The principles of Synthetic Transaural Audio Rendering (STAR) were first introduced at DAFx-06. This is a perceptive approach for sound spatialization, whereas state-of-the-art methods are rather physical. With our STAR method, we focus neither on the wave field (such as HOA) nor on the sound wave (such as VBAP), but rather on the acoustic paths traveled by the sound to the listener ears. The STAR method consists in canceling the cross-talk signals between two loudspeakers and the ears of the listener (in a transaural way), with acoustic paths not measured but computed by some model (thus synthetic). Our model is based on perceptive cues, used by the human auditory system for sound localization. The aim is to give the listener the sensation of the position of each source, and not to reconstruct the corresponding acoustic wave or field. This should work with various loudspeaker configurations, with a large sweet spot, since the model is neither specialized for a specific configuration nor individualized for a specific listener. Experimental tests have been conducted in 2015 and 2019 with different rooms and audiences, for still, moving, and polyphonic musical sounds. It turns out that the proposed method is competitive with the state-of-the-art ones. However, this is a work in progress and further work is needed to improve the quality.

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The Synthetic Transaural Audio Rendering (STAR) method, first introduced at DAFx-06 then enhanced at DAFx-19, is a perceptive approach for sound spatialization aiming at reproducing the acoustic cues at the ears of the listener, using loudspeakers. To validate the method, several comparisons with state-of-the-art spatialization methods (VBAP and HOA) were conducted. Previously, quality comparisons with human subjects have been made, providing meaningful subjective results in real conditions. In this article an objective comparison is proposed, using acoustic cues error maps. The cartography enables us to study the spatialization effect in a 2D space, for a listening position within an audience, and thus not necessarily located at the center. Two approaches are conducted: the first simulates the binaural signals for a virtual KEMAR manikin, in ideal conditions and with a fine resolution; the second records these binaural signals using a real KEMAR manikin, providing real data with reverberation, though with a coarser resolution. In both cases the acoustic cues were derived from the binaural signals (either simulated or measured), and compared to the reference value taken at the center of the octophonic loudspeakers configuration. The obtained error maps display comforting results, our STAR method producing the smallest error for both simulated and experimental conditions.

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