Investigating the Smoothness of Moving Sources Reproduced with Panning Methods (vor Ort)
* Presenting author
Abstract:
The accurate loudspeaker-based reproduction of a sound field over a given area becomes more difficult as the frequency increases, manifesting itself in higher reproduction errors and poorer sound quality. This study investigates the perceived reproduction quality for the reproduction of moving sources. A pink noise source moving in an arc from -30° to +30° was split into two frequency bands, the lower one played back with Higher-Order Ambisonics, the higher with either nearest loudspeaker mapping, Vector-Base Amplitude Panning or Perceptually Equalized Panning. Participants were asked to rate the smoothness of the sound source, taking both coloration and movement into account, on a 7-point scale ranging from 1 (saccadic) to 7 (continuous), for different angular velocities and cross-over frequencies. Pilot data show that smoothness increases with the cross-over frequency, indicating that conventional panning methods are less suitable for the auralization of moving trajectories than Higher-Order Ambisonics, even at high frequencies. We will also discuss the effect of angular velocity on source and trajectory smoothness.
