Potential Advantages of the Pseudospectral Method in Auralizations

Abstract

Auralization is a term introduced to describe the recreation of the experience of acoustic phenomena a listener would perceive in a specific soundfield. Sound propagation in a soundfield can be simulated with geometric based models or wave based models. Each one offers particular advantages and disadvantages. For wave based models, the finite element method, the boundary element method or the finite difference method are widely mentioned. They are characterized for achieving very precise results for individual frequencies applied to small and moderately sized rooms. Geometric methods lead to the ray tracing method or the image source method. These methods achieve good results for high frequencies and are efficient in large rooms and complex structures, but are not able to represent in a simple manner specific wave phenomena such as diffraction. Commercial software used to produce auralizations is usually based on a hybrid model combining ray tracing and image sources. This paper proposes an exploration on possible advantages and challenges on the use of the k-space pseudospectral method for wave based auralizations.

Keywords

• auralización
• método pseudoespectral
• métodos numéricos