RESEARCH PORTFOLIO

 

Research Funding

• D. Cabrera (2009-10) Audio and Acoustics Research Program Exchange: University of Sydney - McGill University - Tohoku University. Spatial Audio, Sound Quality and Multimodal Perception, University of Sydney (International Program Development Fund)
• C.J. Stevens, E. Schubert, D. Cabrera, J.A. Wolfe, J.R. Smith, D. Sen, R.T. Dean, D.K. Burnham, S. Malloch, G.C. Paine, F.A. Bailes & C.T. Best (2006) See Hear! Multimodal Recording and Analysis Facility, Australian Research Council (Linkage Infrustructure & Equipment Fund)
• D. Kenny, D. Cabrera & M. Halliwell (2005-8) Enhancing Quality in Western Classical Singing and Pedagogy, Australian Research Council (Discovery Projects)
• D. Cabrera (2005) Control of Perceived Room Size in Virtual Acoustic Environments, University of Sydney (Research and Development)
• R. Dale, C.J. Stevens.... & D. Cabrera (2004-9) Enabling Human Communication, Australian Research Council (Research Networks)
• P.J. Davis, J.M. Oats, D. Cabrera, K. Greenwood (2003) Vocal Quality, Projection and Perception, Australian Research Council (Discovery Projects)
• C.J. Stevens, S. Malloch, D. Burnham, G.E. McPherson, E. Schubert, D. Cabrera, K. Kitamura, S.E. McKechnie (2003) Movement and Communication Lab and Portable Audience Response Facility, Australian Research Council (Linkage Infrustructure & Equipment Fund)
• D. Cabrera (2002) Perceived Distance & Width of a Sound Source: Auditory Volume in a Room Acoustical Context, University of Sydney (Sesqui New Staff Support Scheme)

Graduate Research Supervision (Current)

• Supervisor – PhD John Bassett - Sound-field diffusion in auditoria
• Supervisor – PhD Sam Ferguson - Representing sound through visual and auditory display
• Supervisor – PhD Petar Gligorov - Adjustable passive sound absorbers
• Supervisor -- PhD Doheon Lee - Applying psychoacoustical models to room impulse response analysis
• Supervisor – PhD Claudiu Pop - Auditory perception of room size
• Supervisor – PhD Ian Stevenson - Auditory confusion and sonic reverie
• Supervisor – MPhil Bill Antram - Use of dish reflectors to enhance speech intelligibility
• Supervisor – MDesSci Konrad Skirlis - Acoustic features of opera singer projection

Graduate Research Supervision (Graduates)

• Andy Nguyen – MPhil - Auditory & visual spatial impression in concert auditoria

 

Honours Students

• Sam Ferguson - M.Des.Sci.(Hons) - Auditory Vertical Localization
• David Gilfillan - M.Des.Sci.(Hons) - Auditory Distance Percption
• Kamani Koralage - M.Des.Sci.(Hons) - Acoustics of Historic Cinemas
• Mohamed Irfan - M.Des.Sci.(Hons) - Very Low Frequency Auditory Lateralisation
• Hyun Jeong Kwak - M.Des.Sci.(Hons) - Auditory Room Size Percpetion
• Anita Joh - M.Des.Sci.(Hons) - Audibility of Intrusive Noise in Residences
• Doheon Lee - M.Des.Sci.(Hons) - Airborne Sound Insulation - Field Measurement Techniques
• Luis Miranda - M.Des.Sci.(Hons) - Binaural Loudness Modelling
• Mark Russell - M.Des.Sci.(Hons) - Silencer Design
• David Spargo - M.Des.Sci.(Hons) - Blind Reverberation Time Estimation
• Alan Subkey - M.Des.Sci.(Hons) - Low Frequency Auditory Localization
• Steven Tilley - M.Des.Sci.(Hons) - Auditory Image Size and Vertical Localization
• Scott Willsallen – M.Des.Sci.(Hons) - Electro-acoustical Quality in a Sports Stadium

