The Virtual Acoustics and Auralization Database

我们每天居住的建筑物会影响我们所有人的沟通方式，投射我们的声音，倾听我们的环境，以及对过度噪音的反应。建筑环境的声音和良好的声学设计在现代建筑实践中至关重要，这部分是基于对过去的清晰理解，因此对欧洲伟大的音乐霍尔斯和歌剧院及其对现代设计实践的影响的迷恋。最近，人们也对遗产地的声学研究和保护感兴趣，这为理解和解释过去提供了额外的机会，并通过新颖的虚拟现实风格的互动为这种性质的工作开发了新的受众。声学数据还提供了更多的机会，为与保存和测量随时间推移的退化或变化有关的问题提供信息。一个重要的例子是1996年威尼斯凤凰大剧院被大火烧毁，随后又进行了修复，火灾前进行的声学测量在声学重新设计中发挥了关键作用。然而，该数据的主要应用是在音乐制作中，其中通过许多扬声器围绕收听者或观众回放的真实的空间的声学效果呈现令人兴奋的，音乐霍尔斯和歌剧院声学测量的发展已经导致了各种各样的脉冲响应捕获的标准化方法，听觉化应用。脉冲响应是给定空间的声学指纹，并且针对特定声源和收听者位置唯一地定义其声学特性。根据这些测量结果，可以确定设计过程中使用的客观声学参数。其结果也可以用来创建空间的虚拟声学表示，以便听众可以远程体验相同的听觉感觉，就好像他们实际上在那里一样-这就是可听化，一个作为与可视化等同的音频衍生的术语。这些技术现在通常用于建筑声学和声学考古学（archeoacoustics）领域。现有的真实的环境的测量可以通过用于仅作为3D计算机模型的一部分存在的虚拟站点的类似技术来进一步扩展。后一种技术在声学考古学领域有很高的应用价值，因为在声学考古学领域，一个现存的遗址可能与它在使用高峰期的外观或声音几乎没有相似之处。约克的研究人员目前对12个实际遗址进行了广泛的声学调查，2个3D计算机模型。这项工作是2004年通过AHRB/ACE科学/遗产研究金发起的，但迄今为止，这项工作只有一小部分得到了更广泛的传播。该项目的目的是为这些数据建立一个可持续的在线存储库，并为虚拟声学研究提供一个更通用的资源。这将包括一个高分辨率的声学脉冲响应数据库，用于英国各地和英国以外的地点，从目前已经完成的14个开始。这些测量将由软件支持，使第三方能够进行自己的声学调查，上传获得的脉冲响应，并使用专门录制的消声音频材料试听最终结果，这些材料也将提供。这一资源将对音乐制作以及建筑/考古声学研究领域产生重大影响。在音频工程领域也将产生相关的影响，其中听觉化及其有效地传递给听众是与例如交互式娱乐和通信、高清晰度电视和计算机游戏音频开发的发展相关的关键问题。

The buildings we inhabit everyday affect us all in terms of how we communicate, project our voice, listen to our environment, and respond to excessive noise. The sound of the built environment and good acoustic design is critical in modern architectural practice and this is in part based on a clear understanding of what has gone before, hence the fascination with, for example, the great concert halls and opera houses of Europe and their influence on modern design practices. More recently there has also been interest in the research and preservation of the acoustics of heritage sites which presents additional opportunities for both understanding and interpretation of the past as well as developing new audiences for work of this nature through novel virtual reality style interaction. Acoustic data also provides additional opportunities to inform issues relating to preservation and measurement of degradation or change over time. A key example being the destruction by fire of the Gran Teatro La Fenice in Venice in 1996, and its subsequent restoration, where acoustic measurements taken just prior to the fire played a key role in the acoustic redesign. The main application for this data however is in music production, where the acoustic effects of real spaces, played back around a listener or audience over many loudspeakers presents exciting, dramatic and highly realistic acoustic environments in which recorded musical works can be contextualised.Developments in measuring the acoustics of concert halls and opera houses have resulted in standardised methods of impulse response capture for a wide variety of auralization applications. The impulse response is the acoustic fingerprint for a given space and uniquely defines its acoustic characteristics for particular sound source and listener positions. From these measurements objective acoustic parameters, as used in the design process can be determined. The result can also be used to create a virtual acoustic representation of the space so that a listener can experience the same aural sensations remotely as if they were actually there - this is what auralization is, a term derived as the audio equivalent to visualisation. These techniques are now commonly used in both architectural acoustics and in the field of acoustic archaeology (archeoacoustics). Measurements of existing real environments can be further extended by analogous techniques employed for virtual sites that only exist as part of a 3D computer model - these latter techniques are highly applicable in the field of acoustic archaeology where an existing site may have little resemblance to how it looked or sounded at the height of its use.Researchers at York currently have extensive acoustic survey data for 12 actual sites and 2 3D computer models. This work was initiated through an AHRB/ACE Science/Heritage Fellowship in 2004 but to date only a small part of this work has been made more widely available. The aim of this project is to produce a sustainable online repository for this data and a more general resource for research in virtual acoustics. This will consist of a database of high-resolution acoustic impulse responses for sites across and beyond the UK, starting with the 14 that have currently already been completed. These measurements will be supported with software to enable third parties to conduct their own acoustic surveys, upload the impulse responses obtained and audition the final results using specially recorded anechoic audio material that will also be made available.This resource will have significant impact in music production as well as in the fields of architectural/archaeological acoustic studies. There will also be related impact in the field of audio engineering where auralization and its effective delivery to the listener are key issues relating to, for example, the development of interactive entertainment and communication, high definition television, and computer game audio development.