Subjective response to absorption and aperture size variations in complex computer-modeled coupled volume systems

Abstract

Computer models of an imagined but realistic coupled volume concert hall have been made to obtain room impulse responses for several different configurations of the space. A coupled volume concert hall is typified by a large, absorbent main volume linked to a smaller, reverberant auxiliary space through a series of sonically transparent openings. Absorption and aperture size have been modified in this study to create each configuration of the virtual hall. Auralizations of the configurations have been used in paired-comparison tests to determine listener preference for the various sound fields, including some that exponentially decay and others that show a double-sloped decay. The results from this subjective testing were statistically analyzed using Thurstone Case V and multidimensional scaling methods. These results will be presented and contrasted with objective parameters extracted from the impulse responses generated by the computer modeled-configurations of the hall.