Categorisation of distortion profiles in relation to audio quality

Wilson, AD; Fazenda, BM

Abstract

Since digital audio is encoded as discrete samples of the audio waveform, much can be said about a recording by the statistical properties of these samples. In this paper, a dataset of CD audio samples is analysed; the probability mass function of each audio clip informs a feature set which describes attributes of the musical recording related to loudness, dynamics and distortion. This allows musical recordings to be classified according to their “distortion character”, a concept which describes the nature of amplitude distortion in mastered audio. A subjective test was designed in which such recordings were rated according to the perception of their audio quality. It is shown that participants can discern between three different distortion characters; ratings of audio quality were significantly different (F(1; 2) = 5:72; p < 0:001; eta^2 = 0:008) as were the words used to describe the attributes on which quality was assessed (�Chi^2(8; N = 547) = 33:28; p < 0:001).This expands upon previous work showing links between the effects of dynamic range compression and audio quality in musical
recordings, by highlighting perceptual differences.

Citation

Wilson, A., & Fazenda, B. (2014, September). Categorisation of distortion profiles in relation to audio quality. Presented at 17th International Conference on Digital Audio Effects (DAFx-14), Erlangen, Germany

• Presentation Conference Type: Other
• Conference Name: 17th International Conference on Digital Audio Effects (DAFx-14)
• Conference Location: Erlangen, Germany
• Start Date: Sep 1, 2014
• End Date: Sep 5, 2014
• Publication Date: Sep 1, 2014
• Deposit Date: Sep 9, 2014
• Publicly Available Date: Sep 9, 2014
• Book Title: 17th International Conference on Digital Audio Effects
• ISBN: 9783000468254
• Keywords: Audio Quality, Perception, Distortion, Loudness
• Publisher URL: http://www.dafx14.fau.de/papers/dafx14_alex_wilson_categorisation_of_distort.pdf
• Additional Information: Event Type : Conference