DESIGN OF ROOMS FOR MUSIC

Concert Halls and Music Practice Rooms

INTRODUCTION
• The only acoustical requirement for a
speech/voice auditorium is speech
intelligibility
– Speech intelligibility is a deterministic and
measurable quantity
• For a music space, several other parameters
also influence its acoustical quality
– Consequently, the design of these spaces are
rendered more complex and still evolving
DESIGN DETERMINANTS
• The acoustics of music spaces is related to a
large variety of music types – gothic, baroque,
classical, romantic, sacred, pop, folk, and a
combination of these types
– Ideally, each music type requires a different type
of space to maximize listening pleasure
– For financial and practical reasons, it is impossible
to dedicate a space solely to one type of music
– Even a modern symphony hall is required to
accommodate a full symphony orchestra, small
orchestra, orchestra with choir, duets, and even
educational programs for schools
• The character of the acoustics of music spaces
is also due to the large ensemble of musical
instruments typical of a modern symphony
– Each instrument has a different acoustical
requirement for optimization; the organ requires
long reverberation time, while the piano requires
smaller reverberation time
– The reverberation requirements for string and
percussion instruments are somewhere in
between
• The multidimensionality of music spaces is a
function of the purpose of the space
– The design principles for one music space can be
used and extrapolated to the design of other
musical venues
MUSIC and ACOUSTICS
• The science of acoustics is of more recent origin
while the art of music has been with mankind
since its beginning
• The two fields require different sets of mental
faculties for study and appreciation
• The two realms have thus developed their own
languages with their own vocabularies
• However, the issues relevant to a musician are, to
a large extent, the same with that of the
acoustician
– Judgement of music and the acoustical qualities of
music space are evaluated using the same dimension
EARLY and REVERBERANT SOUND
• For a long time, RT was considered to be the
only acoustical parameter affecting the
musical attributes of a space
– Recent studies have indicated that some of the
important acoustical attributes are related to the
early sound – the sound that reaches the listener
within the short interval after the direct sound
– The sound that reaches the listener after the early
sound is called the reverberant sound
• Thus, the acoustical phenomena related to the
musical attributes may be divided into two
categories
• Attributes related to early sound
– Reverberance – the early decay time
– Clarity
– Intimacy
– Spaciousness – the laterality of sound
• Attributes related to reverberant sound
– Spaciousness – the listener envelopment
– Warmth
– Brilliance
– Loudness
EARLY DECAY TIME and CLARITY
• Earlier studies of sound decay assumed that
the entire 60dB decay of sound is smooth and
uniform
• Measurements taken from actual halls reveal
otherwise – the decay outline of some halls
may be non-uniform
• Although they have the same RT, their
intervening decay rates are different
– Which part correlates best with the subjective
sensation of reverberation - reverberance?
REVERBERANCE – EARLY DECAY TIME
• The initial part of the decay outline correlates with
reverberance
– Music consists of successive notes, and the latter part of the
decay of a note is submerged or masked by the succeeding
note/s
• The time associated with the early part of the decay
process is called the early decay time (EDT)
– EDT is defined as the time it takes the sound energy to decay
from 0 to -10dB x 6
– EDT is made up of few isolated early reflections; RT consists of a
multitude of reflections
– EDT is sensitive to room geometry since early reflections come
from identifiable room surfaces; RT is due to reflections that
come from virtually all room surfaces so it is independent of
room geometry
• A short EDT provides “clarity” and a long RT provides
“liveness” to music
REVERBERANCE – EARLY DECAY TIME
• It is the early part of the decay that is acoustically more
significant, although the latter part of the decay is not
entirely insignificant
– Measurements done for most concert halls indicate that
EDT is nearly 10% higher than RT
• RT is generally evaluated for each octave since it is
frequency dependent
– Measurement of RTs reveal that highly-rated concert halls
have a mid-frequency RT between 1.8 to 2.0 seconds;
lowly-rated concert halls have mid-frequency RT between
1.1 to 1.4 seconds
DEFINITION or CLARITY
• The sound reaching the listener within 0.08s (80ms) of the
arrival of the direct sound is integrated with the direct
sound
• If this sound energy arriving within 80ms is large in relation
to the later arriving sound, the discrete notes in a piece of
music stand apart from one another, giving music a
sensation of definition or clarity
– Conversely, a decrease in early sound energy – more energy in
the reverberant part – tends to decrease definition and adds
“fullness of tone”
– An excess in fullness of tone tends to muddy the tone
DEFINITION or CLARITY
• Clarity is defined as the difference (in dB) of the sound
energy received at a listener in the first 80ms less the
(late) reverberant energy
– The reverberant energy is the entire energy arriving at the
