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We present GMLv2, a reference-based model designed for the prediction of subjective audio quality as measured by MUSHRA scores. GMLv2 introduces a Beta distribution-based loss to model the listener ratings and incorporates additional neural audio coding (NAC) subjective datasets to extend its generalization and applicability.

Neural audio codecs (NACs) achieve low-bitrate compression by learning compact audio representations, which can also serve as features for perceptual quality evaluation. We introduce DACe, an enhanced, higher-fidelity version of the Descript Audio Codec (DAC), trained on diverse real and synthetic tonal data with balanced sampling. We systematically compare Fréchet Audio Distance (FAD) and Maximum Mean Discrepancy (MMD) on MUSHRA tests across speech, music, and mixed content.

This paper introduces a novel reference-free (RF) audio quality metric called the RF-Generative Machine Listener (RF-GML), designed to evaluate coded mono, stereo, and binaural audio at a 48 kHz sample rate. RF-GML leverages transfer learning from a state-of-the-art full-reference (FR) Generative Machine Listener (GML) with minimal architectural modifications. The term "generative" refers to the model’s ability to generate an arbitrary number of simulated listening scores.

conferencing applications. We introduced a novel neural codec for low-bitrate speech coding at 6 kbit/s, with long 1 kbit/s redundancy, that also enhances speech by suppressing noise and reverberation. Transmitting large amounts of redundant information allows for speech reconstruction on the receiver side during severe packet loss – see ICASSP paper ID 7175: “Ultra low bitrate loss resilient neural speech enhancing codec”.

Perceptual audio quality measurement systems algorithmically analyze the output of audio processing systems to estimate possible perceived quality degradation using perceptual models of human audition. In this manner, they save the time and resources associated with the design and execution of listening tests (LTs). Models of disturbance audibility predicting peripheral auditory masking in quality measurement systems have considerably increased subjective quality prediction performance of signals processed by perceptual audio codecs.

We show how a neural network can be trained on individual intrusive listening test scores to predict a distribution of scores for each pair of reference and coded input stereo or binaural signals. We nickname this method the Generative Machine Listener (GML), as it is capable of generating an arbitrary amount of simulated listening test data. Compared to a baseline system using regression over mean scores, we observe lower outlier ratios (OR) for the mean score predictions, and obtain easy access to the prediction of confidence intervals (CI).

Video Multimethod Assessment Fusion (VMAF) [1],[2],[3] is a popular tool in the industry for measuring coded video quality. In this study, we propose an auditory-inspired frontend in existing VMAF for creating videos of reference and coded spectrograms, and extended VMAF for measuring coded audio quality. We name our system AudioVMAF. We demonstrate that image replication is capable of further enhancing prediction accuracy, especially when band-limited anchors are present.

This is a presentation of the paper (http://www.aes.org/e-lib/browse.cfm?elib=21902), presented at the 153rd Audio Engineering Society Convention (https://sched.co/1CK3O).

Objective audio quality assessment systems often use perceptual models to predict the subjective quality scores of processed signals, as reported in listening tests. Most systems map different metrics of perceived degradation into a single quality score predicting subjective quality. This requires a quality mapping stage that is informed by real listening test data using statistical learning (\iec a data-driven approach) with distortion metrics as input features.