AID: Open-Source Anechoic Interferer Dataset

A dataset of anechoic recordings of various sound sources encountered in domestic environments is provided, which is intended to be a resource of non-stationary, environmental noise signals that, when convolved with acoustic impulse responses, can be used to simulate complex acoustic scenes.

The dataset consists of anechoic recordings of 43 different types of sound sources encountered in domestic environments, with the number of individual recordings per sound source varying between two and eleven. The sound sources, which are mostly household devices and utilities, include door keys, plastic bags, clothing, a drilling machine, an electric blender, glass jars and metal boxes but also a few human-made sounds, such as clapping, breathing, snapping or whistling. The recordings cover a wide range of timbres. Multiple sounds from every individual source were recorded by different ways of excitation, such as hitting and shaking, or switching on and off the electric devices. Three different microphones were used to record the various sound sources.

In addition, a Python library is provided that can be used to randomly arrange multiple anechoic noise recordings into a single channel interference signal. The number of individual recordings concurrently playing at any point in time in an interference signal can be specified by the user, providing control over the temporal density. The signal generator implementation is hosted on GitHub.