Room Impulse Response Measurement

and Analysis

CCRMA Lobby Impulse Response

1

0.8

0.6
direct path response spectra power - dB
0

0.4 60
early reflections
200

0.2 50
400

0 40
600

-0.2
30
late-field reverberation 800

-0.4
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 20
time - milliseconds 1000

1200 10

1400 0
0 5 10 15 20 25
frequency - Bark

Music 318, Winter 2007, Impulse Response Measurement

 Reverberation and LTI Systems
CCRMA Lobby Impulse Response
1

(t) = L{a(t)}, (t) = L{b(t)}

0.8

0.6
direct path

0.4 superposition, linearity

L{a(t) + b(t)} = (t) + (t)
early reflections

0.2

0 L{ a(t)} = (t)
-0.2
late-field reverberation time invariance
-0.4
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
time - milliseconds
70 80 90 100
L{a(t )} = (t )
Reflected source signals are sensitive to the details
of the environment geometry and materials.
Reverberation is roughly linear and time-invariant,
and thus characterized by its impulse response.

Music 318, Winter 2007, Impulse Response Measurement 2

 LTI System Measurement

test signal

amplitude
0.5
measurement
noise n(t)
0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2
r(t) time - seconds
s(t)
h(t) test signal response

test LTI measured 10

sequence system response
8

frequency - kHz
6

s(t) = (t) h (t) = r(t) 4

0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2
time - seconds

Impulsive test signal:

Limited input amplitude poor noise rejection

Music 318, Winter 2007, Impulse Response Measurement 3

 LTI System Measurement Methods

measurement
noise n(t) s (t) s (t)
k k = (t)
k
r(t)
s(t)
h(t)
1
test
sequence
LTI
system
measured
response
h(t) = sk (t) rk (t)

k

Repeat measurement, average results MLS, Golay

1
sk (t) = (t), k = 1,2,K h (t) = rk (t)

k

Smear impulse over time allpass chirp, sine sweep

1
s(t) = a(t), a(t) a(t) = (t) h (t) = s(t) r(t)

Music 318, Winter 2007, Impulse Response Measurement 4

 Sine Sweep Measurement

test signal processed chirp

1
1
amplitude

amplitude
0 0.5

-1 0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 0 0.5 1 1.5 2
time - seconds time - seconds
test signal response estimated impulse response

10 10

8 8
frequency - kHz

frequency - kHz
6 6

4 4

2 2

0 0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 0 0.5 1 1.5 2
time - seconds time - seconds

Frequency trajectory (t), t [0,T], sine sweep s(t):

t
s(t) = sin (t), (t) = ( )d
0

Music 318, Winter 2007, Impulse Response Measurement 5

 Sine Sweep Generation

Monotonic frequency trajectory (t), t [0,T]

Sine sweep s(t), "inverse" (t):

t
s(t) = sin (t), (t) = ( )d
0
d
(t) = v(t) sin (t), v(t) = 2
dt

For (t) monotonic, slowly varying, [ 0, T]

s(t) (t) (t), bandlimited to [ 0, T ]

Music 318, Winter 2007, Impulse Response Measurement 6

 Measurement Bias, SNR Gain measurement
noise n(t)

r(t)
s(t)
h(t)
test LTI measured
sequence system response

Impulse response estimate

h(t) = (t) r(t) = [ (t) s(t)] h(t) + (t) n(t)
= h(t) + (t) n(t)

Expected value (zero-mean noise assumed)

E{h (t)} = h(t) + (t) E{n(t)} = h(t)

SNR gain (sweep, noise uncorrelated)

d
( ) 1 / 2
dt

Music 318, Winter 2007, Impulse Response Measurement 7

 Nonlinear Measurement Example
sine sweep response

20

15
frequency - kHz

s(t) r(t)
() g(t)
10
speaker room

0
0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6
time - seconds

Speaker generates harmonic series

r(t) = g(t)
k
(( k )sin
t

0 k )
( )d , k (t) = k (t)

Music 318, Winter 2007, Impulse Response Measurement 8

 Exponential Sweep (Farina, 2000)
exponential sweep response

t 1
(t) = 0 e
0
1
10
, = log
T T
frequency - kHz

t
k (t) = k 0 e
0
10

(t + 1 log k)
= 0 e

-1
= (t + 1 log k)
10
0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6
time - seconds

Sweep harmonic trajectories isomorphic; appear as

time-offset exponential sweeps

Music 318, Winter 2007, Impulse Response Measurement 9

 Exponential Sweep Response
processed response
1

amplitude
0.5

-0.5
0 0.5 1 1.5 2
time - seconds
exponential sweep response

10 1
frequency - kHz

0
10

10 -1
0 0.5 1 1.5 2
time - seconds

Processing using the sweep inverse produces a series of

time-shifted responses, one for each harmonic present.
The "linear" response is the impulse response; the remaining
responses are used to estimate THD.

