Observations on auditory excitation and masking patterns

Excitation patterns and masking patterns are used extensively in perceptual audio coders and quality assessment algorithms. Numerous algorithms for calculating these patterns have been proposed. This paper provides comparisons among the patterns generated by several of these algorithms. The comparisons are based on audio program material, rather than tones and noise. Explored areas include synthesis functions, spreading functions, masking indices, tonality measures, and the treatment of the absolute threshold of hearing. Several mathematical relations are provided to characterize observations in these areas. Patterns from simpler algorithms are considered as approximations to patterns from more complex algorithms, and the approximation error is characterized. Results may be useful to those who apply auditory excitation or masking patterns in their work.