Investigations of orchestra auralizations using the multi-channel multi-source auralization technique

Room acoustics computer modeling is a tool for generating impulse responses and auralizations from modeled spaces. The auralizations are commonly made from a single-channel anechoic recording of solo instruments. For this investigation, auralizations of an entire orchestra were created using a multi-channel multi-source auralization technique, involving individual five-channel anechoic recordings of each instrumental part of two symphonies. In the first study, these auralizations were subjectively compared to orchestra auralizations made using (a) a single omni-directional source, (b) a surface source, and (c) single-channel multi-source method. Results show that the multi-source auralizations were rated to be more realistic than the surface source ones and to have larger source width than the single omni-directional source auralizations. No significant differences were found between the one- and five-channel multi-source auralizations, though. In a second subjective study, one- and five-channel multi-source auralizations were created for three different orchestra configurations: "contemporary", with the first and second violin sections seated adjacent to each other; "traditional", with the first and second violin sections seated across from each other; and "random", with the various instrument sections mixed across the stage. Subjects were generally able to distinguish between these orchestra configurations when listening to the multi-source auralizations; however, in one instance, subjects could only discern differences between the orchestra configurations with the five-channel multi-source auralizations. Overall, the multi-source auralization technique was found to be an effective method for creating realistic orchestra auralizations, but using multichannel anechoic recordings with the multi-source method was not found to be a consistent advantage in all cases.