Soundpaths

Soundpaths is a term used to describe the routes by which sound energy or auditory signals propagate from a source to a receiver within an environment or system. A soundpath can include the direct path as well as reflections, refractions, diffractions, and scattering events that together determine how sound is heard in a space or processed by a device. In acoustics and acoustic modeling, soundpaths are treated as individual contributions to a room's impulse response; analysts describe their relative delays, amplitudes, and spectral changes.

In architectural acoustics, identifying predominant soundpaths helps predict speech intelligibility, tonal balance, and reverberation time, and informs decisions on geometry, materials, and source/listener placement. In audio engineering, the term is often used interchangeably with signal path, referring to the chain of elements a sound passes through from input to output, including microphones, preamps, processors, and loudspeakers.

In virtual environments and gaming, computer-generated soundpaths are calculated with methods such as ray tracing or image-source modeling to simulate occlusion, diffraction, and reverberation, enabling immersive spatial audio. Measurement and modeling techniques, including impulse response analysis and acoustic simulation, aim to capture or reproduce the contributions of individual soundpaths.

See also: room acoustics, impulse response, ray tracing, image-source method, audio signal path, acoustical modeling.