ARCH1372 - Reading 1 :: Estimating Room Impulse Responses from Recorded Balloon Pops

Estimating Room Impulse Responses from Recorded Balloon Pops

Jonathan S. Abel, Nicholas J. Bryan, Patty P. Huang, Miriam A. Kolar, and Bissera V. Pentcheva

AES 129th Convention, San Francisco, CA, USA, 2010 November 4–7

Abel et al. propose that Balloon Pop Impulse Response Recording is in most cases a more advantageous method for acoustic measurement however, properties of the impulse waveform create an undesired effect akin to comb-filtering when applied with convolution to other material. Abel et al. provide a methodology to avoid the aforementioned distortion through the synthesis and filtering of a pattern of echoes similar to those seen in a balloon pop impulse response recording. The echo sequence is generated in such a way as to create the same psychoacoustic impression as the original sequence of arrivals, though without the artifacts present in the recorded impulse method. I found the site specific example demonstrated in this article to be especially interesting, the application of synthesized/filtered impulse response convolution to authentically auralize a hymn performed in the 6th Century at the site of the Hagia Sophia. This example not only necessitates the methodology described in the article, but demonstrates the archeological, cultural and historical value of accurate acoustic measurement techniques.