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Outputs (90)

Ecoacoustic Methods for Avifauna Analysis: A Case Study of the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone (2023)
Thesis
Whitehead, H. (2023). Ecoacoustic Methods for Avifauna Analysis: A Case Study of the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone. (Thesis). University of Salford

Birds are one of the most studied taxa in the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone (CEZ), with previous studies reporting negative impacts of radiation such as reductions in abundance and diversity and an increase in albinism and cataracts incidence. This thesis... Read More about Ecoacoustic Methods for Avifauna Analysis: A Case Study of the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone.

What do we know about noise impacts on birds? A systematic review focusing on acoustic methodology (2023)
Conference Proceeding
Engel, M., Scott, A., Davies, W., Waddington, D., Wood, M., & Young, R. (in press). What do we know about noise impacts on birds? A systematic review focusing on acoustic methodology.

In recent years, several studies have shown how anthropogenic noise impacts wildlife. The methodologies used to quantify noise appear to influence data reliability and subsequent findings. Therefore, it is appropriate to review the robustness of acou... Read More about What do we know about noise impacts on birds? A systematic review focusing on acoustic methodology.

Habitats: Developments in managing the ecological impacts of noise on wildlife habitats for sustainable development (2023)
Conference Proceeding
Waddington, D., Wood, M., Davies, W., Young, R., & Engel, M. (in press). Habitats: Developments in managing the ecological impacts of noise on wildlife habitats for sustainable development.

The Habitats project integrates research in the fields of ecological impacts and environmental noise to facilitate development of management tools and processes needed for sustainable development. This conference paper summarises the content and outc... Read More about Habitats: Developments in managing the ecological impacts of noise on wildlife habitats for sustainable development.

Impacts of anthropogenic sounds on bird call activities: A case study in Aachen, Germany (2023)
Journal Article
Engel, M., Leedale, A., Young, R., Davies, W., & Wood, M. (2023). Impacts of anthropogenic sounds on bird call activities: A case study in Aachen, Germany. https://doi.org/10.61782/fa.2023.0912

Since the definition of the Environmental Noise Directive 2002/49/EC, various tools, reports, and action plans have been developed to assess and improve the sonic environment according to human perception and well-being. Few methodologies and report... Read More about Impacts of anthropogenic sounds on bird call activities: A case study in Aachen, Germany.

Understanding natural sound sources in urban soundscapes through psychoacoustic and bioacoustic indicators (2023)
Conference Proceeding
Engel, M., Davies, W., & Young, R. (2023). Understanding natural sound sources in urban soundscapes through psychoacoustic and bioacoustic indicators. In Fortschritte der Akustik - DAGA 2023

Over the recent years, it became more evident in soundscape studies realised in urban parks the importance of natural sound sources as a restorative resource for human health and well-being. This study investigates psychoacoustic and bioacoustics pat... Read More about Understanding natural sound sources in urban soundscapes through psychoacoustic and bioacoustic indicators.

Can acoustic design accommodate aural diversity? (2023)
Journal Article
Davies, W. (2023). Can acoustic design accommodate aural diversity?. NOISE-CON proceedings, 8, 5064-5071. https://doi.org/10.3397/IN_2022_0732

Up to now, the acoustic design of almost everything has assumed a typical listener with "normal" hearing. This includes the physical environment (homes, workplaces, public space), products that make sound (transport, appliances, loudspeakers), and sy... Read More about Can acoustic design accommodate aural diversity?.

Habitats : managing the ecological impacts of noise on wildlife habitats for sustainable development (2022)
Presentation / Conference
Waddington, D., Wood, M., Davies, W., & Young, R. (2022, August). Habitats : managing the ecological impacts of noise on wildlife habitats for sustainable development. Presented at Internoise 2022, Glasgow, Scotland

The objective of the Habitats project is to integrate research in the fields of ecological impacts and of environmental noise, developing management tools and processes to enable sustainable development. Rapid population expansion and economic deve... Read More about Habitats : managing the ecological impacts of noise on wildlife habitats for sustainable development.

Spatial aspects of auditory salience (2020)
Thesis
Podwinska, Z. Spatial aspects of auditory salience. (Thesis). University of Salford

Models of auditory salience aim to predict which sounds attract people’s attention, and their proposed applications range from soundscape design to machine listening systems and object-based broadcasting. A few different types of models have been pro... Read More about Spatial aspects of auditory salience.

Environmental noise levels in hospital settings : a rapid review of measurement techniques and implementation in hospital settings (2020)
Journal Article
Wallis, R., Harris, E., Lee, H., Davies, W., & Astin, F. (2020). Environmental noise levels in hospital settings : a rapid review of measurement techniques and implementation in hospital settings. Noise and Health, 21(102), 200-216

Background: Hospitals provide treatment to improve patient health and well-being but the characteristics of the care environment receive little attention. Excessive noise at night has a negative impact on in-patient health through disturbed sleep. To... Read More about Environmental noise levels in hospital settings : a rapid review of measurement techniques and implementation in hospital settings.

Improving broadcast accessibility for hard of hearing individuals : using object-based audio personalisation and narrative importance (2020)
Thesis
Ward, L. Improving broadcast accessibility for hard of hearing individuals : using object-based audio personalisation and narrative importance. (Thesis). University of Salford

Technological advances in broadcasting can be the impetus for advances in accessibility services. For the 11 million individuals in the United Kingdom with some degree of hearing loss, the advent of object-based broadcasting and it’s personalisation... Read More about Improving broadcast accessibility for hard of hearing individuals : using object-based audio personalisation and narrative importance.

