Concert hall acoustics assessment with individually elicited attributes

Details
Published: 09 January 2013

 

Sensory evaluation, and descriptive testing specifically, requires panels of human assessors who rank and rate the products using their senses. By applying advanced statistical techniques to the analysis of the subjective data, it is possible to reveal the perceptual differences of the products under test. For example, sensory analysis is a common practice in food science. 

Similarly, the perception of concert hall acoustics is complex and multidimensional by nature. The music, the conductor, and the performance of the orchestra greatly contribute to the listening experience, and the contribution of the auditorium acoustics itself is hard to isolate with perceptual studies.  Individuals have different tastes and preferences, such that the descriptions of perceptual attributes of halls can be ambiguous. In our study [1], a sensory evaluation method was applied to concert hall acoustics assessment to gain a deeper understanding of the perceptual criteria applied to the rating of three concert halls. The final goal was to deliver a better understanding of concert hall acoustics, which aspects are perceived and considered important and how perception could be measured when assessors can simultaneously compare different listening positions and concert halls.

The results obtained with 20 assessors (9 males) include the clusters of individual attributes and the ordination of sound samples (3 seats in 3 concert halls). The main cluster was formed with attributes describing loudness and distance because such attributes discriminate best between the sound samples. Attributes related to reverberation were divided into two subgroups. One of them was related to enveloping reverberance and the other to the size of the space. The samples were also ordered based on definition or clarity where the order is reversed compared to the reverberation describing the size of the space. The three recorded concert halls were clearly distinct from one another. Musical signals seem to provide each a slightly different sensory profile.

Our articles [2-5] tell more details on sensory evaluation methods in the context of concert hall acoustics.

References

[1] T Lokki, J Pätynen, A Kuusinen, H Vertanen and S Tervo: Concert Hall Acoustics Assessment with Individually Elicited Attributes. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 130(2):835-849, August 2011. URL BibTeX / Info

@article{lok11jasa,
	author = {T. Lokki and J. P{\"a}tynen and A. Kuusinen and H. Vertanen and S. Tervo},
	date-added = "2013-04-29 15:54:26 +0300",
	date-modified = "2013-04-29 15:54:26 +0300",
	journal = "Journal of the Acoustical Society of America",
	keywords = "Concert hall acoustics",
	month = "August",
	number = 2,
	pages = "835-849",
	title = "Concert Hall Acoustics Assessment with Individually Elicited Attributes",
	url = "http://dx.doi.org/10.1121/1.3607422",
	volume = 130,
	year = 2011,
	bdsk-url-1 = "http://dx.doi.org/10.1121/1.3607422"
}

[2] A Kuusinen, H Vertanen and T Lokki. Assessor selection and behavior in individual vocabulary profiling of concert hall acoustics. In AES 38th International Conference on Sound Quality Evaluation. 2010, 181-190. BibTeX / Info

@inproceedings{kuu10,
	address = "Pite{\aa}, Sweden",
	author = "A. Kuusinen and H. Vertanen and T. Lokki",
	booktitle = "AES 38th International Conference on Sound Quality Evaluation",
	date-added = "2013-04-29 15:58:20 +0300",
	date-modified = "2013-04-29 15:58:20 +0300",
	keywords = "Concert hall acoustics",
	month = "June 13-15",
	pages = "181-190",
	title = "Assessor selection and behavior in individual vocabulary profiling of concert hall acoustics",
	year = 2010
}

[3] T Lokki, J Pätynen and N Zacharov. Concert hall acoustics assessment with sensory evaluation – Tools and practices. In The IOA 8th International Conference on Auditorium Acoustics. 2011, 35-44. BibTeX / Info

@inproceedings{lok11ioa,
	address = "Dublin, Ireland",
	author = {T. Lokki and J. P{\"a}tynen and N. Zacharov},
	booktitle = "The IOA 8th International Conference on Auditorium Acoustics",
	date-added = "2013-04-29 15:57:51 +0300",
	date-modified = "2013-04-29 15:57:51 +0300",
	keywords = "Concert hall acoustics",
	month = "May 20-22",
	pages = "35-44",
	title = "Concert hall acoustics assessment with sensory evaluation -- Tools and practices",
	year = 2011
}

[4] T Lokki, J Pätynen, A Kuusinen and S Tervo: Disentangling preference ratings of concert hall acoustics using subjective sensory profiles. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 132(5):3148-3161, November 2012. URL BibTeX / Info

@article{lok12jasa,
	author = {T. Lokki and J. P{\"a}tynen and A. Kuusinen and S. Tervo},
	date-added = "2013-04-29 15:58:04 +0300",
	date-modified = "2013-04-29 15:58:04 +0300",
	journal = "Journal of the Acoustical Society of America",
	keywords = "Concert hall acoustics",
	month = "November",
	number = 5,
	pages = "3148-3161",
	title = "Disentangling preference ratings of concert hall acoustics using subjective sensory profiles",
	url = "http://dx.doi.org/10.1121/1.4756826",
	volume = 132,
	year = 2012,
	bdsk-url-1 = "http://dx.doi.org/10.1121/1.4756826"
}

[5] T Lokki. Sensory evaluation of concert hall acoustics. In the 21st International Congress on Acoustics (ICA'2013). 2013. BibTeX / Info

@inproceedings{lok13ica,
	address = "Montreal, Canada",
	author = "T. Lokki",
	booktitle = "the 21st International Congress on Acoustics (ICA'2013)",
	date-added = "2013-04-29 15:57:58 +0300",
	date-modified = "2013-04-29 15:57:58 +0300",
	keywords = "Concert hall acoustics",
	month = "June 2-7",
	note = "Plenary lecture",
	title = "Sensory evaluation of concert hall acoustics",
	year = 2013
}

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