On the Scattering of Synthetic Sound Fields

In sound field synthesis a given arrangement of elementary sound sources is employed in order to synthesize a sound field with given desired physical properties over an extended region. The calculation of the driving signals of these secondary sources typically assumes free-field propagation conditions. The present paper investigates the scattering of such synthetic sound fields from unavoidable scattering objects like the head and body of a person apparent in the target region. It is shown that the basic mechanisms are similar to the scattering of natural sound fields. Though, synthetic sound fields can exhibit properties different to those of natural sound fields. Consequently, in such cases also the scattered synthetic sound fields exhibit properties different to those of scattered natural sound fields.