listener after 80ms. Thus clarity, C80, is given as
C80 = [ Energy 0 to 80 – Energy 80 to infinity ]
• It is obvious that C80 is related to RT – in an inverse
relationship
‒ As the RT increases, the early energy decreases and the
reverberant energy increases, thus, resulting to low clarity
INTIMACY
• It is the subjective impression of the size of the hall
• A small hall helps establish a sense of closeness to the
source, giving a feeling of intimacy
– Thus, narrow halls, measuring 20 to 23m are considered as
intimate
• The opposite feeling, usually obtained in wide halls, is
one of being “detached” or “remote” from the
performance
• The acoustical measure of intimacy is called initial time
delay gap (ITDG), defined as the interval in milliseconds
between the arrival of the direct sound and the 1st
reflection at the listener
– The smaller the interval, the more intimate the hall, or the more
involved the listener feels with the performance
INITIAL TIME DELAY GAP
• It is obviously a function of the size of the hall
• ITDG is a means of mentally establishing whether one is in an
acoustically small or large space
– A blind person can judge the size of the hall fairly accurately, based
just on his assessment of ITDG
• ITDG varies with the listener location in a hall
– The larger the hall, the farther apart its surfaces, resulting in a longer
path difference between the direct and the reflected sounds at the
listener, which renders a larger ITDG
– This is not true for listeners close to sound reflecting surfaces where
the difference between the direct and reflected paths is small; thus,
the listeners close to the wall perceive the hall as being intimate
• In general, narrow halls, though large, sound intimate and
perform acoustically well
– The ITDG in a narrow hall, even in the middle of the hall, is small
because of early side wall reflections
• Controlling the width of the hall, or providing side walls close
to the audience is useful strategy
INITIAL TIME DELAY GAP
• In a wide hall or in an open-air music space, the intimacy
can be improved by the use of an orchestral enclosure –
a stage with boundaries located close to the musicians
– The enclosure provides early reflection of sounds at the
listeners apart from enhancing other musical attributes
• The appropriate value of ITDG varies with the type of
music played in the hall
– Chamber music, intended for performance in a small and
intimate room, will sound smeared, and the intricacies of its
detail blurred, when played in a very large space
– For concert halls, a low ITDG value is preferred; highly rated
spaces achieve 16ms, while lowly rated halls achieve 31ms
– The ITDG values were taken at an approximate center of the hall
- nearly halfway between the stage and the balcony front
SPACIOUSNESS
• The acoustical parameter that relates best with the
desirable feeling of being “enveloped by” or “immersed
in” music is termed ambience, or simply spaciousness
• An important aspect of spaciousness is the presence of
strong early lateral reflections – reflections that reach
the ear during the first 80ms but from the lateral
direction
– Lateral direction is defined as the direction lying between 20O
and 90O with respect to an imaginary vertical plane through the
listener’s head
• Spaciousness is, therefore, regarded to result from a
combination of two factors
– The presence of lateral reflections
– Sound diffusion provided by texturing of room surfaces
SPACIOUSNESS
• The presence of lateral reflections
– The lateral reflections tend to increase the apparent width of
the orchestra by making the orchestra appear larger than its
actual size
– The attribute related to lateral reflections is called the apparent
source width (ASW)
– The greater the ASW, the better the music
• Sound diffusion provided by texturing of room surfaces
– The diffusion of sound creates a feeling of the listener being
enveloped by music, referred to as the listener envelopment
– A high degree of listener envelopment is produced when the
sound is diffused
HALL SHAPE and LATERAL SOUND
• The lateral reflections in a hall are typically provided by
the side walls
– In a fan-shaped hall, the side wall reflections reach the listener
more from the frontal direction as compared with those of a
rectangular hall; that is why a fan-shaped hall usually is not
favored for a concert hall
– A reverse fan-shape provides a greater degree of laterality than
a rectangular hall
IMPORTANCE OF EARLY LATERAL REFLECTIONS
• When the requirement of intimacy is combined with the
laterality of sound, it is concluded that the most important
requirement of music spaces is the arrival of early reflections at
the listener from lateral directions
– A wide hall decreases intimacy by increasing the ITDG, particularly for
seats far away from the side walls
• A strategy used in large number of halls is having balconies
cantilevered into the hall from the side walls
– Cantilevered balconies increase diffusion and provide some lateral
reflections
• Another successful strategy to increase lateral reflections is by
designing a hall-within-a-hall floor plan
– The side walls are not cantilevered but arranged as terraces overlooking
into the hall
– Although the hall’s overall width is large, the central audience area is
enclosed by the side walls of overlooking terraces, which increase
intimacy and spaciousness in this area
Cantilevered Balconies

