A novel approach to instrument acoustics research is presented in which the instrument is coupled with a room and both are measured as a single acoustical system, in juxtaposition to many anechoic and computer simulated studies of musical acoustics. The technique is applied to the ubiquitous concert grand piano, where spectral information is gathered through the process of “acoustic space sampling” (AcSS), using more than 1330 microphones. The physical data is then combined with psychoacoustic predictors to generate a map of timbre. This map is compared to the preference of expert listeners, thereby correlating the physical measures obtained through acoustic space sampling to the application of the recording engineer.

Authors: Sikora, Grzegorz; Leonard, Brett; de Francisco, Martha; Eck, Douglas
Affiliations: McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Université de Montréal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Music, Media, and Technology, Montreal, Quebec, Canada; International Laboratory for Brain, Music, and Sound Research, Montreal, Quebec, Canada(See document for exact affiliation information.)
AES Convention: 128 (May 2010) Paper Number: 8059
Publication Date: May 1, 2010
Subject: Room Acoustics, Sound Reinforcement, and Instrumentation

Click to purchase paper as a non-member or you can login as an AES member to see more options.

No AES members have commented on this paper yet.

Subscribe to this discussion

To be notified of new comments on this paper you can subscribe to this RSS feed. Forum users should login to see additional options.

Start a discussion!

If you would like to start a discussion about this paper and are an AES member then you can login here:
Username:
Password:

If you are not yet an AES member and have something important to say about this paper then we urge you to join the AES today and make your voice heard. You can join online today by clicking here.