Evaluating urban soundscape quality with sound recording and reproduction.

Abstract

Sound recording is an obvious method when the sound quality of a soundscape needs to be assessed. The benefit of a recording, beyond archival purposes, is that the signal can be analyzed to obtain objective metrics of quality such as tonality, spectral composition, roughness, fluctuation strength, etc., and it may also be played back to listeners under controlled settings for the purpose of qualitative evaluation. The goal of the research reported here was to evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of different recording and reproduction methods and determine which method offered the greatest correlation between subjective evaluations made in a laboratory and those made \emph{in situ}. In addition, binaural and multichannel reproduction techniques were explored in tandem with photographs and videos to create different levels of immersion and determine the impact of visual cues on sound quality evaluation. Two parks in Manhattan were chosen as test environments for this study. All participants were given identical surveys which evaluated sound quality using descriptive content analysis techniques and semantic differential ratings.