Virtual Acoustics for Musicians: Subjective Evaluation of a Virtual Acoustic System in Performance of String Quartets

摘要

This paper investigates the effects of virtual acoustics on a musician's perception of room acoustics and their musical performance. The experiment was conducted in a performance space with musicians using an experimental virtual acoustic system. Eleven professional string quartets participated in the subjective evaluation of three different acoustic conditions. The results showed a strong preference for the acoustic conditions created by the virtual acoustic system over the natural acoustics of the performance space. "Quality of reverberation (naturalness)," "amount of reverberation," "ability to hear other musicians," and "height sensation" were the four most salient attributes that described the preference of the musicians.