Psychoacoustics

WS 2015/16

Tutorial

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Block Diagram of a Perceptual Audio Encoder

• loudness
• critical bands
• masking:
• frequency domain
• time domain
• binaural cues (overview)

Source: Brandenburg, “Vorlesung: Dig. Audiosignalverarbeitung”

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 Structure of the Human Ear

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 Structure of the Human Ear

Ossicles archways

concentrates the
sound waves
pinna

cochlea with
ear canal organ of Corti

ear drum eustachian tube

outer ear middle inner ear

ear

Quelle: Ars Auditus; http://www.dasp.uni-wuppertal.de/index.php?id=57, 2010

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 Human Ear Functions (1/3)

Outer Ear
Functions:
• sound energy collection
• sound energy transition to the Ear Drum

Advantages:
• Ear drum protection
• Enables the inner ear to be positioned close to the brain

Middle Ear
Functions:
• eardrum – transforms sound wave into vibrations
• ossicles - transfer the mechanical vibrations to the cochlea

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 Human Ear Functions (2/3)

Inner Ear
• cochlear structure - induces travelling waves along the length of the
basilar membrane
• neural receptors - connected along the length of the basilar
membrane
• convert these travelling into chemical and electrical signals

Source:
http://bio1152.nicerweb.com/Locked/media/ch50/ 6

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 Human Ear Functions (3/3)

Example

Source:
http://147.162.36.50/cochlea/cochleapages/overview/history.htm 7

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Sound Preprocessing in the Peripheral System

• frequency selectivity of the basilar membrane

• traveling wave envelopes occur in response to an acoustic tone
complex containing sinusoids of 400, 1600 and 6400 Hz
• peak responses for each sinusoid are localized along the membrane
surface, with each peak occurring at a particular distance from the
oval window (cochlear “input”)

Source: http://cochlearimplanthelp.com/journey/choosing-a-cochlear- Source: Yuli You “Audio Coding Theory and Applications ”
implant/electrodes-and-channels/
8

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 Sound Perception

Prof. Dr.-Ing. K. Brandenburg, bdg@idmt.fraunhofer.de Prof. Dr.-Ing. G. Schuller, shl@idmt.fraunhofer.de 9

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Frequency and Level Range of Human Hearing

Source: Zwicker & Fastl “Psychoacoustics Facts and Models”

Prof. Dr.-Ing. K. Brandenburg, bdg@idmt.fraunhofer.de Prof. Dr.-Ing. G. Schuller, shl@idmt.fraunhofer.de 10

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 Loudness and Loudness Levels

• Loudness N: psychological concept to describe the magnitude of an

auditory sensation. More formally, it is defined as "that attribute of
auditory sensation in terms of which sounds can be ordered on a scale
extending from quiet to loud“ [1] (measured in ‘sone’)

• Loudness level LN: the sound pressure of a 1 kHz tone which is as loud
as the sound (measured in ‘phon’)

1 sone is equivalent to 40 phons, which is defined as the

loudness level of a pure 1 kHz tone at LN = 40 dB SPL

[1] American National Standards Institute, "American national psychoacoustical terminology" S3.20, 1973, American Standards Association. 11

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 Loudness (1/2)

• Equal-Loudness Level Contours:

N=64 sone

Equal loudness contours of

pure tones in a free sound field. 16

The parameter is expressed in 4

loudness level, LN, and loudness, N.
Can be observed: 1

The sensitivity of the human ear - a

0.15
function of frequency
The most sensitive to sounds around
2–4 kHz
Links to measure the sensitivity on different frequencies:
http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/jw/hearing.html
http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/music/dB/loudness.html, Source: Suzuki et al., “Precise and Full-range Determination of Two-
2010 dimensional Equal Loudness Contours”, 2003.

Prof. Dr.-Ing. K. Brandenburg, bdg@idmt.fraunhofer.de Prof. Dr.-Ing. G. Schuller, shl@idmt.fraunhofer.de 12

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 Loudness (2/2)

• Loudness Scale:

• aim: double the number of units on this scale means magnitude of

sensation is doubled
→ relation between loudness level LN and the loudness N (rule of
thumb):

Prof. Dr.-Ing. K. Brandenburg, bdg@idmt.fraunhofer.de Prof. Dr.-Ing. G. Schuller, shl@idmt.fraunhofer.de 13

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 Critical Bands

Prof. Dr.-Ing. K. Brandenburg, bdg@idmt.fraunhofer.de Prof. Dr.-Ing. G. Schuller, shl@idmt.fraunhofer.de 14

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Critical Band
Band - a range of frequencies.
• The middle of the band is called the center frequency

Critical Band - a range of frequencies which are perceived by the ear

as the same pitch (frequency).
• All frequencies in a critical band activate the same area on the
basilar membrane.

