Perception of a virtual violin radiation in a wave field synthesis system

Abstract

A method to synthesize the sound radiation characteristics of musical instruments in a wave front synthesis system is proposed and tested. Radiation patterns of a violin are measured with a circular microphone array which consists of 128 pressure receivers. For each critical frequency band one exemplary radiation pattern is decomposed to circular harmonics of order 0 to 64. So the radiation characteristic of the violin is represented by 25 complex radiation patterns. On the reproduction side, these circular harmonics are approximated by 128 densely spaced monopoles by means of 128 broadband impulses. An anechoic violin recording is convolved with these impulses, yielding 128 filtered versions of the recording. These are then synthesized as 128 monopole sources in a wave front synthesis system and compared to a virtual monopole playing the unfiltered recording. The subjects perceive the tone color of the recreated virtual violin as being dependent on the listening position and report that the two source ty...