naturerecordists
[Top] [All Lists]

Re: Sonels and Splash

Subject: Re: Sonels and Splash
From: "robin_parmar_sound" robin_parmar_soun=
d
Date: Sun Jul 15, 2012 8:43 am ((PDT))

David Brinicombe wrote:

> A sonel is a sound pixel. The more separate sonels
> you can hear, the better the stereo image.

It seems that the term "sonel" might be confusing, as it was coined by York=
 University researchers Kapralos et al. for a different purpose. For them, =
sonel mapping is a Monte Carlo method for geometric acoustics, using a part=
icle-based method to overcome the limitations of ray-based techniques.

I believe instead it is more appropriate to follow Mills' vocabulary of the=
 minimum audible angle (MAA), which refers to the smallest detectable amoun=
t of sound source displacement. Like other JNDs (just noticeable difference=
s) it depends on the frequency of the source. Remarkably, this can be as pr=
ecise as 1 degree (at 500 Hz), but of course this was in a tightly controll=
ed listening environment.

Using MAA to measure the quality of a location recording is a different mat=
ter -- but is an intriguing possibility! Certainly a listener would be able=
 to distinguish a lot more than 3 or even 9 distinct sound source positions=
... likely more than 20. This makes sense when one considers that we hear a=
 moving source in the stereo field tracing a smooth path, and not jumping f=
rom one discrete position to another.

Refs:
Kapralos, B., Jenkin, M., and Milios, E. (2006) "Sonel mapping: A stochasti=
c acoustical modeling system". Proceedings of the IEEE International Confer=
ence on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing.

Mills, A. W. (1958) "On the minimum audible angle". Journal of the Acoustic=
al Society of America 30.4, 237=96246.

-- Robin Parmar







<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>
Admin

The University of NSW School of Computer and Engineering takes no responsibility for the contents of this archive. It is purely a compilation of material sent by many people to the naturerecordists mailing list. It has not been checked for accuracy nor its content verified in any way. If you wish to get material removed from the archive or have other queries about the archive e-mail Andrew Taylor at this address: andrewt@cse.unsw.EDU.AU