Call for Papers – Poster

Sound Quality vs. Sound Identity. The Perceptibility of Audio Logos Under Everyday Conditions of Transmission and Reception

Christoph Anzenbacher (amp GmbH), Christoph Reuter (University of Vienna), Michael Oehler (Makromedia University of Media and Communication)

Abstract

This study deals with the perceptibility of typical audio logos in everyday situations: Audio logos are usually produced in a clean acoustical environment of a music studio, but people mostly listening to them in noisy environments over comparatively low quality loudspeakers with a great amount of nonlinearities in the transmission line.

Listening test with audio logos convoluted with the impulse responses of mobile phones, telephones, radio, television-sets, iPod-headphones, in- and outdoor PA etc. and partially masked with everyday background noises had the following results: Audio logos, whose spectral energy is concentrated in a few strong peaks (like “Meister Proper” or “Red Bull”), turned out to be particulary robust and flexible; they can be perceived even under the worst acoustical conditions. They stand in contrast to audio logos with broadband pad-sound energy (like “Audi” or “Lufthansa”): those audio logos with a broader energy distribution turned out to be very weak (because strong spectral peaks are missing) and they get very easily masked partially or completely by the environmental noise.