About the project
The ListExData effort means to make available fundamental response data by which 3D audio theories, foremost Ambisonics but also panning and others, can be based upon. In fact, the Ambisonics book uses some of those results to build its mathematical/technical theory. In terms of the spherical harmonic formalisms in spatial audio, this is far more logical and useful than the reverse way that its history used, in which the dedication to the mathematical formalism was required to develop and push forward the technique.
However, the database should not stay limited to its initial purpose.
So far, the entire package is still very handy and it can be downloaded as zip file.
gathered_data.zip a handy 58KB zip file containing the gathered data and evaluation routines.
MATLAB functions for data I/O:
function write_experimental_data(fname,header_line,format_str,data) writes a table into a text file given by the string fname, table headings given in the cell string array headerline, the writing format/precision of the given data columns (numbers or strings) is specified in the cell string array formatstr, and finally data is a cell array contains either numeric or symbolic arrays with the table columns.
function (datamatrix,data_labels,headers)=read_experimental_data(fname,vdims,cdims,selectors) reads table specified in the above way from the text file fname, which is supposed to have vdims numeric leading columns with the data and cdims trailing columns containing the symbolic information about the experimental conditions; selectors is a cell array of cells containing the conditions to be selected/sorted when read from the file. The output datamatrix is the numeric part organized in dimensions corresponding with data multiplicity x vdims x (cdims); datalabels and headers are read from the table file if needed.
plot_gathered_data reads and plots analyses of all the datasets given below a form similar to the published version in the open-access Ambisonics book.
Link to data:
wendtMA2013.txt 2D frontal localization data in azimuth and elevation gathered in Florian Wendt’s M.thesis/ICSA2013 paper showing the amplitude-panned localization for horizontally and vertically arranged loudspeakers, loudspeaker pairs, loudspeaker triplets, and quadrilaterals. Reporting was done using a motion-tracked toy-gun pointer.
frankPhD2013width123.txt perceived width of frontally symmetric loudspeaker pairs on the horizon, or such with a center loudspeaker added, when the aperture/spacing of the loudspeaker pair is varied from 10,20,..,80 degrees, as analyzed in the PhD thesis of Matthias Frank 2013. Reporting was done by reading off numbers specifying a physical width.
frankPhD2013lococ.txt perceived direction of horizontal panning between 0…-45° with VBAP/MDAP/Ambi-basic/Ambi-max-rE on horizontal ring starting with a loudspeaker at 0°. Panning varied between 0 and -45 degrees in 8 steps, reporting was done by a toy gun, and the listeners either sat centrally or 1.25m left-shifted. PhD thesis of Matthias Frank 2013. Reporting was done by reading off numbers specifying a physical width.
helmkurzTMT2016.txt frequency- and bandwidth dependent amplitude-panned stereo localization as determined by Helm and Kurz in a Tonmeistertagung 2016 article using various bandpass filters and broadband sounds on a +-30degree frontal stereo pair. Reporting was done using a motion-tracked pointing device.
Simon2009AES.txt broadband horizontal pairwise stereo localization experiment from the Simon/Mason AES 2009 paper using level differences with a horizontal ring of a 8 loudspeakers starting with a loudspeaker in front, 4 different broadband sounds presented and 10 listeners participating. This dataset is posted here by the courtesy of Simon and Mason.
zotterfrank30ICSA2015.txt broadband horizontal pairwise stereo localization experiment from a Zotter/Frank ICSA 2015 paper with rings of 12 loudspeakers with 0 and 15 degree shift. Reporting was done by adjustment of amplitude panning to match a single-loudspeaker target sound in between at 0degrees. zotterfrank45ICSA2015.txt broadband horizontal pairwise stereo localization experiment from a Zotter/Frank ICSA 2015 paper with rings of 8 loudspeakers with 0,15,30 degree shifts. Reporting was done by adjustment of amplitude panning to match a single-loudspeaker target sound in between at -7.5 and 7.5 degrees. zotterfrank60ICSA2015.txt broadband horizontal pairwise stereo localization experiment from a Zotter/Frank ICSA 2015 paper with rings of 6 loudspeakers with 0,15,30,45 degree shifts. Reporting was done by adjustment of amplitude panning to match a single-loudspeaker target sound in between at -15,0,15 degrees; these data files are from Generalized Tangent Law for Horizontal Pairwise Amplitude Panning.
frankDAGA2017complete.txt broadband horizontal localization experiment from a Frank/Zotter DAGA 2017 paper with VBAP,MDAP,Ambi amplitude panning on rings of 6,8 loudspeakers (60 or 45 degree spacing) with 0,30 degree shifts for 60 degree spacing, 0degree for the 45 degree spacing. Reporting was done by adjustment of amplitude panning to match a single-loudspeaker target sound in between at either -15,0,15 degrees or -7.5 and 7.5 degrees Extension of the generalized tangent law for multiple loudspeakers.
zaunschirmDAGA2018.txt Zaunschirm and Schörkhuber tested the amount of perceived degradation when removing interaural time differences above a cutoff frequency varied in 9 steps for headphone playback of auralized speech, drums, pink-noise sounds in either dry or wet virtual scenarios, for the horizontal directions of 10°,-45°,80°,-130° azimuth. Their test showed that for most signals and directions, cutoff above 3kHz are inaudible Binaural Rendering of Ambisonic Signals via Magnitude Least Squares.
stereo_experiments_collection.zip A huge collection of 172 horizontal two-channel stereo amplitude panning curves found in the literature starting from 1959, with either their experimentally found means and standard deviations or their IQRs and medians digitized, and their metadata (experimental conditions) transribed from the papers; all required side information and meta data are listed in the lines of text files of the folder ‘meta_data’, and the corresponding experimental data called after ’names2.txt’ are found in the folder ‘data_consolidated’ Reproducibility of stereophonic amplitude-panning curves.
zaunschirm2020MDPI_MOBRIR_Static.txt Figure 2(a), zaunschirm2020MDPI_MOBRIR_Dynamic.txt Figure 2(b), zaunschirm2020MDPI_MOBRIRvsARIR_Static.txt Figure 5(a), zaunschirm2020MDPI_MOBRIRvsARIR_Dynamic.txt Figure 5(b): Results presented in Binaural Rendering with Measured Room Responses: First-order Ambisonic Microphone vs. Dummy Head.
zaunschirm2020MDPIvIKOLigetiHall.zip Listening experiment data for auralization of the virtual IKO in Ligeti Hall with various different rendering/virtualization conditions, according to the paper Auralization of High-Order Directional Sources from First-Order RIR Measurements, MDPI Appl. Sci.
Wendt 2020 PhD thesis response data.zip All answer data gathered in 12 experiments within Florian Wendt’s PhD thesis in human-readable text files, including MATLAB scripts to plot the statistical analysis.
Listening experiment data belonging to the paper Surrounding line sources optimally reproduce diffuse envelopment at off-center listening positions, JASA-EL, 2022 by Stefan Riedel; including json response files and python evaluation scripts.
zotter2023.zip Listening experiment data belonging to the paper Acceptable Imbalance of Sound-Object Levels for Off-Center Listeners in Immersive Sound Reinforcement, DAGA 2023, Franz Zotter; including pd patch, audiosamples, analysis scripts in matlab (used for paper) and python (used to provide more visual detail for presentation slides).
Listening experiment data belonging to the paper The Effect of Temporal and Directional Density on Listener Envelopment, JAES, 2023, by Stefan Riedel; including json response files and python evaluation scripts.