Publications

• D. Cabrera, S. Ferguson and E. Schubert (2008) "PsySound3: an integrated environment for the analysis of sound recordings," Acoustics 2008: Proceedings of the Australian Acoustical Society Conference, Geelong, Australia.
• M.I. Jan Mohamed and D. Cabrera (2008) "Human sensitivity to interaural phase difference for very low frequency sound," Acoustics 2008: Proceedings of the Australian Acoustical Society Conference, Geelong, Australia.
• D. Lee and D. Cabrera (2008) "Analysing room impulse responses with psychoacoustical algorithms: A preliminary study," Acoustics 2008: Proceedings of the Australian Acoustical Society Conference, Geelong, Australia.
• L. Miranda and D. Cabrera (2008) "Evaluation of binaural loudness models with signals of different diffusivity," Acoustics 2008: Proceedings of the Australian Acoustical Society Conference, Geelong, Australia.
• K. Stewart and D. Cabrera (2008) "Effect of acoustic environment on the sensitivity of speech transmission index to source directivity," Acoustics 2008: Proceedings of the Australian Acoustical Society Conference, Geelong, Australia.
• R. McCarthy, D. Cabrera and J. Bassett (2008) "Directional assessment of acoustic stage support in a drama theatre," Acoustics 2008: Proceedings of the Australian Acoustical Society Conference, Geelong, Australia.
• S. Ortiz, H.-J. Nieh and D. Cabrera (2008) "Avoidance of noise-related errors in the analysis of room impulse responses," Acoustics 2008: Proceedings of the Australian Acoustical Society Conference, Geelong, Australia.
• M. Russell, F.R. Fricke and D. Cabrera (2008) "Expansion chamber silencer with a thin membrane," Acoustics 2008: Proceedings of the Australian Acoustical Society Conference, Geelong, Australia.
• S. Ferguson, D. Kenny and D. Cabrera (2008) "Effects of training on time-varying spectral energy and sound pressure level in male classical singers: initial investigations," Journal of Voice, accepted for publication.
• J.Y. Jeon, Y.H. Kim, D. Cabrera and J. Bassett (2008) "The effect of visual and auditory cues on seat preference in an opera theatre," Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 123(6), 4272-4282.
• S. Ferguson and D. Cabrera (2008) "Exploratory sound analysis: sonifying data about sound," 14th International Conference on Auditory Display, Paris, France.
• D. Cabrera, E. Schubert, F. Rizwi and S. Ferguson (2008) "Collecting continuous data in music and listeners: PsySound3 and RTCCR, two free resources," 10th International Conference on Music Perception and Cognition, Sapporo, Japan (abstract only).
• D. Cabrera, S. Ferguson, F. Rizwi and E. Schubert (2008) "PsySound3: a program for the analysis of sound recordings," Acoustics 2008, Paris, France, 1609-1613 (invited paper).
• D. Cabrera, L. Miranda and I. Dash (2008) "Directional loudness measurements for a multichannel system," Acoustics 2008, Paris, France, 4621-4626.
• D. Lee and D. Cabrera (2008) "An application of t ime reversal acoustics to sound insulation measurements in buildings," Acoustics 2008, Paris, France (abstract only).
• S. Marshall, D. Lee and D. Cabrera (2008) "Comparison of low frequency sound insulation field measurement methods," New Zealand Acoustics.
• I. Dash, L. Miranda and D. Cabrera (2008) "Directional loudness listening test," 124th Audio Engineering Convention, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
• D. Cabrera and M. Morimoto (2007) "Influence of fundamental frequency and source elevation on the vertical localization of complex tones and complex tone pairs," Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 122(1), 478-488.
• D. Cabrera and D. Jeong (2007) "Auditory room size perception in concert auditoria," 19th International Congress on Acoustics, Madrid, Spain (invited paper).
• D. Cabrera, P.J. Davis and A. Connolly (2007) "Vocal directivity of eight opera singers in terms of spectro-spatial parameters," 19th International Congress on Acoustics, Madrid, Spain (invited paper).
• D. Cabrera, S. Ferguson and E. Schubert (2007) "PsySound3: Software for acoustical and psychoacoustical analysis of sound recordings," 13th International Conference on Auditory Display, Montreal, Canada.
• D. Cabrera (2007) "Control of perceived room size using simple binaural technology," 13th International Conference on Auditory Display, Montreal, Canada (invited paper).
