slavik and Weinzierl [45], p. 624.

  28. 28.

    See Kaiser [28], pp. 148f.

  29. 29.

    See e.g. Levinit [32], p. 158 and Rogers [41], p. 35.

  30. 30.

    See Zotter and Frank [54] for details on their channel decorrelation methods and their investigations of IACC and sound coloration.

  31. 31.

    See e.g. Kaiser [28], pp. 48ff although the meaning of the correlation coefficient is obviously misunderstood by this practician.

  32. 32.

    See e.g. Gerzon [19].

  33. 33.

    Their approach and experiment are documented in Zotter et al. [55]. The information that thetime lag was increased cannot be found in the paper; it was given verbally at the conference.

  34. 34.

    See Baalman [3], Chap. 7.

  35. 35.

    As has been reported e.g. in Ziemer [49], Ziemer and Bader [52] and Otondo and Rindel [38].

  36. 36.

    Refer to the literature cited in Sect. 2.2.

  37. 37.

    See Damaske and Ando [13], p. 236.

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  1. Institute of Systematic Musicology, University of Hamburg, Neue Rabenstr. 13, 20354, Hamburg, Germany

    Tim Ziemer

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    Albrecht Schneider

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Ziemer, T. (2017). Source Width in Music Production. Methods in Stereo, Ambisonics, and Wave Field Synthesis. In: Schneider, A. (eds) Studies in Musical Acoustics and Psychoacoustics. Current Research in Systematic Musicology, vol 4. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47292-8_10

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