Reproducibility of soundscape dimensions

摘要

The aim of this work was to investigate the validity of laboratory soundscape reproductionand the robustness of soundscape dimensional analysis. The soundscapes in four urbanlocations in Manchester (UK) were recorded with a soundfield microphone. Thesoundscapes were reproduced through an ambisonic 3D loudspeaker system in a semianechoicchamber. Fifteen listeners rated the reproduced soundscapes on nineteen elevenpointsemantic differential scales. Factor analysis revealed that four dimensions explained65% of the variance in the judgements. The dimensions were: relaxation/calmness (41%),dynamics/vibrancy (10%), communication (7%) and spatiality (7%). This experiment canbe compared with that of Kang (2007), who used very similar rating scales on outdoorsoundwalks in two locations in Sheffield (UK). Kang found dimensions of relaxation(26%), communication (12%), spatiality (8%) and dynamics (7%). The dimensions fromthe two experiments load onto the semantic scales in a similar way. These results indicatethat ambisonic reproduction of soundscapes gives similar results to field experiments,though with more variance explained. They also show that dimensional analysis ofsoundscape response is robust enough to produce similar results for different locations indifferent cities. It is suggested that the dimensions that result from this kind of experimentdepend somewhat on the rating scales and questions used. Nevertheless, soundscapes andtheir perceptual dimensions both seem to be reproducible to a meaningful extent.