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SOFA convention issue

Spat
#1

Hi,
I just tried to import a SOFA file to use with spat5.virtualspeakers~. With the SOFA files that are in the database that works very well but I get an error message when I use a SOFA file from RWTH Aachen ( Index of /data/database/aachen (high-resolution kemar) ). Apparently, the SOFA file is not ‘SimpleFreeFieldHRIR’, but the SOFA convention field says it is. When checking the file with spat5.info it seems that spat5 does not detect it as ‘SimpleFreeFieldHRIR’.
Any idea whats up here?

Thanks a lot!
Best, Axel

#2

Hi Axel,

Unfortunately these files from Aachen are not compliant with the SOFA SimpleFreeFieldHRIR convention : in the file, the RoomType is set to “hemi-anechoic”, while in SimpleFreeFieldHRIR convention, it is mandatory to use “free field”.
Feel free to let them know so that they fix their files.

Best,
T.

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#3

Thanks a lot! That fixes my problem!

#4

Somewhat related question. Is there a way to access the built-in KEMAR HRTF? Is it stored as a sofa file somewhere? If not, are there any information on how the HRTF dataset was measured?
Thanks!
Best, Axel

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#5

Hi,

The built-in kemar is not available as sofa file (at the moment).
However, you can ‘somehow’ access the data using spat5.hrtf.infos (see help patcher); with “/load kemar” sent to spat5.hrtf.infos, you can inspect the data.
If I remember correctly, this corresponds measurements from MIT, with our custom equalization and IIR modeling.

Best,
T.

1 Like