On the subjective responses based on the auditory-brain model in relation to the factors extracted from the interaural cross-correlation mechanism and the auto-correlation mechanism of sound fields

Abstract

Based on the auditory-brain model for subjective responses, the author investigated the relationship between several important subjective attributes of the sound field and the orthogonal factors that are extracted from both of the interaural cross-correlation function and the autocorrelation function. There are three significant findings. (1) The apparent source width (ASW) is described by two orthogonal spatial factors: the IACC and the width of the interaural cross-correlation function (WIACC). The scale value of ASW is formulated by superpositioning two terms: the 3/2 power of the IACC and the 1/2 power of the WIACC. (2) The most preferred delay time of a single reflection for a cello soloist can be calculated by the amplitude of the reflection and the minimum value of the effective duration of the running autocorrelation function of the music motifs played by the cellist. (3) From subjective preference tests by paired-comparison method, for different source locations on the stage in an actual concert hall, the subjective preference can be calculated using four orthogonal factors and the interaural time delay of the IACC (IACC). When the IACC is not obtained at = 0IACC, the preference scores decrease rapidly due to an image shift or an unbalanced sound field. Results agree well with the subjective preference obtained by use of simulated sound fields when = 0IACC. Thesis advisor: Yoichi Ando Copies of this thesis written in English can be obtained from Shin-ichi Sato, Graduate School of Science and Technology, Kobe University, Rokkodai, Nada, Kobe 657-8501 Japan. E-mail address: satos@kobe-u.ac.jp.