Autistic listening (2019)
Presentation / Conference
Davies, W. (2019, November). Autistic listening. Presented at Aural Diversity, Leicester, UK

Autism is a lifelong neurodevelopmental condition diagnosed by differences in social interaction and communication. Most autistic people also experience atypical sensory processing (e.g., a heightened sensitivity to sound or texture). Nearly all auti... Read More about Autistic listening.

Pupil dilation reveals changes in listening effort due to energetic and informational masking (2019)
Presentation / Conference
Woodcock, J., Fazenda, B., Cox, T., & Davies, W. (2019, September). Pupil dilation reveals changes in listening effort due to energetic and informational masking. Presented at ICA 2019, Aachen, Germany

Pupil dilation has previously been shown to be a useful involuntary marker of listening effort. An inverse relationship between pupil diameter and signal to noise ratio has been shown when speech is energetically masked by noise. The work reported he... Read More about Pupil dilation reveals changes in listening effort due to energetic and informational masking.

Connecting design, emotion, and behaviour in urban soundscape (2019)
Presentation / Conference
Carvalho, M., Davies, W., & Fazenda, B. (2019, July). Connecting design, emotion, and behaviour in urban soundscape. Poster presented at SPARC 2019 Fake News and Home Truths, MediaCity UK, Salford

With the purpose of assisting developments in urban soundscape design, the present research investigates how soundscapes can influence emotions and behaviours in public spaces aiming to find healthy reactions to “exciting” sonic environments. In the... Read More about Connecting design, emotion, and behaviour in urban soundscape.

Influence of visual stimuli on perceptual attributes of spatial audio (2019)
Journal Article
Woodcock, J., Davies, W., & Cox, T. (2019). Influence of visual stimuli on perceptual attributes of spatial audio. Journal of the Audio Engineering Society, 67(7/8), 557-567. https://doi.org/10.17743/jaes.2019.0019

Reproduced audio is often accompanied with visuals (i.e. television, virtual reality, gaming, and cinema). However, the audio technology for these systems is often researched and evaluated in isolation from the visual component. Previous research ind... Read More about Influence of visual stimuli on perceptual attributes of spatial audio.

Testing spatial aspects of auditory salience (2019)
Presentation / Conference
Podwinska, Z., Fazenda, B., & Davies, W. (2019, June). Testing spatial aspects of auditory salience. Presented at The 25th International Conference on Auditory Display (ICAD 2019), Northumbria University, UK

Auditory salience describes the extent to which sounds attract the listener’s attention. So far, there have not been any published studies testing if the location of sound relative to the listener influences its salience. In fact, not many experiment... Read More about Testing spatial aspects of auditory salience.

Acoustic Event Detection from Weakly Labeled Data Using Auditory Salience (2019)
Presentation / Conference
Podwinska, Z., Sobieraj, I., Fazenda, B., Davies, W., & Plumbley, M. (2019, May). Acoustic Event Detection from Weakly Labeled Data Using Auditory Salience. Presented at 2019 IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing (ICASSP), Brighton, UK

Acoustic Event Detection (AED) is an important task of machine listening which, in recent years, has been addressed using common machine learning methods like Non-negative Matrix Factorization (NMF) or deep learning. However, most of these approaches... Read More about Acoustic Event Detection from Weakly Labeled Data Using Auditory Salience.

Generalisation in environmental sound classification : the ‘making sense of sounds’ data set and challenge (2019)
Presentation / Conference
Kroos, C., Bones, O., Cao, Y., Harris, L., Jackson, P., Davies, W., …Plumbley, M. (2019, May). Generalisation in environmental sound classification : the ‘making sense of sounds’ data set and challenge. Presented at 44th International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing (ICASSP 2019), Brighton, UK

Humans are able to identify a large number of environmental sounds and categorise them according to high-level semantic categories, e.g. urban sounds or music. They are also capable of generalising from past experience to new sounds when applying the... Read More about Generalisation in environmental sound classification : the ‘making sense of sounds’ data set and challenge.

Sound categories : category formation and evidence-based taxonomies (2018)
Journal Article
Bones, O., Cox, T., & Davies, W. (2018). Sound categories : category formation and evidence-based taxonomies. Frontiers in Psychology, 9, #1277. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01277

Five evidence-based taxonomies of everyday sounds frequently reported in the soundscape literature have been generated. An online sorting and category-labelling method that elicits rather than prescribes descriptive words was used. A total of N=242 p... Read More about Sound categories : category formation and evidence-based taxonomies.

Qualitative evaluation of media device orchestration for immersive spatial audio reproduction (2018)
Journal Article
Francombe, J., Woodcock, J., Hughes, R., Mason, R., Franck, A., Pike, C., …Hilton, A. (2018). Qualitative evaluation of media device orchestration for immersive spatial audio reproduction. Journal of the Audio Engineering Society, 66(6), 414-429. https://doi.org/10.17743/jaes.2018.0027

The challenge of installing and setting up dedicated spatial audio systems can make it difficult to deliver immersive listening experiences to the general public. However, the proliferation of smart mobile devices and the rise of the Internet of Thin... Read More about Qualitative evaluation of media device orchestration for immersive spatial audio reproduction.

