Artificial impulse responses for emulating decca trees

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis research explores the generation of artificial impulse responses designed to emulate the acoustical properties of the Decca Tree microphone array, a widely adopted method in classical and film music recording known for its immersive and spatially cohesive sound characteristics. A series of Dirac impulses was systematically created, incorporating calculated time delays and sound pressure level adjustments to represent realistic microphone capture scenarios. These impulses were then combined with various early reflection and diffuse tail algorithms to produce authentic spatial audio simulations. The thesis presents three listening tests conducted to evaluate the efficacy of these artificially generated impulse responses in emulating the acoustic characteristics captured by traditional Decca Tree setups. Results showed a clear listener preference for Cinematic Rooms early reflections over Valhalla Rooms algorithmic reverb, particularly highlighting moderate gain adjustments. Additionally, the research demonstrated listeners’ nuanced sensitivity to distance-dependent processing, revealing that while detailed, custom-tailored reflections and tails were generally favored, simpler uniform reflections remained competitively preferred by attentive listeners. Overall, this study validates a methodological approach for convincingly emulating the revered Decca Tree microphone technique in spatial audio production.