Download Blind Upmix for Applause-like Signals Based on Perceptual Plausibility Criteria
Applause is the result of many individuals rhythmically clapping their hands. Applause recordings exhibit a certain temporal, timbral and spatial structure: claps originating from a distinct direction (i.e, from a particular person) usually have a similar timbre and occur in a quasi-periodic repetition. Traditional upmix approaches for blind mono-to-stereo upmix do not consider these properties and may therefore produce an output with suboptimal perceptual quality to be attributed to a lack of plausibility. In this paper, we propose a blind upmixing approach of applause-like signals which aims at preserving the natural structure of applause signals by incorporating periodicity and timbral similarity of claps into the upmix process and therefore supporting plausibility of the artificially generated spatial scene. The proposed upmix approach is evaluated by means of a subjective preference listening test.