Music 318, Winter 2007, Impulse Response Measurement 10

 System Linear Portion
processed response
1
amplitude

0.5

-0.5
0 0.5 1
time - seconds
1.5 2 s(t) r(t)
g(t) ()
exponential sweep response

room mic preamp

10 1

preamp nonlinearity
frequency - kHz

10 0

-1
10
0 0.5 1 1.5 2
time - seconds

Power nonlinearities generate even/odd harmonic

series, depending on the sense of p; e.g., for p odd,
( p 1 ) / 2

p
cos p
t=2 1 p



k
cos( p 2k) t
k =0
The time-separated "linear" response may not be
the desired system linear portion.
Music 318, Winter 2007, Impulse Response Measurement 11
 Acoustic Tube Measurment Example
sine sweep, s(t) sine sweep spectrogram
0.5 10

frequency - kHz
amplitude

s(t) 0 5

-0.5 0
0 500 1000 1500 0 200 400 600 800 1000
sine sweep response, r(t) sine sweep response spectrogram
0.5 10

frequency - kHz
amplitude

r(t) 0 5

-0.5 0
0 500 1000 1500 0 200 400 600 800 1000
time - milliseconds time - milliseconds

measured impulse response

0.2

0.15

0.1

h(t)
amplitude

0.05

-0.05

-0.1

-0.15
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
time - milliseconds

Music 318, Winter 2007, Impulse Response Measurement 12

 CCRMA Lobby Measurment Example
sine sweep, s(t) sine sweep spectrogram
0.5 10

frequency - kHz
amplitude

s(t) 0 5

-0.5 0
0 500 1000 1500 0 200 400 600 800 1000
sine sweep response, r(t) sine sweep response spectrogram
1 10

frequency - kHz
0.5
amplitude

r(t) 0

-0.5
5

-1 0
0 500 1000 1500 2000 0 500 1000 1500 2000
time - milliseconds time - milliseconds

measured impulse response

0.08

0.06

0.04

h(t)
amplitude

0.02

-0.02

-0.04
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000
time - milliseconds

Music 318, Winter 2007, Impulse Response Measurement 13

 Impulse Response Measurement Analysis
CCRMA Lobby Impulse Response
1

0.8

0.6
direct path

0.4
early reflections

0.2

-0.2
late-field reverberation

-0.4
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
time - milliseconds

The impulse response of a reverberant environment

will often have a direct path, followed by a few early
reflections and the late-field reverberation.

Music 318, Winter 2007, Impulse Response Measurement 14

 Echo Density Profile
impulse response
1

0.5

-0.5
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200
time - milliseconds
echo density profile, 20-msec. frames.

1
0.8

0.6

0.4

0.2

0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200
time - msec.

Echo density can be measured along an impulse

response by comparing the percentage of taps
lying outside the local standard deviation to that
expected for Gaussian noise.
Music 318, Winter 2007, Impulse Response Measurement 15
 Echo Density Psychoacoustics
impulse responses
6

-2
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900
time - milliseconds
echo density profile, 20-msec. frames.

1
0.8

0.6

0.4

0.2

0
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900
time - msec.

Music 318, Winter 2007, Impulse Response Measurement 16

 Late-Field Time-Frequency Analysis
response spectra power - dB
0
60

200

50
400

40
600

30
800

20
1000

1200 10

1400 0
0 5 10 15 20 25
frequency - Bark

Music 318, Winter 2007, Impulse Response Measurement 17

 Late-Field Time-Frequency Analysis
response spectra, 70-msec. interval between frames.
0

-10

-20

-30

-40

-50

-60

-70

-80 -1 0 1
10 10 10
frequency - kHz

Music 318, Winter 2007, Impulse Response Measurement 18

 Late-Field Time-Frequency Analysis
response power spectrum, Bark-spaced frequencies.
0

-10

-20

-30

-40

-50

-60

-70

-80

-90

-100
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400
time - milliseconds

Music 318, Winter 2007, Impulse Response Measurement 19

 Late-Field Decay Rate Estimation
measured, modeled response energy profile
0

-20

-40

-60

-80

-100

-120
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400
time - milliseconds

Music 318, Winter 2007, Impulse Response Measurement 20

 Equalization and Reverberation Time
q - resonance spectrum.
0

-5

-10
-1 0 1
10 10 10
frequency - kHz
T_{60} - 60-dB decay time.
1
10

0
10

-1
10 -1 0 1
10 10 10
frequency - kHz

Music 318, Winter 2007, Impulse Response Measurement 21

 EMT140 Plate Reverberator Responses

EMT140B response spectra, various damping settings power - dB

0

60 T_{60} - 60-dB decay time, various low-frequency absorption settings.

1000 10 1

2000
50

3000

40
4000
0
10
5000
30
6000

7000 20

8000 -1
10 -1 0 1
10 10 10 10
frequency - kHz
9000

10000
0 5 10 15 20 25
0 late-field decay times
frequency - Bark

impulse response spectrograms

Music 318, Winter 2007, Impulse Response Measurement 22