Source: http://cochlearimplanthelp.com/journey/choosing-a-cochlear-implant/electrodes-and-
channels/

15

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Frequency Grouping Bandwidth  The Critical Bands

Formula for the width of the critical bands

– for frequencies < 500 Hz: Constant 100Hz width
– for frequencies > 500 Hz: 0.2*frequency

Critical bandwidth as a function

of frequency, that quantifies
the cochlear filter passbands.

Approximations for low and

high frequency ranges are
indicated by broken lines.

Source: Zwicker & Fastl “Psychoacoustics Facts and

Models”, p.159

Prof. Dr.-Ing. K. Brandenburg, bdg@idmt.fraunhofer.de Prof. Dr.-Ing. G. Schuller, shl@idmt.fraunhofer.de 16

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Critical Bands: Bark Scale
- A non-linear frequency scale modeling the resolution of the
human hearing system.
• scale ranges from 1 to 24, unit “Bark” (after Zwicker)
• one Bark corresponds to one critical band

...

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bark_scale

17

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Frequency Grouping in Human Hearing

• Adding Loudness

– Tones in a critical band: their energy adds up, but the perceived
combined loudness is only slightly greater than either sound alone
o By using tones under the threshold in quiet, their intensity add up in a
critical band and are now audible
– 2 tones of equal loudness which are widely separated in pitch: total
sound is about twice as loud

Source: http://hyperphysics.phy-
astr.gsu.edu/hbase/sound/loud.html 18

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 Masking

Prof. Dr.-Ing. K. Brandenburg, bdg@idmt.fraunhofer.de Prof. Dr.-Ing. G. Schuller, shl@idmt.fraunhofer.de 19

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Masking
• Basic principle:
- a test signal, called a maskee is placed at the center frequency of
the critical bandwidth
- one masking signal, called masker (equal power and distance from
maskee)
- If the Pmaskee is weak relative to the total power of the maskers 
the test signal is not audible  test signal is masked

- In order for the test signal

to become audible, its
power has to be raised to
above a certain level –
masking threshold.

Source: http://www.nptel.ac.in/courses/117105083/pdf/ssg_m9l28.pdf 20

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Masking of Pure Tones by Noise - Broad-Band Noise

•broad-band noise:
•white noise from 20 Hz
- 20 kHz

•figure:
•masking thresholds for
pure tones masked by
broad band noise of
different density levels
lWN

•uniform masking noise

(UMN) by equalization
of the 10 dB per
decade slope Fig: Zwicker, Fastl “Psychoacoustics - Facts and Models”, 2nd Edition,
1999.

Prof. Dr.-Ing. K. Brandenburg, bdg@idmt.fraunhofer.de Prof. Dr.-Ing. G. Schuller, shl@idmt.fraunhofer.de 21

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Masking of Pure Tones by Noise - Narrow-Band Noise

•narrow-band noise:
•noise with a bandwidth
equal or smaller than critical
bandwidth

•figure:
•Threshold s of pure tones
masked by narrow-band
noise for different centre
frequencies

•difference between
maximum of masked
threshold and test tone level
Fig: Zwicker, Fastl “Psychoacoustics - Facts and Models”, 2nd Edition,
1999.

Prof. Dr.-Ing. K. Brandenburg, bdg@idmt.fraunhofer.de Prof. Dr.-Ing. G. Schuller, shl@idmt.fraunhofer.de 22

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Temporal Masking Effects

• Forward masking (post-masking) ~100ms

- masking effect extends to times after the masker is switched off
• Backwards masking (pre-masking) 1-5 ms
- masking extends to times before the masker is been switched on
→ forward/backward masking does not extend far in time
→ simultaneous masking is more important phenomenon

Source: Zwicker & Fastl “Psychoacoustics Facts and

Models” 23

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