Predicting the perceived level of late reverberation using computational models of loudness

Abstract

It is well known that the perceived level of reverberation depends on both the input audio signal and the impulse response. This work aims at quantifying this observation and predicting the perceived level of late reverberation based on separate signal paths of direct and reverberant signals, as they appear in digital audio effects. A basic approach to the problem is developed and subsequently extended by considering the impact of the reverberation time on the prediction result. This leads to a linear regression model with two input variables which is able to predict the perceived level with high accuracy, as shown on experimental data derived from listening tests. Variations of this model with different degrees of sophistication and computational complexity are compared regarding their accuracy. Applications include the control of digital audio effects for automatic mixing of audio signals.