Urban background sound recordings for virtual acoustics under various weather conditions

One of the major challenges in the auralization of complex urban simulations is the presence of ambience, for example background sounds. Omitting them can result in a sterile and implausible impression. In this work we present a dataset of spatially recorded ambient sounds with metadata on meteorological and acoustical parameters. The recordings are ready to be admixed with simulated soundscapes corresponding to various weather conditions. In particular, 28 soundscapes have been recorded at the IHTApark (green space next to the Institute for Hearing Technology and Acoustics) in Aachen (Germany) in winter and spring. They have been segmented into 30-s auralizable snippets. Moreover, the database contains a statistical and psychoacoustical evaluation of the recordings.