Abstract
Recent audio codecs enable high quality signals up to fullband (20 kHz) which is usually associated with the maximal audible bandwidth. Following previous studies on speech coding assessment, we survey in this novel study the music coding ability of two real-time codecs with fullband capability – the IETF standardized Opus codec as well as the 3 GPP specified EVS codec. We tested both codecs with vocal, instrumental and mixed music signals. For evaluation, we predicted human assessments using the instrumental POLQA method which has been primarily designed for speech assessment. Additionally, we performed two listening tests as a reference with a total of 21 young adults. Opus and EVS show a similar music coding performance. The quality assessment mainly depends on the specific music characteristics and on the tested bitrates from 16.4 to 64 kbit/s. The POLQA measure and the listening results are correlating, whereas the absolute ratings of the young listeners achieve much lower MOS values.
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Notes
- 1.
Listening to music several hours a day, using different playing techniques – high quality sound system, HD stereo headset etc.
References
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Acknowledgments
We would like to thank SwissQual, a Rhode & Schwarz company in Zuchwil, Switzerland for supplying the POLQA tool SQuadAnalyzer – in particular Jens Berger for the elaborate discussions. Further acknowledgments go to André Schuster for supporting our experiments in the sound insulating cabinet of HfT Leipzig, Germany and to all volunteers in the listening tests.
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Maruschke, M., Jokisch, O., Meszaros, M., Trojahn, F., Hoffmann, M. (2016). Quality Assessment of Two Fullband Audio Codecs Supporting Real-Time Communication. In: Ronzhin, A., Potapova, R., Németh, G. (eds) Speech and Computer. SPECOM 2016. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 9811. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-43958-7_69
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