Advanced Room-Acoustics Decay Analysis

Abstract

Schroeder’s integration method broke the new ground in classical architectural acoustics. Schroeder’s integration method yields sound energy decay functions from room impulse responses. For reverberation time estimation based on a parametric model, a nonlinear regression method has been proposed. The nonlinear regression method yields reverberation time estimates, insensitive to background noise and the upper limit of integration. Recent interest in acoustically coupled-volume systems has prompted new challenges in analyzing sound energy decay characteristics, which are more complicated than just single-rate decays. This chapter will demonstrate a suitable framework for this room-acoustics application using Bayesian inference and the Schroeder’s integration as the foundation of the advanced model-based energy decay analysis. Based on the Schroeder’s integration, two levels of inference, decay order selection and decay parameter estimation, are discussed in details.