Elicitation of expert knowledge to inform object-based audio rendering to different systems (2018)
Journal Article
rendering to different systems. Journal of the Audio Engineering Society, 66(1/2), 44-59. https://doi.org/10.17743/jaes.2018.0001

Object-based audio presents the opportunity to optimise audio reproduction for different listening scenarios. Vector base amplitude panning (VBAP) is typically used to render object-based scenes. Optimizing this process based on knowledge of the perc... Read More about Elicitation of expert knowledge to inform object-based audio rendering to different systems.

The auditory fingerprint : multidimensional characterization of individual pitch perception in musicians (2018)
Thesis
Benner, J. (in press). The auditory fingerprint : multidimensional characterization of individual pitch perception in musicians. (Dissertation). University of Salford

Musicians have been repeatedly reported to show remarkable inter-individual differences in elementary hearing functions, sound perception mode, musical instrument preference, performance style, as well as musical abilities such as absolute- and relat... Read More about The auditory fingerprint : multidimensional characterization of individual pitch perception in musicians.

Big pictures and small screens; how television sound research can work with, and for, hard of hearing viewers (2017)
Presentation / Conference
Ward, L., Shirley, B., & Davies, W. (2017, November). Big pictures and small screens; how television sound research can work with, and for, hard of hearing viewers. Presented at Reproduced Sound 2017, Nottingham, UK

Hearing loss affects one in six people in the United Kingdom and, given an ageing population, this figure is increasing.1 Numerous studies highlight that improvements in the intelligibility of television sound are required to increase television’s... Read More about Big pictures and small screens; how television sound research can work with, and for, hard of hearing viewers.

Turning up the background noise; The effects of salient non-speech audio elements on dialogue intelligibility in complex acoustic scenes (2017)
Presentation / Conference
Ward, L., Shirley, B., & Davies, W. (2017, November). Turning up the background noise; The effects of salient non-speech audio elements on dialogue intelligibility in complex acoustic scenes. Presented at Reproduced Sound, Southampton, UK

As an acoustic scene becomes more complex listeners increasingly rely on complementary intelligibility cues, such as context and language structure, to understand speech. Despite the role salient non-speech audio elements, like sound effects, play in... Read More about Turning up the background noise; The effects of salient non-speech audio elements on dialogue intelligibility in complex acoustic scenes.

Soundscape simulator as a tool to predict the perception of acoustic environment (2017)
Presentation / Conference
Sudarsono, A., Lam, Y., & Davies, W. (2017, August). Soundscape simulator as a tool to predict the perception of acoustic environment. Presented at INTER-NOISE 2017, Hong Kong

Previous studies have shown relationships between sound objects by grouping general sound objects according to how people perceive them (i.e. positively or negatively), but not according to how specific sound objects and their interaction affect so... Read More about Soundscape simulator as a tool to predict the perception of acoustic environment.

The effect of situation-specific non-speech acoustic cues on the intelligibility of speech in noise (2017)
Presentation / Conference
Ward, L., Shirley, B., Tang, Y., & Davies, W. (2017, August). The effect of situation-specific non-speech acoustic cues on the intelligibility of speech in noise. Presented at INTERSPEECH 2017, 18th Annual Conference of the International Speech Communication Association, Stockholm, Sweden

In everyday life, speech is often accompanied by a situation-specific acoustic cue; a hungry bark as you ask ‘Has anyone fed the dog?’. This paper investigates the effect such cues have on speech intelligibility in noise and evaluates their interactio... Read More about The effect of situation-specific non-speech acoustic cues on the intelligibility of speech in noise.

Quiet technologies for deliveries in urban environments (2017)
Presentation / Conference
Tansey, N., Waddington, D., & Davies, W. (2017, July). Quiet technologies for deliveries in urban environments. Presented at 24th International Congress on Sound and Vibration ICSV24, London

The aim of this paper is to review current research on materials and methods that can be incorporated within local environment and building design concepts to mitigate noise due to deliveries. The use of innovative materials, design and master planni... Read More about Quiet technologies for deliveries in urban environments.

An evidence-based soundscape taxonomy (2017)
Presentation / Conference
Bones, O., Cox, T., & Davies, W. (2017, July). An evidence-based soundscape taxonomy. Presented at 24th International Congress on Sound and Vibration ICSV24, London, UK

In an attempt to cultivate standardization in soundscape reporting Brown, Kang and Gjestland offered an influential schema by which the acoustic environment is divided initially into indoor and outdoor environments, and within each into further cate... Read More about An evidence-based soundscape taxonomy.

The validation of acoustic environment simulator to determine the relationship between sound objects and soundscape (2017)
Journal Article
Sudarsono, A., Lam, Y., & Davies, W. (2017). The validation of acoustic environment simulator to determine the relationship between sound objects and soundscape. Acta acustica united with Acustica, 103(4), 657-667. https://doi.org/10.3813/AAA.919094

An acoustic environment simulator is a system that facilitates acoustic environment composition by controlling the parameters of sound objects (both background and sound events), allowing the user to compose and compare soundscapes against their expe... Read More about The validation of acoustic environment simulator to determine the relationship between sound objects and soundscape.

Snap, crackle and pop : how sound effects help, and hinder, hearing in broadcast audio (2017)
Presentation / Conference
Ward, L., Shirley, B., & Davies, W. (2017, June). Snap, crackle and pop : how sound effects help, and hinder, hearing in broadcast audio. Presented at SPARC 2017 Salford Postgraduate Annual Research Conference, University of Salford, UK

Complaints about the intelligibility of television speech have become increasingly common, both for normal hearing and hard of hearing listeners alike. The debate these complaints have sparked have stretched from angry viewers on Twitter right up t... Read More about Snap, crackle and pop : how sound effects help, and hinder, hearing in broadcast audio.

