Denna undersökning har gjorts för att ta reda på vikten i att äga ett dyrt högtalarsystem när man lyssnar på strömmad musik samt hur påverkad man blir av vetskapen om priset hos vederbörande högtalare. Tre olika högtalare i tre olika prisklasser har testats. 22 personer deltog och fick lyssna på valfri låt igenom strömmningstjänsten Spotify. Lyssnarna fick först ranka högtalarna efter uppskattad generell ljudkvalité utan att se vilka högtalare de lyssnade på, sedan fick de göra om samma test fast med möjlighet att se högtalarna och vetskapen om hur mycket de kostade. Det visade sig att vetskapen om pris eller utseende inte hade någon påverkan på lyssnaren. Inte heller källan som musiken spelades upp ifrån, Spotify eller CD visade sig ha någon betydelse. Det har också visat sig ligga ganska lite koppling mellan pris och kvalité då den billigaste högtalaren rankades bland de bästa i detta test. Detta har lett till en diskussion om betydelsen av högtalarnas karaktär. Den karaktär som i sig kan ge lyssnaren en bra eller dålig upplevelse i den uppfattade ljudkvalitén beroende på lyssnarens egna preferenser. Frekvenskaraktären kan dominera över högtalarens många andra egenskaper. En billigare högtalare kan alltså föredras över en dyrare om frekvenskaraktären för den mindre påkostade högtalaren överensstämmer med åhörarens tycke och smak. / This study has been done to find out the importance of owning an expensive speaker system when listening to streamed music, and how influenced we are by knowing the price of the represented speaker. Three different speakers in three different price ranges have been tested. 22 people attended and had the opportunity to listen to any song through the streaming service Spotify. Listeners were first asked to estimate the overall sound quality of the speakers without being able to see them. The following test was equally executed but with the opportunity to see the loudspeakers and information on the retail price. It turned out that knowing the price or appearance had no impact on the listener. Neither the source of the music that was played, Spotify or CD turned out to be relevant. It has also shown that there was a poor connection between price and quality since the cheapest speaker was ranked among the best in this test. This has led to a discussion of the importance of the loudspeaker’s character. The character which could give the listener a good or bad experience of the perceived sound quality depending on the listeners own preferences. The frequency character can dominate the speakers many other qualities. A less expensive speaker can be preferred over a more expensive if the frequency characteristics of the more expensive speaker matches the listeners opinion.

Virtual reality has as a new mediaform dramatically changed how we look at interactive digital experiences. With this there is also a subsequent change in how we look at designing these experiences. Can we use our already established methods and design principles to create content for this new mediaform? This paper aims to explore if our more classical design principles and methods of designing digital experiences is applicable to the virtual reality. Along with this i will also create a better understanding of what defines immersion in digital mediums and virtual realities as well as how we can deconstruct the term “immersion”. All of this is then used in conjunction with the creation of a VR* game and the design method “Zen Game Design (2007)” to give a better picture of how a complete design method and process could look like for VR* games.

This work is a study with the question What are important qualities within a dialogue system for RPG games? About dialogue systems in RPG games to try to identify important qualities to find out what it is that creates a good dialogue system. In the background, research on dialogue systems, dialogues with NPCs, other forms of dialogue systems and game design is observed. The study resulted in a ready-made analysis model that can be used for RPG games within the same genre and a number of important attributes that a dialogue system should have in order to be defined as good. The question is answered using a content analysis of three RPG games, selected with the help of an expert panel consisting of skilled in the field, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2, Oxenfree and Life is Strange. In order to analyze the results of the content analysis, previous research and theories like agency, the Eliza effect and what will be called Freemans techniques have been used to form an analysis model that has been used to carry out a content analysis. The result shows both similarities and differences in the dialogue between different games within the genre RPG-games. A good dialogue system contains qualities that have a good level of agency to give the player the opportunity to choose what the character should say to create emotions. Also opportunities not to participate in a dialogue was found extra interesting as several games do not have that option. The game's dialogue should be perceived as complex, realistic and personal to the player so that it can be taken seriously and convincingly create emotions.

Går det att skapa ett akustiskt trumsätt med hjälp av enbart skar du hittar i ditt hem? Detta visade sig vara en mycket komplex uppgift där jag försökte skapa en hihat, virvel och en bastrumma genom att hitta, spela in och mixa trumliknande ljud hemma. Dessa ljud kombinerade jag sedan till ett trumkomp som jag använde som bas för ett kort enklare musikstycke jag improviserade. Jag spelade även in ett riktigt trumset för att kunna jämföra dem. Musikstycket visade jag sedan upp för ett antal lyssnare som sedan skulle gissa vilket som var vilket och varför det drog den slutsatsen. Det visade sig att majoriteten av mina testlyssnare kunde ganska enkelt höra skillnaden mellan trummorna även fast alla förstod vad jag försökte skapa med mitt hemmagjorda trumsound. Det som avgjorde det tydligast var enligt mina lyssnare var att de riktiga trummorna hördes tydlig att jag slog med trumpinnar och att anslaget var riktigt. Min slutsats är att du inte kan skapa ett helt trovärdigt trumset med hemmaprylar, men du kan komma en lång bit på vägen dit.

