A novel feedforward hybrid active sound quality control algorithm for both narrowband and broadband sound-profiling

Abstract Unlike the conventional active noise control (ANC) technique that aims to minimize the sound pressure level (SPL) of target noise, the active sound quality control (ASQC) technique tends to balance the SPLs of certain frequency points or frequency bands to satisfy the requirements of human perception in some applications. In this paper, a feedforward hybrid ASQC (HASQC) algorithm is proposed for the situation where both narrowband and broadband noise components reside in primary and reference noise signals. By utilizing a narrowband ASQC (NASQC) subsystem, a sinusoidal noise canceller (SNC) subsystem, and a broadband ASQC (BASQC) subsystem, the presented HASQC algorithm may control both the spectral characteristics and SPLs of the target noise with both narrowband and broadband characteristics. The algorithm inherits the advantages of existing active noise equalization or active sound profiling strategies and has greater potential to meet practical sound quality requirements. Moreover, to improve the algorithm performance, we also introduce a variable step size updating method. Extensive simulations for various scenarios are performed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the algorithm. The results show that the proposed HASQC algorithm achieves satisfactory sound quality control of the target noise in steady, dynamic as well as multi-frequency situations.