• D. Cabrera and S. Ferguson (2007) "Sonification of sound: Tools for teaching acoustics and audio," 13th International Conference on Auditory Display, Montreal, Canada.
• H.J. Song, K. Beilharz and D. Cabrera (2007) "Evaluation of spatial presentation in sonification for identifying concurrent audio streams," 13th International Conference on Auditory Display, Montreal, Canada.
• D. Cabrera (2007) "Acoustic clarity and auditory room size perception," 14th International Congress on Sound and Vibration, Cairns, Australia.
• K. Stewart and D. Cabrera (2007) "Effect of artificial mouth size on speech transmission index," 14th International Congress on Sound and Vibration, Cairns, Australia.
• D. Lee and D. Cabrera (2007) "Nonlinear effects in airborne sound insulation measurement," 14th International Congress on Sound and Vibration, Cairns, Australia.
• K. Koralage and D. Cabrera (2007) "Acoustics of six historic cinemas in New South Wales, Australia," Acoustics Australia, 35(1), 5-8.
• K. L. P. Reid, P. Davis, J. Oates, D. Cabrera, S. Ternström, M. Black and J. Chapman (2007) "The acoustic characteristics of professional opera singers performing in chorus versus solo mode," Journal of Voice, 21(1), 35-45.
• D. Cabrera, S. Ferguson and R. Maria (2006) "Using sonification for teaching acoustics and audio," 1st Australasian Acoustical Societies' Conference, Christchurch, New Zealand, 383-390.
• D. Cabrera, C. Pop and D. Jeong (2006) "Auditory room size perception: a comparison of real versus binaural sound-fields," 1st Australasian Acoustical Societies' Conference, Christchurch, New Zealand, 417422.
• S. Marshall, D.H. Lee and D. Cabrera (2006) "Comparison of low frequency sound insulation field measurement methods," 1st Australasian Acoustical Societies' Conference, Christchurch, New Zealand, 179-185.
• K. Stewart, D. Cabrera and F.R. Fricke (2006) "Acoustics laboratory fire at the University of Sydney," 1st Australasian Acoustical Societies' Conference, Christchurch, New Zealand, 193-199.
• F. R. Fricke, J. Nannariello and D. Cabrera (2006) "A statistical approach to concert hall acoustical design," 1st Australasian Acoustical Societies' Conference, Christchurch, New Zealand, 399-404.
• D. Cabrera, S. Ferguson and R. Maria (2006) "Sonification of sound: Auditory display for acoustics education," 4th Joint Meeting of the Acoustical Society of Ametica and Acoustical Society of Japan, Honolulu, USA (abstract only).
• K. Skirlis, D. Cabrera and A. Connolly (2006) "A psycho-acoustical analysis of vocal effort by opera singers," 4th Joint Meeting of the Acoustical Society of Ametica and Acoustical Society of Japan, Honolulu, USA (abstract only).
• K. Stewart and D. Cabrera (2006) "Re-equipping the University of Sydney's acoustics laboratory after a fire," 4th Joint Meeting of the Acoustical Society of Ametica and Acoustical Society of Japan, Honolulu, USA (abstract only).
• D. Cabrera (2006) exhibition catalogue essay for What Survives: Sonic Residues in Breathing Buildings, G. Priest (ed.), The Performance Space, Sydney Australia.
• S. Ferguson, D. Cabrera, K. Beilharz and H.J. Song (2006) "Using psychoacoustical models for data sonification," 12th International Conference on Auditory Display, London, Great Britain.
• K. Beilharz, S. Ferguson , H.J. Song and D. Cabrera (2006) "An interactive approach for teaching information sonification," 12th International Conference on Auditory Display, London, Great Britain.
• D. Cabrera, S. Ferguson and G. Laing (2006) "Considerations arising from the development of auditory alerts for air traffic control consoles," 12th International Conference on Auditory Display, London, Great Britain.
• D. Cabrera, M. Morimoto, K. Sakagami and H. Sato (2006) "Potential low frequency environmental cues for sound source elevation," 9th Western Pacific Acoustics Conference, Seoul , Korea (invited paper).
• D. Cabrera and S. Ferguson (2006) "Auditory Display of Audio," 120th Audio Engineering Society Convention, Paris, France.
• D. Degos, S. Edson and D. Cabrera (2006) "Koch's snowflake: a case study of sound scattering of fractal surfaces," 120th Audio Engineering Society Convention, Paris, France.
• S. Ternström, D. Cabrera and P. Davis (2005) "Self-to-other ratios measured in an opera chorus in performance," Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 118(6), 3903-3911.
• Y.-J. Choi and D. Cabrera (2005) "Some current issues in computer modeling for room acoustic design," Acoustics Australia 33(1), 19-24.