Clang, chitter, crunch : perceptual organisation of onomatopoeia (2017)
Journal Article
Bones, O., Davies, W., & Cox, T. (2017). Clang, chitter, crunch : perceptual organisation of onomatopoeia. ˜The œJournal of the Acoustical Society of America (Online), 141(5), 3694-3694. https://doi.org/10.1121/1.4988048

A method has been developed that utilizes a sound-sorting and labeling procedure, with correspondence analysis of participant-generated descriptive terms, to elicit perceptual categories of sound. Unlike many other methods for identifying perceptual... Read More about Clang, chitter, crunch : perceptual organisation of onomatopoeia.

A user-centered taxonomy of factors contributing to the listener experience of reproduced audio (2017)
Journal Article
Woodcock, J., Davies, W., & Cox, T. (2017). A user-centered taxonomy of factors contributing to the listener experience of reproduced audio. ˜The œJournal of the Acoustical Society of America (Online), 141(5), 3464-3464. https://doi.org/10.1121/1.4987193

The traditional paradigm for the assessment of audio quality is that of a listener positioned in the geometric center of a standardized loudspeaker setup, fully attending to the reproduced sound scene. However, this is not how listeners generally int... Read More about A user-centered taxonomy of factors contributing to the listener experience of reproduced audio.

Influence of source location and temporal structure on spatial auditory saliency (2017)
Journal Article
Podwinska, Z., Fazenda, B., & Davies, W. (2017). Influence of source location and temporal structure on spatial auditory saliency. ˜The œJournal of the Acoustical Society of America (Online), 141(5), 3639-3639. https://doi.org/10.1121/1.4987852

Hitherto, not many studies have dealt with spatial auditory saliency. Auditory attention studies concerned with spatial aspects generally concentrate on top-down selective or divided attention, e.g., where subjects are asked to attend to one source a... Read More about Influence of source location and temporal structure on spatial auditory saliency.

Differences in sound perception are reflected by individual auditory fingerprints in musicians (2017)
Journal Article
Benner, J., Reinhardt, J., Hofmann, E., Stippich, C., Schneider, P., Blatow, M., & Davies, W. (2017). Differences in sound perception are reflected by individual auditory fingerprints in musicians. ˜The œJournal of the Acoustical Society of America (Online), 141(5), 3818-3818. https://doi.org/10.1121/1.4988456

Musicians have been reported to show significant inter-Individual differences in elementary hearing functions, sound perception mode, musical instrument preference, performance style, as well as more complex musical abilities like absolute- and relat... Read More about Differences in sound perception are reflected by individual auditory fingerprints in musicians.

A cognitive framework for the categorisation of auditory objects in urban soundscapes (2017)
Journal Article
Woodcock, J., Davies, W., & Cox, T. (2017). A cognitive framework for the categorisation of auditory objects in urban soundscapes. Applied Acoustics, 121, 56-64. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apacoust.2017.01.027

Categorisation is a fundamental cognitive process that plays a central role in everyday behaviour and action. Whereas previous studies have investigated the categorisation of isolated everyday sounds, this paper presents an experiment to investiga... Read More about A cognitive framework for the categorisation of auditory objects in urban soundscapes.

Toward an evidence-based taxonomy of everyday sounds (2016)
Journal Article
Bones, O., Cox, T., & Davies, W. (2016). Toward an evidence-based taxonomy of everyday sounds. ˜The œJournal of the Acoustical Society of America (Online), 140(4), 3266-3266. https://doi.org/10.1121/1.4970357

An organizing account of everyday sounds could greatly simplify the management of audio data. The job of an audio database manager will typically involve assigning a combination of textual descriptors, and perhaps allocating to a predefined category.... Read More about Toward an evidence-based taxonomy of everyday sounds.

Soundscape perception analysis using soundscape simulator (2016)
Presentation / Conference
Sudarsono, A., Lam, Y., & Davies, W. (2016, August). Soundscape perception analysis using soundscape simulator. Presented at Internoise 2016, Hamburg, Germany

Soundscape perception based on soundscape dimensions was investigated using a soundscape simulator. A soundscape simulator is a system to design a soundscape by controlling the parameters of sound objects (both background and event sound), allowing t... Read More about Soundscape perception analysis using soundscape simulator.

Categorization of broadcast audio objects in complex auditory scenes (2016)
Journal Article
Woodcock, J., Davies, W., Cox, T., & Melchior, F. (2016). Categorization of broadcast audio objects in complex auditory scenes. Journal of the Audio Engineering Society, 64(6), 380-394. https://doi.org/10.17743/jaes.2016.0007

This paper presents a series of experiments to determine a categorization framework for broadcast audio objects. Object-based audio is becoming an evermore important paradigm for the representation of complex sound scenes. However, there is a lack of... Read More about Categorization of broadcast audio objects in complex auditory scenes.

The effect of sound level on perception of reproduced soundscapes (2016)
Journal Article
Sudarsono, A., Lam, Y., & Davies, W. (2016). The effect of sound level on perception of reproduced soundscapes. Applied Acoustics, 110, 53-60. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apacoust.2016.03.011

The aim of this work was to investigate the perception of soundscape reproduced by an ambisonic reproduction system on a horizontal plane, how the experience of space affected the perception of soundscape reproduction, and how the sound level adjustm... Read More about The effect of sound level on perception of reproduced soundscapes.

