A perceptual simulator for music in noisy environments is described. The listening environments where people use their headphones have changed from quiet indoor environments to more noisy outdoor environments. The perceptual simulator utilizes auditory masking models and the isolation capabilities of dierent headphones to simulate the auditory masking phenomenon. A real-time demonstrator using Matlab and Playrec was implemented, which illustrates how the background noise alters the timbre of the music. It can be used with either headphones or loudspeakers. Informal listening tests showed that the simulator is operating correctly in most cases. However, when there is great amount of energy at the lowest frequencies of the background noise, the masking threshold is predicted to be too high.

Authors: Rämö, Jussi; Välimäki, Vesa; Alanko, Mikko; Tikander, Miikka
Affiliations: Aalto University, Espoo, Finland; Nokia Corporation, Espoo, Finland(See document for exact affiliation information.)
AES Conference: 45th International Conference: Applications of Time-Frequency Processing in Audio (March 2012)
Paper Number: 5-6
Publication Date: March 1, 2012
Subject: Psychoacoustics and Hearing

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