Real-time Virtual Bass Enhancement

Virtual bass enhancement system for real-time applications

Description

The real-time Virtual Bass Enhancement system allows to increase the perception of low frequency when using small loudspeakers, exploiting the missing fundamental theory. It works in three modalities: NLD, Phase Vocoder, Hybrid.

The application has five tunable parameters (three knobs and two switch) that the user can tweak in real time:

• Crossover cut-off frequency
• Harmonics low-pass frequency
• Gain
• Harmonic generation mode
• Bypass

An in-depth explanation on how those parameters affect the sound is presented in the attached paper.

Getting Started

Dependencies

• MATLAB 2021 (older versions may present minor compatibility issues)
• MATLAB Audio Toolbox

Executing program

If the user is familiar with the MATLAB Audio Toolbox:

• run 'tb.m' to initialize the Audio Testbench environment;
• Choose input and output devices and the audio track;
• Start the test, tweak parameters, close when done.

If the user is not familiar with the MATLAB Audio Toolbox:

• run 'tb_play.m';
• Select the input audio track(wav, mp3, m4a, mp4) from the explorer;
• Tweak parameters. The script handles the audio device input and output selection, and also the buffer length choice.

Help

The code performs significantly better with a buffer size equal to 1024. Changes to that size may affect the quality of the bass enhancement. Check the Documentation for more information on the internal module structure.

Authors

Armando Boemio (armando.boemio@mail.polimi.it)

Gabriele Maucione (gabriele.maucione@mail.polimi.it)