Enhancing artificial reverberation in a noisy environment via noise-dependent compression

Abstract

A system for enhancing artificial reverberation in a noisy listening space includes a sensor configured to generate a signal indicating a current noise level in a listening space, a loudspeaker configured to output sound in the listening space based on an output signal, and at least one processor. The at least one processor is configured to execute instructions to: generate an artificial reverberation signal based on a source signal and a response of a listening space, wherein the artificial reverberation signal includes a first low output-level portion having output levels that are below a compression threshold level and a first high output-level portion having output levels that are above the compression threshold level; generate a compressed artificial reverberation signal based on the artificial reverberation signal by increasing the output levels of the low output-level portion by a first magnitude and increasing the output levels of the high output-level portion by less than the first magnitude; and combine the compressed artificial reverberation signal with the source signal to form an output signal for the listening space.