Dynamic Range Compression Tuning for Masking-Aware Audio Processing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Traditional sound personalization methods, such as broadband dynamic range compression, fail to dynamically adapt to input level variations over time, leading to sub-optimal audio output quality, especially for content with wide dynamic ranges across various frequencies, resulting in poor signal-to-noise ratios and altered audio quality.
Innovation Solution
A method to determine operation parameters for a dynamic range compression system that dynamically adjusts the compression threshold based on the user's hearing profile, derived from demographic and hearing test data, to minimize sound intensity differences between maskee and masker, ensuring consistent masking release and improved audio perception.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If broadband dynamic range compression is used to process audio signals, then the whole frequency spectrum is processed with the same operating parameters, but the system cannot dynamically adapt to input level variations over time, resulting in sub-optimal audio output quality
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the audio signal into multiple frequency bands and applies separate dynamic range compression to each band. This segmentation allows each frequency band to have its own operating parameters (threshold, ratio, attack, release) that can be independently optimized, enabling the system to adapt to input level variations in different frequency regions while maintaining high audio output quality.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements dynamic adjustment of compression parameters (threshold, ratio, attack time, release time) based on the instantaneous input level of each frequency band. This dynamic behavior allows the system to adapt to varying input levels over time, applying appropriate compression only when needed, thereby resolving the contradiction between adaptability and audio quality.
2Manufacturing precision
If multiband dynamic range compression is used with fixed compression thresholds, then frequency-specific processing is achieved, but the system cannot modify when compression begins dynamically over time, leading to poor signal-to-noise ratios
Solution Approach 1:
The patent makes the compression threshold dynamic by continuously adjusting it based on the input level of each frequency band. The threshold is not fixed but adapts in real-time, allowing the system to maintain frequency-specific processing while also responding dynamically to changing input conditions, thereby improving signal-to-noise ratios.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses feedback from the input signal level to continuously adjust the compression threshold. By monitoring the instantaneous level in each frequency band and using this information to modulate the threshold, the system achieves both frequency-specific processing and dynamic adaptability, resolving the contradiction between these two requirements.
3Manufacturing precision
If traditional equalization methods are used for sound personalization, then frequency-specific gain adjustment is applied, but the processing does not depend on the intensity of the audio signal
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines frequency-specific processing with intensity-dependent behavior by applying dynamic range compression to each frequency band. The compression parameters (threshold, ratio, attack, release) are adjusted based on the instantaneous intensity of the signal in each band, creating a system that is both frequency-specific and intensity-adaptive, unlike traditional static equalization.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies different compression characteristics to different frequency bands, allowing each band to have its own local processing parameters optimized for that frequency range. This local quality approach enables frequency-specific gain adjustment combined with intensity-dependent processing, as each frequency band can independently respond to its own signal level.
Data Source
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AI summary
The present disclosure relates to a method of determining one or more operation parameters for a dynamic range compression (DRC) system. The method comprises obtaining, as an input, a parameter indicative of a hearing ability of a user, the parameter relating to a first difference in sound intensity between a maskee at a first frequency and a masker at a second frequency, determining a target value for the parameter, and determining the one or more operation parameters such that a second difference in sound intensity after sound intensity modification by the DRC between said sound intensity of the maskee and said sound intensity of the masker corresponds to the target value for the parameter. The one or more operation parameters are determined such that a dependence of the second difference in sound intensity on the sound intensity of the maskee is minimized for a given range of sound intensities of the maskee. The disclosure further relates to a corresponding apparatus.