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Auralization for musicians and instrument makers as a tool for evaluating a musical instrument

Boucher, Matthew; Pelegrin Garcia, David and Desmet, Wim 

When a musician is considering the purchase of a new instrument, the test room often does not have ideal acoustics, and a musician rarely has the opportunity to test the new instrument in a concert or recital hall before purchase. However, one of the most important criteria when choosing a musical instrument is its sound in a representative performance environment. If recorded in a relatively anechoic environment, the dry sound of an instrument can be merged with the acoustic reflections of a performance environment through a process known as auralization. The technique of auralization, therefore, allows the musician to evaluate the sound of the instrument without being influenced by non-musical cues, such as quality or knowledge of manufacturing. By reproducing the auralized sound, a musician can listen to his/her own playing as if it were played in a concert hall, for example, with the auralized sound quality being one aspect of total quality. Auralization techniques can then be a service offered to musicians by the instrument maker at the time of purchase in addition to testing in standard factory showrooms.