Citation

Markham B, Azevedo M, Wall J. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 2013; 133(5): 3581.

Affiliation

Acentech Inc., 33 Moulton St., Cambridge, MA 02138mazevedo@acentech.com.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2013, American Institute of Physics)

DOI

10.1121/1.4806586

PMID

23655918

Abstract

Auralization has become a valuable tool to explore the acoustics of spaces and activities that no longer exist. Generally, acoustical archaeology has explored a fairly limited number of sources in a space to determine specific acoustical aspects of the sound of the spaces and to separate intentionally designed acoustical phenomena from the often unintended effects of the architecture. We have expanded this technique to recreate the entire soundscape of a specific event, in this case John Donne's 1622 Gunpowder Plot sermon at Paul's Cross, outside St. Paul's Cathedral in London as it was prior to the fire of 1666. This work augments ambisonic auralization techniques with techniques borrowed from computer-aided music composition and audio production to create an immersive acoustical environment for the purpose of exploring the experience of listeners at many positions in a crowd that can be varied in size in real time. The paper outlines the role of geometric acoustics modeling, real-time convolution, randomized and statistically derived sound event triggers, and other techniques employed to auralize a soundscape that includes the sermon, crowd response, and the ambient sounds of pre-Industrial London.

Language: en