DAFx-20 - Acoustic paintbrush

Abstract

Virtual reality applications require all kinds of methods to create plausible virtual acoustics environments to enhance the user experience. Here, we present an acoustic paintbrush method that modifies the timbre of a simple room acoustics simulation with the timbre of a measured room response while aiming to preserve the spatial aspects of the simulated room. In other words, the method only applies the measured spectral coloration and alters the simulated and temporal distribution of early reflections as little as possible. Three variations of the acoustic paintbrush method are validated with a listening test. The results indicate that the method works reasonably well. The paintbrushed room acoustic simulations were perceived to become closer to the measured room acoustics than the source simulation. However, the limits of the perceived effect varied depending on the input signal and the simulated and recorded responses. This warrants for further perceptual testing.