Cognition of soundscapes and other complex acoustic scenes (2015)
Presentation / Conference
Davies, W. (2015, August). Cognition of soundscapes and other complex acoustic scenes. Presented at Internoise 2015, San Francisco

The fields of soundscapes, music cognition and audio quality have many similarities. Researchers in these areas are all dealing with perception and cognition of complex acoustic scenes. To date, there has been little cross-fertilisation between them.... Read More about Cognition of soundscapes and other complex acoustic scenes.

Investigation into the impact of 3D surround systems on envelopment (2014)
Presentation / Conference
Power, P., Davies, W., & Hirst, J. (2014, October). Investigation into the impact of 3D surround systems on envelopment. Presented at 137th Audio Engineering Society Convention 2014, Los Angeles

This investigation assessed a number of 2D and 3D surround systems focusing on the attribute „envelopment‟ to determine if surround systems with height significantly enhance the perception of envelopment over current 2D systems. To assess each of the... Read More about Investigation into the impact of 3D surround systems on envelopment.

The effects of expectation on the perception of soundscapes (2014)
Journal Article
Bruce, N., & Davies, W. (2014). The effects of expectation on the perception of soundscapes. Applied Acoustics, 85, 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apacoust.2014.03.016

This paper explores how expectations of a place and its soundscape can affect our perception of that soundscape. Previous soundscape research has included expectation as one possible element of the context in which soundscape evaluation takes place.... Read More about The effects of expectation on the perception of soundscapes.

Soundscape reproduction and synthesis (2014)
Journal Article
Davies, W., Bruce, N., & Murphy, J. (2014). Soundscape reproduction and synthesis. Acta acustica united with Acustica, 100(2), 285-292. https://doi.org/10.3813/AAA.918708

The aims of this work were to investigate (i) whether soundscape perceptual dimensions are correctly reproduced by ambisonic loudspeaker playback, (ii) whether soundscape dimensional analysis is robust to changes of location and from the field to lab... Read More about Soundscape reproduction and synthesis.

Investigation into the impact of 3D surround systems on spatial audio quality (2013)
Presentation / Conference
Power, P., Davies, W., Hirst, J., & Dunn, C. (2013, November). Investigation into the impact of 3D surround systems on spatial audio quality. Presented at Reproduced Sound, Manchester

Current 2D surround systems have benefitted from years of research which has helped identify attributes related to listener preference. Now with high definition visuals, 3D cinema, there is a need to further develop spatial audio systems. One method... Read More about Investigation into the impact of 3D surround systems on spatial audio quality.

Localisation of elevated virtual sources in higher order ambisonic sound fields (2012)
Presentation / Conference
Power, P., Davies, W., Hirst, J., & Dunn, C. (2012, November). Localisation of elevated virtual sources in higher order ambisonic sound fields. Presented at Reproduced Sound, Brighton

Ambisonics allows the reproduction of 3D sound-fields. Higher-order Ambisonics provides improved resolution, and the promise of enhanced localisation at the expense of higher channel counts, and increased broadcast bandwidth, and storage requirements... Read More about Localisation of elevated virtual sources in higher order ambisonic sound fields.

Reproducibility of soundscape dimensions (2012)
Presentation / Conference
Davies, W., & Murphy, J. (2012, August). Reproducibility of soundscape dimensions. Presented at Internoise 2012, New York

The aim of this work was to investigate the validity of laboratory soundscape reproduction and the robustness of soundscape dimensional analysis. The soundscapes in four urban locations in Manchester (UK) were recorded with a soundfield microphone. T... Read More about Reproducibility of soundscape dimensions.

Perception of soundscapes : an interdisciplinary approach (2012)
Journal Article
Davies, W., Adams, M., Bruce, N., Cain, R., Carlyle, A., Cusack, P., …Poxon, J. (2012). Perception of soundscapes : an interdisciplinary approach. Applied Acoustics, 74(2), 224-231. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apacoust.2012.05.010

This paper takes an overall view of findings from the Positive Soundscape Project, a large inter-disciplinary soundscapes study. Qualitative fieldwork (soundwalks and focus groups) have found that soundscape perception is influenced by cognitive effe... Read More about Perception of soundscapes : an interdisciplinary approach.

A listener-centred approach to soundscape evaluation (2012)
Presentation / Conference
Foale, K., & Davies, W. (2012, April). A listener-centred approach to soundscape evaluation. Presented at Acoustics 2012, Nantes

I am conducting a Grounded Theory study into measuring opinions of urban soundscapes. Participants are given a small portable recording device and asked to keep a sound diary for two weeks. At the end of the two weeks, they are given a 60-minute in... Read More about A listener-centred approach to soundscape evaluation.

The effects of expectation on the perception of soundscapes (2011)
Thesis
Bruce, N. The effects of expectation on the perception of soundscapes. (Thesis). University of Salford

This thesis discusses how expectation is a contributory factor in the perception of soundscapes. "Soundscape" is a term attributed to R.Murray Schafer to define the acoustic environment, a recent ISO workgroup has proposed a formal definition as th... Read More about The effects of expectation on the perception of soundscapes.

The acoustic environment (2010)
Book Chapter
Davies, W. (2010). The acoustic environment. In C. Plack (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Auditory Science : Hearing (375-415). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199233557.013.0016

This chapter gives an overview of what shapes the acoustic signals that arrive at the ear. It is structured as an account of the journey of a sound wave, from first generation, then propagation outdoors, followed by transmission into a building and i... Read More about The acoustic environment.