• S. Ferguson and D. Cabrera (2005) "Vertical localization of sound from multiway loudspeakers," Journal of the Audio Engineering Society 53(3), 163-173.
• D. Cabrera (2005) "Reproduction of room sound-fields for subjective assessment," Australian Acoustical Society Conference, Busselton, Australia.
• K. Skirlis, D. Cabrera and A. Connolly (2005) "Spectral and temporal changes in singer performance with variation in vocal effort,"Australian Acoustical Society Conference, Busselton, Australia.
• C. Pop and D. Cabrera (2005) "Auditory room size perception for real rooms," Australian Acoustical Society Conference, Busselton, Australia.
• D. Cabrera, S. Ferguson, S. Tilley and M. Morimoto (2005) "Recent studies on the effect of signal frequency on auditory vertical localization," 11th International Conference on Auditory Display, Limerick, Ireland, 1-8.
• S. Ferguson, A. Vande Moere and D. Cabrera (2005) "Seeing sound: Real-time sound visualisation in visual feedback loops used for training musicians", 9th International Conference on Information Visualisation, London, Great Britain.
• D. Cabrera, A. Azzali, A. Capra, A. Farina and P. Martignon (2005) "Perceived room size and source distance in five simulated concert auditoria," 12th International Congress on Sound and Vibration, Lisbon, Portugal.
• D. Cabrera, D. Jeong, H. J. Kwak and J.-Y. Kim (2005) "Auditory room size perception for modeled and measured rooms," Internoise, Rio de Janeiro , Brazil (invited paper).
• J. Y. Jeon, S. Y. Kim, Y. H. Kim and D. Cabrera (2005) "Effects of stage reflectors on the stage acoustics in concert halls," 2nd International Symposium on Temporal Design, Kirishima, Japan.
• J. Y. Jeon, S. Y. Kim, D. Cabrera and J. Bassett (2005) "The effect of visual input on the evaluation of the acoustics in an opera house," Forum Acusticum, Budapest, Hungary.
• D. Cabrera, S. Ferguson and G. Laing (2005) "Development of auditory alerts for air traffic control consoles," 119th Audio Engineering Society Convention, New York, USA.
• S. Ferguson , A. Vande Moere and D. Cabrera (2005) "Enhancing visual feedback technology for musicians with information visualisation," 28th National Conference of the Musicological Society of Australia, Sydney, Australia (abstract only).
• P. Martignon, A. Azzali, D. Cabrera, A. Capra, and A. Farina (2005) "Reproduction of auditorium spatial impression with binaural and stereophonic sound systems," 118th Audio Engineering Society Convention, Barcelona, Spain.
• A. Subkey, D. Cabrera and S. Ferguson (2005) "Localization and image size effects for low frequency sound," 118th Audio Engineering Society Convention, Barcelona, Spain.
• J.-Y. Kim, D. Jeong, D. Cabrera (2005) “A preliminary investigation of auditory room size perception,” Proceedings of the Acoustical Society of Korea Conference, Kwangju, Korea, 23(1), pp. 355-358 (in Korean).
• D. Cabrera, A. Nguyen and Y.-J. Choi (2004) "Auditory versus visual spatial impression: A study of two auditoria," 10th International Conference on Auditory Display, Sydney, Australia.
• A. Nguyen and D. Cabrera (2004) "Visual counterparts to spatial impression in auditorium acoustics," International Symposium on Room Acoustics: Design and Science, Awaji Island, Japan.
• J. Bassett, C. Jin, D. Cabrera and R. Osman (2004) "Measuring the directional variation of spectral energy across time in the Sydney Opera House," 18th International Congress on Acoustics, Kyoto, Japan.
• D. Cabrera and P. Davis (2004) "Vocal directivity measurements of eight opera singers," 18th International Congress on Acoustics, Kyoto, Japan.
• S. Ferguson and D. Cabrera (2004) "Simultaneous vertical localization of low- and high-frequency noise bands," 18th International Congress on Acoustics, Kyoto, Japan.
• S. Willsallen and D. Cabrera (2004) "Assessment of music audio quality in a sports stadium," 117th Audio Engineering Society Convention, San Francisco, USA .
• A. Nguyen and D. Cabrera (2004) "Auditory and visual spatial impression: Recent studies of three auditoria," 148th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, San Diego, USA (invited paper, abstract only).
• D. Cabrera and S. Tilley (2003) "Vertical localization and image size effects in loudspeaker reproduction," 24th Audio Engineering Society Conference on Multichannel Audio, Banff, Canada.
