Automatic timbre control

A method for automatically controlling a timbre of a sound signal in a listening room, comprising:

• producing sound in a time domain from a re-transformed electrical sound signal in the time domain, in which a first electrical sound signal in the time domain is transformed into a second electrical sound signal, in a frequency domain and the second electrical sound signal in the frequency domain is re-transformed into the re-transformed electrical sound signal;
• generating a total sound signal representative of a total sound in a listening room, wherein the total sound comprises a sound output from a loudspeaker and ambient noise in the listening room;
• processing the total sound signal to extract an estimated ambient noise signal representing the ambient noise in the listening room;
• and
• adjusting a spectral gain of the second electrical sound signal in the frequency domain dependent on the estimated ambient noise signal, the first electrical sound signal and a room dependent gain signal;
• wherein the room dependent gain signal is determined from reference room data and estimated room data,
• wherein a mean calculation and a voice activity detection is performed to provide the estimated ambient noise signal,
• wherein the voice activity detection is performed via a voice activity detector,
• wherein the spectral gain of the second electrical sound signal is adjusted, according to psychoacoustic parameters, and
• wherein the spectral gain corresponds to a gain that is frequency dependent.