Considering source elevation for encoding perceptually salient early reflections in parametric spatial audio rendering
* Presenting author
Abstract:
Parametric spatial audio rendering aims at providing perceptually convincing audio cues that are agnostic to the playback system and enables the acoustic design of games and virtual reality. We propose a parametric encoder for spatial room impulse responses that is evaluated in nine simulated shoebox rooms spanning a large range of sizes and reverberation times. A key component of the pipeline is a perceptually inspired thresholding for finding a minimal set of salient early reflections to reduce the computational demands. In this contribution, we investigate the effect of introducing an additional dependency of the detection threshold on source elevation. This was inspired by recent research revealing that multiple auditory events can be simultaneously evoked by sound sources in the median plane if their separation angle is sufficiently large. Results of the evaluation show an improved selection of early reflections due to the consideration of source elevation.