The Validation of Acoustic Environment Simulator to Determine the Relationship between Sound Objects and Soundscape

Abstract

An acoustic environment simulator is a system that facilitates acoustic environment composition by controlling the parameters of sound objects (both background and sound events), allowing the user to compose and compare soundscapes against their expectations. By using the acoustic environment simulator, data regarding parameters of sound objects, such as their sound level and selection, can be obtained. Furthermore, these data can be used to understand the relationship between the sound objects and the soundscapes. This paper describes the development and validation of an acoustic environment simulator, which can be used to design a complex acoustic environment in the laboratory according to the expectations of the user. Validation of the simulated soundscape, whether the composed acoustic environment has the same soundscape dimension characteristics as previous in-situ and other laboratory experiments, was conducted by reproducing acoustic environment compositions using a two-dimensional ambisonic system in the laboratory. Listener responses on semantic differential scales were reduced to three reliable soundscape dimensions by principal component analysis: Calmness/Relaxation (40%), Dynamics/Vibrancy (12%), and Communication (11%). These three soundscape dimensions are consistent with a previous study conducted in situ. The results reported here indicate that acoustic environment composition can successfully imitate the soundscape dimensions of an actual acoustic environment.