WEEK 3

Reverb, Echo, & Spatialization

“For 25 centuries, Western knowledge has tried to
look upon the world. It has failed to understand
that the world is not for beholding. It is for
hearing. It is not legible, but audible.”

Jacques Attali, Noise: The Political Economy of Music

 Hearing Vision
omnidirectional directional
concerned with interiors concerned with surfaces
subjective objective
temporal sense spatial sense
immerses us in the world removes us from the world
comes to us travels to the object
Reverberation is when sound is either
reflected so many times that no single,
discontinuous repeat of the source is perceived or
when the reflective surfaces are too near the
listener to allow subjective, aural separation.

Echo occurs when sound source is distinctly

reproduced. (Such as when a shout reflects off a
distant surface). Echo may be single or multiple,
depending on how sound bounces.
REVERB
Reverberation time

the time it takes for the sound to die away to a

level 60 decibels below its original level
 ?
60dB
?
HOW DOES SOUND
BEHAVE IN SPACE?
CREATING SPACE
USING REVERB AS EFFECT
CHAMBER REVERB
 SPRING REVERB

PLATE REVERB
PARAMETERS
What can you control?
 Roomsize:
Controls the overall characteristics of the
reverb effect. In general, this parameter influences
both the simulation of early reflections and the
sound of the ‘tail’

Reverb time: Controls the

approximate duration of the reverb floor. In general,
this parameter affects the simulation of the reverb tail.
Very small settings cause the tail to almost disappear.
 Damping: This parameter controls
the response of the early reflections and the
decay of the reverb tail. The higher the value,
the less intense is the reverb.

Input Bandwidth: Provides some

kind of "tone" control. Small values cause a smaller
frequency range to be processed. In general, the
control can be heard in the treble band. Smaller
values cause a "muffled" and less bright reverb.
 The last three parameters are volume controls. They allow
you to attenuate distinctive portions of the processed signal:

Dry/Wet signal level: determines the amount of original sound in

the reverb. Note that the standard presets place this setting to at its
lowest value, whereas the suggested instant reverb settings propose a
very high value at or close to 0 dB.

Early reflection level: Early reflections are similar to slap- back

echoes. Though they are not responsible for the typical hall effect
generally linked with reverb, they contain lots of acoustic
information about the setup in which the sound occurs.

Tail level: A volume control that determines the amount of the

hall effect of the reverb. The volume of the tail determines how
intense the reverb appears to be.
DIGITAL REVERB
CONVOLUTION REVERB
SPATIALISATION
A disturbance of the air pressure at a single
point produces a spherical traveling pressure
wave (sound). A sound wave in air is a
longitudinal wave.

Sound is spatial, sound is 3D

Spatial Sound Perception
The main cues to determine the angle of reference of a sound:

Temporal cues:
– The wavefront is not arriving at both ears at the same time
– The difference in the time of arrival of the wavefront allows calculating
the angle (in fact, the brain is reasoning in terms of phase)
– This is known as the Interaural Time Delay (ITD)

Amplitude cues:
– Extra distance travelled plus screening effect of the head create a difference
in amplitude.

– This is known as the Interaural Level Difference (ILD)

 Spatial Sound Perception

Main cues for the perception of distance:

– The fall of loudness with distance

– Ratio of direct to reverberant sound – Pattern and directions of early

delays

– Higher frequencies drop with distance (due to the absorption of sound

waves in the moisture present in the air)

• These are all dependent on the knowledge of both the spectra (Frequency)
and loudness of the sound source.

• This is true in general for sound spatialisation:

– Foot steps would generally be more precisely located than abstract
sounds because we have knowledge of what they sound like

• Visual cues: no matter what you do, the voice of a visible character will be
associated to them.
 Dopplershift

The apparent change in the frequency of a wave caused by the relative

motion between the source of the wave and the observer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3RfULw7aAY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=delDUry0_eo
 TECHNIQUES OF
SOUND SPATIALISATION
Techniques of Sound Spatialisation

Monophonic sound:
– Telephone, radio AM

Stereophonic sound:
– CD, Tv, radio FM, ...
– Dolby stereo (LR): introduced for film in 1976

Multiphonic sound:
– 4: quadriphonic
– 5.1: Home cinema, DVD
– 7.1: DVD – 9.1
– 8 & 24.2: electroacoustic concerts
 Techniques of Sound Spatialisation

2-stereo signal (LR):

– Covers a sound stage (usually in front of the listener)
– Defines an horizontal plan between the speakers
– Panning (intensity control) can be used to “position” sounds
– Phase can also be used
– Limited to a speakers' separation of about 60
degree, otherwise you start loosing the central phantom image

• Increasingly poor performances as the listener moves off the

central axis

• Difficulty with image stability when the listener head or body is

moving
3-stereo (LCR, left, center, right):
– The central image is not a phantom anymore (so it is more
stable)

• 5.1 (Cinema surround, Dolby surround, ...):

– The central channel is used to lock the dialogues to the
screen and improve performance for off-centre listeners (it also
improves intelligibility when compared to stereo presentation)

– Surround speakers: diffuse ambient sounds and sound

effects and are meant to fool perception by making the listener
believe that there are sounds all around

– Low frequency effects: many sound effects have

substantial low frequency components
SOUND STAGE
Placing Sound
Binaural recording:
– Reproduction of what the ears would hear in a natural
situation
– Better with headphones but can also be done with
loudspeakers
– Recordings are done with a dummy head with
microphones in its ears
Ambisonic surround sound:
– Sound-field simulation method
– Special format
– Simulates the sound field
– Unlike stereo, all the speakers are working together
– The most common configurations use either 4 or 8 (3D) speakers.
– In the 3D, each sound is encoded/decoded as a set of:
• Overall pressure levels
• Up-down velocity
• Front-back velocity
• Left-right velocity
Beamforming
READ FOR NEXT WEEK:
World is Sound-Brahma