For storage restriction purposes, audio streaming services often rely on lossy compression formats as files used for playback. In 2018, the audio streaming giant SoundCloud went from using 128 kbps MP3 files to 64 kbps Opus files, and shortly after this was unveiled, music press and users of the service claimed it to be an audio quality impairment. To investigate the reliability in these claims, listening tests using popular songs were performed, having 17 trained listeners assessing perceptual audio quality in 128 kbps MP3 and 64 kbps Opus compared to 44.1 kHz, 24 bit WAV files. When counting scores of all used audio stimuli combined, results showed MP3 outperforming Opus with statistical significance.

Om ljuddesign för scenkonsten skall fortsätta utvecklas och de ljuddesigners som verkar i Sverige ska få samma legitima status som resterande yrkesepitet i branschen, bör vi lyfta frågan: Vad är ljuddesign och varför är den viktig? Denna studie har för avsikt att belysa det värde som ljuddesign inbringar inom scenkonsten. Denna rapport behandlar Examensarbetet: Vad händer med ljuddesign? En empirisk studie i hur ljuddesign kan användas som ett bra verktyg för att förstärka och fördjupa en skådespelares gestaltningsprocess. Studien innefattar även skapandet av sex ljudande verk som varit utgångspunkt för studien och jag har med dessa sökt svar på hur de påverkat skådespelare och en provpubliks tolkning och känslomässiga reaktioner vid uppförandet av en och samma text. Kan ljudet ändra textens innebörd? Resultatet av studien visar hur ljudet förstärker inlevelsen hos både skådespelare och publik, samt hur vi med hjälp av ljuddesign kan styra mening och innehåll i en text. Slutsatsen efter denna studie är att ljuddesign kan ändra hur vi tolkar en text och att det väcker engagemang och nyfikenhet. Ljudet är ett direkt medium som har stor del i hur upplevelsen av ett uppförande på scenen uppfattas och tolkas.

The aim of this paper was to examine digital design processes by looking at two different types of employment, which are agency-employment and freelance-employment within digital design. The study which was conducted intended to investigate how digital design process is possibly unique compared to other working procedures within creative professions. The method which was used to seek answers to the questions of this paper was structured and semi-structured interviews. The results showed that design process within digital design do not differ markedly depending on type of employment, but are instead based in a similar structure. The results confirmed that the knowledge and personal experiences of the designer create a subjective apprehension of creativity and therefore steers the direction of a project. The digital factor is something which makes digital design process unique from another working procedures, which facilitates quick communication and efficient execution of digital design projects. / Syftet med denna uppsats var att undersöka digitala designprocesser genom att granska två olika anställningsformer, det vill säga byrå-anställda digitala designers och frilansande digitala designers. Studien som utfördes ämnade undersöka hur digital designprocess möjligen är unikt jämfört med andra arbetssätt hos kreativa yrken. Intervju, både strukturerad och semi-strukturerad, var den metod som användes för att söka svar på uppsatsens frågeställning. Resultatet speglade att designprocess inom digital design inte skiljer sig märkbart beroende på anställningsform, utan i stor utsträckning grundas i samma struktur. Resultatet påvisade att kunskapen och de personliga erfarenheterna hos designern skapar en subjektiv uppfattning om kreativitet och därmed styr projektets riktning. De digitala verktygen är något som gör digital designprocess unikt jämfört med andra arbetssätt, eftersom det möjliggör snabb kommunikation och effektivt utförande av digitala designprojekt.

Virtual reality (VR) as a field is currently seeing big technological advancement and an increase in both interest and content. At the same time, the production workflows for creating content for VR are still in their infancy and there are few commonly accepted conventions within the field. This study aims to compare different sound field microphone techniques for classical music recording in virtual reality. A Sennheiser AMBEO microphone, a double MSZ array and an INA-5 array as well as a 360° camera were used to record a rehearsal of The Royal Swedish Orchestra. These recordings were then used to conduct a listening test in VR where subjects scored the different microphones techniques on “localisation” and “naturalness”. A t-test between the results of the different techniques showed that the AMBEO microphone was significantly better than the INA-5 array for localisation and that the double MSZ array was significantly better in terms of naturalness compared to the INA-5 array. However, these results should be interpreted with caution as many variables during the process might be unique to this particular study.

The technologies used to guide along and inform about historic places and buildings have proliferated quickly, but it seems the application of these technologies in order to facilitate a powerful experience falls behind. With this thesis, the aim was to gain insights into how digital media can be utilized to create a media-conscious locative narrative and an engaging experience for cultural heritage. In this thesis examples of locative narratives with digital media for cultural heritage and the testing of two applications with a qualitative approach are discussed. The gained insights could help sophisticate and strategize thinking about storytelling with mobile digital technologies in order to find medium specific ways of guiding an audience and facilitate meaningful visitor experiences for cultural heritage. Keywords: locative narrative, mobile storytelling, digital media, multimodal, cultural heritage

Headphones and loudspeakers sound notably different from each other and music is often mixed on loudspeakers. The headphone listener therefore doesn’t hear what the engineer intended. A fix for this problem is introducing crosstalk to headphone listening and several ways of introducing said crosstalk have been implemented in the past. This study aims to find out why some stereo enhancement systems are preferred over others and how this could be used in the future. Attributes were ranked and rated to find possible correlations between what the listener hears and what he pays attention to when hearing music processed by different algorithms. Results show that clarity is the most important attribute while mid-frequencies seem to be the least important.