Expectation as a factor in the perception of soundscapes (2009)
Presentation / Conference
Bruce, N., Davies, W., & Adams, M. (2009, October). Expectation as a factor in the perception of soundscapes. Presented at Euronoise 2009, Edinburgh, U.K

This paper discusses how expectation and experience form a contributory factor in the perception of soundscapes. The research used fieldwork carried out in London and Manchester, and also a soundscape simulator in a laboratory. Through the use of an... Read More about Expectation as a factor in the perception of soundscapes.

Measuring and mapping soundscape speech intelligibility (2009)
Presentation / Conference
Davies, W., Mahnken, P., Gamble, P., & Plack, C. (2009, October). Measuring and mapping soundscape speech intelligibility. Presented at Euronoise 2009, Edinburgh, U.K

More than one factor analysis of soundscape perception has concluded that speech communication is a significant contributor to the overall perceived quality of urban soundscapes. While not everything that is perceptually significant in real soundscap... Read More about Measuring and mapping soundscape speech intelligibility.

A positive soundscape evaluation system (2009)
Presentation / Conference
Davies, W., Adams, M., Bruce, N., Cain, R., Jennings, P., Carlyle, A., …Plack, C. (2009, October). A positive soundscape evaluation system. Presented at Euronoise 2009, Edinburgh, U.K

Current policy on environmental sound is largely based on noise control. There is considerable interest in exploiting the soundscape concept to provide a more sophisticated way of managing our acoustic environment. For this to happen, a tool for asse... Read More about A positive soundscape evaluation system.

Research into the practical and policy applications of soundscape concepts and techniques in urban areas (2009)
Report
Payne, S., Davies, W., & Adams, M. (2009). Research into the practical and policy applications of soundscape concepts and techniques in urban areas

Executive Summary 1 The aim of this review was to investigate existing research into soundscape concepts and to produce recommendations for future research into the practical identification, management and enhancement of soundscapes in urban areas.... Read More about Research into the practical and policy applications of soundscape concepts and techniques in urban areas.

Development of a soundscape simulator tool (2009)
Presentation / Conference
Bruce, N., Davies, W., & Adams, M. (2009, August). Development of a soundscape simulator tool. Presented at Internoise 09, Ottawa, Canada

This paper discusses the development of an interactive soundscape simulator, enabling users to manipulate a series of parameters to investigate if there is group correlation between factors such as source selection, positioning and level. The basis... Read More about Development of a soundscape simulator tool.

Soundscapes : an urban planning process map (2009)
Presentation / Conference
Adams, M., Davies, W., & Bruce, N. (2009, August). Soundscapes : an urban planning process map. Presented at Internoise 2009, Ottawa, Canada

The concept of soundscapes is an established theme in acoustics research, most notably in the areas of environmental noise, noise control and psychoacoustics. However, many disciplines outside of traditional acoustics have recently worked toget... Read More about Soundscapes : an urban planning process map.

The positive soundscape project : a synthesis of results from many disciplines (2009)
Presentation / Conference
Davies, W., Adams, M., Bruce, N., Marselle, M., Cain, R., Jennings, P., …Plack, C. (2009, August). The positive soundscape project : a synthesis of results from many disciplines. Presented at Internoise 2009, Ottawa, Canada

This paper takes an overall view of ongoing findings from the Positive Soundscape Project, a large inter-disciplinary soundscapes study which is nearing completion. Qualitative fieldwork (soundwalks and focus groups) and lab-based listening tests hav... Read More about The positive soundscape project : a synthesis of results from many disciplines.

Speech communication in outdoor soundscapes (2009)
Presentation / Conference
Davies, W., Mahnken, P., & Plack, C. (2009, March). Speech communication in outdoor soundscapes. Presented at NAG/DAGA 2009 International Conference on Acoustics, Rotterdam

The Positive Soundscape Project is a large multi-disciplinary project investigating the perception of soundscapes. Recent findings indicate that speech communication is a principal factor in users’ perceptions of urban soundscapes. The project ha... Read More about Speech communication in outdoor soundscapes.

Physiological responses and subjective estimates of sounds : initial results of pilot study (2008)
Presentation / Conference
Hume, K., Barrett, H., Ip, A., McDonagh, T., Davies, W., Adams, M., …Plack, C. (2008, April). Physiological responses and subjective estimates of sounds : initial results of pilot study. Presented at Institute of Acoustics Spring Conference 2008, Reading, UK

In an attempt to understand the effect of sounds on physiological measurements, along the positive (pleasant) - negative (unpleasant) subjective dimension, 51 subjects (26 male) listened to 13 sounds in clips of 8s interspersed with 16s of silence wh... Read More about Physiological responses and subjective estimates of sounds : initial results of pilot study.

Soundwalking as a methodology for understanding soundscapes (2008)
Presentation / Conference
Adams, M., Bruce, N., Davies, W., Cain, R., Jennings, P., Carlyle, A., …Plack, C. (2008, April). Soundwalking as a methodology for understanding soundscapes. Presented at Institute of Acoustics Spring Conference 2008, Reading, U.K

Soundwalking is a practice that was devised by R. Murray Schafer, when he established the World Soundscape Project at Simon Fraser University during the late 1960s and early 1970s. It is an empirical method for identifying a soundscape and compo... Read More about Soundwalking as a methodology for understanding soundscapes.

