Acoustical simulations can now compute complete sound fields in buildings

Evidence

However, by employing banks of graphics-processing chips (the computers within the computer that control screen display, called graphics-processing units, or GPUs), we can carry out the calculations required to simulate the generation and propagation of sound. GPUs became powerful and cheap primarily because of the demands of computer games. It will not be long before acoustical consulting firms will be providing their clients with accurate and perfectly detailed computer simulations of the sound in concert halls or other soundspaces, including the effects of curtains, statues, chairs, and people; sound absorbing surfaces of all sorts; open windows; and so on. The process of computing the sound pressure field—by following the movement of the sources of sound, the propagation of sound waves, and all the reflections, refractions, absorption, and so on that are present, turning it finally into a playable sound file—is called auralization. — Eric J. Heller, Why You Hear What You Hear- An…, 106

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines auralization: the full pipeline from sound source through propagation/reflection to a playable audio file.
• XREF: Connects to the reader’s interest in why we hear what we hear — auralization is the computational inverse, predicting what a listener hears in a designed space.