• D. Cabrera and S. Tilley (2003) "Parameters for auditory display of height and size," 9th International Conference on Auditory Display, Boston , USA , 29-32.
• D. Cabrera and P. Davis (2003) "Laboratory evaluation of a head and torso simulator for opera singer acoustic source simulation," Australian and New Zealand Architectural Science Association Conference, Sydney, Australia.
• J. Bassett, R. Osman, Y.-J. Choi, and D. Cabrera (2003) "A means of documenting the acoustic quality of spaces," Australian and New Zealand Architectural Science Association Conference, Sydney , Australia , 104-116.
• D. Cabrera (2003) "Auditory image size: Volume and spatial impression," 8th Western Pacific Acoustics Conference, Melbourne , Australia (invited keynote paper).
• K. Koralage and D. Cabrera (2003) "Historic cinema acoustics," Australian and New Zealand Architectural Science Association Conference, Sydney , Australia 337-352.
• A. Nguyen and D. Cabrera (2003) "Spatial impression in auditorium acoustics and architectural design," Australian and New Zealand Architectural Science Association Conference, Sydney, Australia.
• R. Osman, D. Cabrera, and F. Fricke (2003) "Acoustic design of small music practice rooms," Australian and New Zealand Architectural Science Association Conference, Sydney, Australia, 476-486.
• S. Tilley and D. Cabrera (2003) "The pitch-height effect and its relation to auditory image size," 8th Western Pacific Acoustics Conference, Melbourne, Australia .
• D. Cabrera, P. J. Davis, J. Barnes, M. Jacobs and D. Bell (2002) "Recording the operatic voice for acoustic analysis," Acoustics Australia 30(3), 103-108.
• D. Cabrera and D. Gilfillan (2002) "Auditory distance perception of speech in the presence of noise," 7th International Conference on Auditory Display, Kyoto, Japan, 431-439.
• N. McLachlan and D. Cabrera (2002) "Calculated pitch sensations for new musical bell designs," 7th International Conference on Music Perception and Cognition, Sydney, Australia, 600-603.
• J. Bassett and D. Cabrera (2002) "An assessment of Furduev and T'Ung's method for measurement of room diffusion," Acoustical Society of New Zealand Biennial Conference, Auckland, New Zealand.
• D. Cabrera (2001) "Subjective assessment of resonating sound art recordings," Journal of Music Perception and Cognition 7(2), 93-111.
• D. Cabrera (2001) "Acoustical, psychoacoustical and subjective assessment of Alvin Lucier's ‘I am Sitting in a Room'," Australasian Computer Music Association Conference, Sydney, 17-24.
• D. Cabrera (2001) "Simplicity in the sound of resonating sound art," Meeting of the Japanese Society for Music Perception and Cognition, Fukuoka, Japan (abstract only).
• D. Cabrera (2000) "Environmental infrasound recordings," Australasian Computer Music Conference, Brisbane, Australia (abstract only).
• D. Cabrera (1999) "The size of sound: auditory volume reassessed," MikroPolyphonie 5, http://www.mikropol.net.
• D. Cabrera (1999) "'PsySound': A computer program for the psychoacoustical analysis of music," MikroPolyphonie 5, http://www.mikropol.net.
• D. Cabrera (1999) "Psysound: A computer program for psychoacoustical analysis," Australian Acoustical Society Conference, Melbourne, Australia, 47-54.
• D. Cabrera (1999) "The size of sound: A reassessment of auditory volume," Australasian Computer Music Association Conference, Wellington, New Zealand, 26-31.
• D. Cabrera (1999) "Measuring Sound Art," in A. Cavallaro, S. Davies and A. Jonson (eds), Essays in Sound 4. Sydney : Contemporary Sound Arts, 117-124.
• D. Cabrera (1998) "The subjective assessment of resonating sound-art samples and its relation to psychoacoustic measures," Joint Conference of the International Congress on Acoustics and the Acoustical Society of America, Seattle, USA, 2223-2224.
• D. Cabrera (1997) "Resonating sound art and the aesthetics of room resonance," Convergence 3(4), 108-137.
• D. Cabrera (1997) "Stimulation and simulation of rectangular room resonant modes," Australian Computer Music Association Conference, Auckland, New Zealand, 14-23.
• D. Cabrera (1996) "Subjective evaluation of resonating room sounds: Prelude to a study of resonating sound art," Australian Acoustical Society Conference, Brisbane, Australia, 407-417.
• D. Cabrera (1995) "Edgard Varèse in the Salle Pleyel," Sounds Australian 45, 15-18.
• D. Cabrera (1995) "Naum Gabo's Linear Constructions," in A. Jonson, S. Davies and F. Dyson (eds), Essays in Sound 2 . Sydney : Contemporary Sound Arts, 54-58.