The positive soundscape project (2007)
Presentation / Conference
Davies, W., Adams, M., Bruce, N., Cain, R., Carlyle, A., Cusack, P., …Plack, C. (2007, September). The positive soundscape project. Presented at 19th International Congress on Acoustics, Madrid

The Positive Soundscape Project is a multi-disciplinary investigation of soundscape perception which started in October 2006. This paper communicates the aims and design of the project and discusses some early results. The project seeks to develop a... Read More about The positive soundscape project.

Perception of modal distribution metrics in critical listening spaces - dependence on room aspect ratios (2005)
Journal Article
Fazenda, B., Avis, M., & Davies, W. (2005). Perception of modal distribution metrics in critical listening spaces - dependence on room aspect ratios. Journal of the Audio Engineering Society, 53(12), 1128-1141

The subjective significance of two general types of metrics used to describe the "quality" of a room based on its aspect ratio are compared. Tests were carried out to evaluate differences between three virtual rooms that score extreme classifications... Read More about Perception of modal distribution metrics in critical listening spaces - dependence on room aspect ratios.

Perception of reverberation time in small listening rooms (2002)
Journal Article
Niaounakis, T., & Davies, W. (2002). Perception of reverberation time in small listening rooms. Journal of the Audio Engineering Society, 50(5), 343-350

The perceptibility of small changes in reverberation time (RT) when music is reproduced within small studio control rooms was judged by a number of subjects. The aim of the study was to determine the difference limen (DL) for midfrequency RTs shorter... Read More about Perception of reverberation time in small listening rooms.

From concert halls to noise barriers : attenuation from interference gratings (2002)
Presentation / Conference
Davies, W. (2002, March). From concert halls to noise barriers : attenuation from interference gratings. Presented at Acoustics 2002, Salford, Greater Manchester

The seat dip effect is a low-frequency attenuation affecting sound travelling at grazing incidence over seating in auditoria. It is caused by scattered sound from the seats interfering with sound travelling directly from the source on the stage. In o... Read More about From concert halls to noise barriers : attenuation from interference gratings.

Difference Limen for level of music (2001)
Presentation / Conference
Davies, W. (2001, September). Difference Limen for level of music. Presented at 17th International Congress on Acoustics, Rome

A psychoacoustic experiment has been conducted to determine the difference limen (DL) of the level of music reproduced in a listening room. The effects of three factors on the DL were measured using up to twelve trained subjects. The factors were m... Read More about Difference Limen for level of music.

Influence of diffuse reflections on the playing of musicians (2001)
Presentation / Conference
Bermond, R., & Davies, W. (2001, September). Influence of diffuse reflections on the playing of musicians. Presented at 17th Int. Congress on Acoustics, Rome

To date, there has been little evidence available on how musicians perceive diffuse reflections in the early sound field in comparison to specular reflections. Two series of subjective tests were conducted among musicians, one in a small room and one... Read More about Influence of diffuse reflections on the playing of musicians.

Response to "comment on 'reducing seat dip attenuation'" J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 110, 1260 (2001) (2001)
Journal Article
Davies, W., & Cox, T. (2001). Response to "comment on 'reducing seat dip attenuation'" J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 110, 1260 (2001). ˜The œJournal of the Acoustical Society of America (Online), 110(3), 1261-1262

This letter responds to Klepper's comments [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 110, 1260 (2001)] on the subject paper, which is concerned with ameliorating seat dip attenuation in auditoria by introducing a pit under the seats. Klepper asks what the effect of the p... Read More about Response to "comment on 'reducing seat dip attenuation'" J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 110, 1260 (2001).

Hearing loss in the built environment : the experience of elderly people (2001)
Journal Article
Davies, W., Cox, T., Kearon, A., Longhurst, B., & Webb, C. (2001). Hearing loss in the built environment : the experience of elderly people. Acta acustica united with Acustica, 87(5), 610-616

A qualitative social survey has been conducted on a group of 207 elderly people with a hearing loss. The aim of the study was to determine the extent to which acoustic problems in the built environment affect this subject group. The project was thoug... Read More about Hearing loss in the built environment : the experience of elderly people.

Reducing seat dip attenuation (2000)
Journal Article
Davies, W., & Cox, T. (2000). Reducing seat dip attenuation. ˜The œJournal of the Acoustical Society of America (Online), 108(5), 2211-2218

Strategies fur reducing seat dip attenuation in concert halls are considered. It is shown that the dip is established 4 ms after the direct sound from the stage arrives at the listener. Sound scattered from the seats and floor is the main cause of th... Read More about Reducing seat dip attenuation.

Subjective perception of seat dip attenuation (1996)
Journal Article
Davies, W., Cox, T., & Lam, Y. (1996). Subjective perception of seat dip attenuation. Acta acustica united with Acustica, 82(5), 784-792

An investigation has been conducted into the subjective perception of the seat dip effect (a low-frequency attenuation affecting sound travelling at grazing incidence over seating). In a realistic simulation of a concert hall sound field, the thresho... Read More about Subjective perception of seat dip attenuation.

Measuring auditorium seat absorption (1994)
Journal Article
Davies, W., Orlowski, R., & Lam, Y. (1994). Measuring auditorium seat absorption. ˜The œJournal of the Acoustical Society of America (Online), 96(2), 879-888. https://doi.org/10.1121/1.410263

There is a need for a more accurate laboratory measurement method to predict auditorium seat absorption. The traditional method tends to overpredict the absorption of the exposed front and sides of seating blocks. An alternative reverberation chamber... Read More about Measuring auditorium seat absorption.

