Room Acoustics As It Relates To Musical Performance
Room Acoustics As It Relates To Musical Performance
Room Acoustics As It Relates To Musical Performance
to Musical Performance
“The room is an unwanted extra
instrument playing along with the
musicians.”
Introduction to Acoustics
Acoustics is the branch of physics that
deals with the study of sound and
mechanical wave movement.
There are many different branches of
acoustics including Aeroacoustics,
bioacoustics, psychoacoustics, etc. but
we will focus mainly on Architectural
Acoustics.
Architectural Acoustics
Architectural Acoustics is the study of how
sound and buildings interact.
Concert halls, classrooms, auditoriums,
homes, or any other manmade space are
all affected by acoustics, but it is not
always necessary to have good acoustical
principles in the design of the building in
question.
Principles of Architectural Acoustics
The main concerns of Architectural
Acoustics are:
Building Insulation- Keeping outside noises
out and inside noises in.
Inter Space Noise Control- Keeping noises
centralized in a specific area to increase
privacy or noise management.
Principles of Architectural Acoustics
Internal Room Acoustics- controlling or
tuning the room reverberation time and
echo to increase the intelligibility of speech
and/ or music.
Mechanical Noise Control- controlling and
limiting noises caused by mechanical
devices such as Air Conditioners or
Ventilation.
Sound Absorption
If the room is equipped with different
absorbers absorbing different frequencies
to different extents you may "tune" the
room to a certain sound balance by
adjusting the amount of the different type
of absorbers.
It is harder to absorb bass sounds
between 20 and 200 decibels than it is to
absorb higher pitches.
Changing direction of Sound
Sound direction can also be changed by
placing tiles or walls in certain directions.
This is used to allow listeners in “dead
spots” to hear speech or music on a stage.
Particular problem areas for architects
include corners and areas to the side of
the stage.
Architectural Acoustics relation to Music