Visiting Academic Positions

• Environmental Acoustics Lab, Kobe University, Japan, Jan-Feb 2006
• Architectural Acoustics Lab, Hanyang University, Seoul, Korea, Dec 2004
• Environmental Acoustics Lab, Kobe University, Japan, Nov 2004
• Acoustics Research Centre, Auckland University, New Zealand, Aug & Oct 2004
• Dept. Industrial Engineering, Parma University, Italy, Sept 2004

Invited Lectures

• Western Pacific Acoustics Conference, Seoul, 2006
• NHK Science and Technical Research Labs, Tokyo 2006
• Himeji University, Himeji, Japan 2006
• McGill University Schulick School of Music, Montreal 2005
• Internoise, Rio de Janeiro, 2005
• Chonbuk National University, Jeonju, Korea 2004
• Western Pacific Acoustics Conference, Melbourne, 2003 (keynote)

Conference Panellist

• Chair, Special Papers Session on Spatial Hearing in Human Environments, 14th International Conference on Sound and Vibration, Cairns 2007
• Chair, Special Papers Session on Design and Engineering of Auditory Displays, 120th Audio Engineering Society Convention, Paris 2006
• Panelist, What Survives: Sonic Residues in Breathing Buildings, The Performance Space, Sydney 2006

Posters on projects in audio and acoustics

TEACHING PORTFOLIO

Current Teaching Responsibilities

• Architectural Acoustics Practice
• Architectural and Audio Acoustics
• Audio Seminar
• Audio Systems and Measurement
• Digital Audio Systems
• Dissertation
• Interactive Sound Studio
• Research Report
• Sound Design and Sonification
• Spatial Audio

Teaching Funding

• D. Cabrera and K. Beilharz (2007) A sonification toolbox for acoustics education, University of Sydney Teaching Improvement and Equipment Scheme
• D. Lu, J. Gero, R. Pizarro, G. Hill and D. Cabrera (2006) Improving the induction and integration of research students into the Faculty of Architecture, University of Sydney Teaching Improvement Fund

 

CONSULTING PROJECTS

• Advice on office acoustics (Woods Bagot)
• Maximizing intelligibity of unassisted speech in the Sydney Theatre (Sydney Theatre Company)
• Localization of Auditory Warnings in Air Traffic Control Consoles, SY TCU (Airservices Australia)
• Development, Selection and Description of Aural Alarms for Air Traffic Control Consoles (Airservices Australia)
• Acoustical Assessment and Recommendations for the Alastair Mackerras Theatre (Sydney Grammar School)
• Measurement of Airborne Sound Insulation using the Intensity Method, Luna Park (Acoustic Logic)
• Qualification of Airborne Sound Insulation between Multiplex Cinemas (Acoustic Logic)
• Assessment of Mechanical Services Noise in a Residential Unit, Sutherland (Harkness)
• Acoustic Issues in the Saraton Theatre, Grafton (owner)
• Qualification of Airborne Sound Insulation between Residential Units, Pyrmont (Acoustic Logic)
• Field Qualification of Airborne Sound Insulation of a Wall (Austral Bricks)
• Two-Day Course in Building Acoustics (Bruel & Kjaer)