New attributes of seat dip attenuation (1994)
Journal Article
Davies, W., & Lam, Y. (1994). New attributes of seat dip attenuation. Applied Acoustics, 41(1), 1-23. https://doi.org/10.1016/0003-682X%2894%2990082-5

New measurements have been made on the low-frequency attenuation of an impulse excitation over-seating in an unoccupied concert hall and on scale model seats. Two new attributes of the phenomenon were found the attenuation varied over time and the wi... Read More about New attributes of seat dip attenuation.

Predicting theater chair absorption from reverberation chamber measurements - comment (1993)
Journal Article
Davies, W., Lam, Y., & Orlowski, R. (1993). Predicting theater chair absorption from reverberation chamber measurements - comment. ˜The œJournal of the Acoustical Society of America (Online), 93(4), 2238-2240. https://doi.org/10.1121/1.406687

The relationship between the measured acoustic absorption coefficient of an array of theater chairs and the ratio of the perimeter length to plan area of the array is considered. It is shown that the linear relationship measured by Bradley in a rever... Read More about Predicting theater chair absorption from reverberation chamber measurements - comment.

The sensitivity of listeners to early sound field changes in auditoriums (1993)
Journal Article
Cox, T., Davies, W., & Lam, Y. (1993). The sensitivity of listeners to early sound field changes in auditoriums. Acta acustica united with Acustica, 79(1), 27-41

The sensitivity of listeners to small changes in the early sound field of auditoria has been measured. This was done using a realistic artificial simulation system of a concert ball sound field. The simulation system was designed so that standard obj... Read More about The sensitivity of listeners to early sound field changes in auditoriums.

Development and preliminary results of the University of Salford media Accessibility and hearing Impairment Database (U-SAID)
Presentation / Conference
Ward, L., Shirley, B., & Davies, W. Development and preliminary results of the University of Salford media Accessibility and hearing Impairment Database (U-SAID). Presented at Reproduced Sound 2018 : putting sound in its place, Bristol, UK

Recent technological advances in object-based broadcasting present the opportunity to improve broadcast accessibility, particularly for the 11 million people in the UK with hearing impairment. Taking advantage of this opportunity is important given t... Read More about Development and preliminary results of the University of Salford media Accessibility and hearing Impairment Database (U-SAID).

An activity-centric conceptual framework for assessing and creating positive urban soundscapes
Presentation / Conference
Cain, R., Jennings, P., Adams, M., Bruce, N., Davies, W., Carlyle, A., …Plack, C. An activity-centric conceptual framework for assessing and creating positive urban soundscapes. Presented at Spring Conference of the Institute of Acoustics 2008 : Widening Horizons in Acoustics, Reading, UK

The Positive Soundscapes Project is an interdisciplinary investigation of soundscape perception [1]. The project seeks to develop a rounded view of human perception of soundscapes by drawing together methods from the disciplines of engineering s... Read More about An activity-centric conceptual framework for assessing and creating positive urban soundscapes.

Continuous evaluative and pupil dilation response to soundscapes
Presentation / Conference
Graetzer, S., Landowska, A., Harris, L., Cox, T., & Davies, W. Continuous evaluative and pupil dilation response to soundscapes. Presented at e-Forum Acusticum 2020, Online

We investigated human response to soundscapes using a continuous second-by-second rating of soundscapes and a more conventional overall rating of each sample at the end of each audition. In this work, our primary aim was to explore what continuous ra... Read More about Continuous evaluative and pupil dilation response to soundscapes.

How does the zoo soundscape affect the zoo experience for animals and visitors?
Thesis
Bonde de Queiroz, M. (in press). How does the zoo soundscape affect the zoo experience for animals and visitors?. (Thesis). University of Salford

This project aims to evaluate the zoo soundscape from the animals and visitors perspective. A complete acoustic environment study in zoological parks should involve these two different, but equally important, characters. This thesis presents the resu... Read More about How does the zoo soundscape affect the zoo experience for animals and visitors?.

Difference limen for reverberation time in auditoria
Presentation / Conference
Tsolias, A., & Davies, W. Difference limen for reverberation time in auditoria. Presented at Forum Acusticum, Krakow, Poland

The smallest change in reverberation time that can be perceived in a concert hall has been measured. Five existing halls with average reverberation times varying between 0.89 and 2.3 s were simulated in detail with Bose room acoustic modelling softwa... Read More about Difference limen for reverberation time in auditoria.

Towards room acoustics for an elderly population
Presentation / Conference
Davies, W., Cox, T., Kearon, A., Longhurst, B., & Webb, C. Towards room acoustics for an elderly population. Presented at Acoustics 2000, Liverpool

A qualitative social survey has been conducted on a group of 207 elderly people with a hearing loss. The aim of the study was to determine the extent to which acoustic problems in the built environment affect this subject group. The project was th... Read More about Towards room acoustics for an elderly population.

The perception of susurration: envelopment in indoor and outdoor spaces
Presentation / Conference
Davies, W. The perception of susurration: envelopment in indoor and outdoor spaces. Presented at 18th Int. Congress on Acoustics, Kyoto, Japan

This paper investigates a connection between perceptions of indoor and outdoor soundscapes. The word susurration is used in non-scientific writing to describe sounds such as wind in trees and rushing water. It is hypothesised that these sounds give r... Read More about The perception of susurration: envelopment in indoor and outdoor spaces.