Hall-within-a-Hall
IMPORTANCE OF DIFFUSIONS – Listener Envelopment

• Large-scale irregularities, projections and protrusions,

ornamentation, coffered surfaces, etc., are necessary
for sound diffusion in a concert hall
• Large reflective planar surfaces that are commonly
used in halls meant for speech are not recommended
for music spaces
– Such surfaces produce “harsh” reflections, referred to as
acoustical glare
WARMTH
• A slight increase in low frequency (bass) reverberation is an
important requirement for music halls – to provide warmth
to music
– Warmth is determined by comparing low and high frequency
reverberations, called the bass ratio (BR)
• A BR greater than 1.0 is desirable for warmth in music
– Recommended BR value is between 1.1 to 1.25 for halls with an RT
greater than 1.8 seconds
– For halls with RT less than 1.8 seconds, BR should be between 1.1
and 1.45
– A BR greater than the recommended value should be avoided
• Conversely, music played in a hall with a BR less than 1.0
lacks warmth
– Only hard and heavy surfaces, such as concrete and masonry, are
recommended for music hall interiors
– Room surfaces of lightweight panels with air cavity backup increase
low frequency absorption, thereby reducing BR
BRILLIANCE
• High frequencies (2kHz and above) are more easily absorbed by
most building materials than low and mid frequencies
– High frequencies are also reduced by air, while low and mid
frequencies are not
– Consequently, EDT and RT tend to be lower at high frequencies
– Thus, music performed in halls with a very low EDT or RT at high
frequencies lack brilliance
– A brilliant music is one that is not deficient in high frequencies; it gives
a bright, clear and ringing sound
• The brilliance in a music space is measured by EDT2000/EDTmid
and EDT4000/EDTmid, where EDTmid is the average of EDT values at
500 and 1000kHz
– Recommended minimum values are 0.9 for EDT2000/EDTmid, and 0.8 for
EDT4000/EDTmid
• To achieve adequate brilliance in music, surfaces that are good
high frequency absorbers, such as draperies and carpets, etc.,
should be used with extreme care in buildings intended for
music
LOUDNESS
• Inadequate loudness is frustrating; excessive loudness is overpowering
– A poorly designed large hall may suffer from lack of loudness particularly in
seats away from the orchestra; in a small hall, the orchestra may be too loud
• Acoustically, loudness (denoted by G) is defined as the difference in sound
pressure level at the center of the hall due to a source minus the sound
pressure level due to the same source in an anechoic chamber 10m away
from the source.
G = (SPLhall – SPLanechoic chamber)
‒ Since SPL is frequency dependent, G is a function of the frequency
‒ In order to compare a hall with another, the value of Gmid is used – defined as
the average of the values of G at 500 and 1000Hz
• Loudness (Gmid) is made up of the strength of the direct sound and the
reverberant sound
– The direct sound is a function of the size (volume) of the hall; reverberant
sound is dependent on the reverberation time – in fact early decay time
• Thus, Gmid is inversely proportional to the volume of the hall, V, and
directly proportional to EDT
Gmid = EDT/V
• The recommended value of Gmid is between 4.0 to 5.5dB
CONCERT HALL DESIGN
PROCEDURE
The acoustics of a concert hall is assumed to
depend on the following six parameters,
arranged in their order of importance:
• Early Decay Time – an index of the
reverberance in music
• Apparent Source Width – an index of the
laterality of music
• Gmid – an index of the loudness of music
• Sound Diffusion Index
• ITDG – an index of the intimacy of music
• Bass ratio – a measure of the warmth in music
• At the present time, SDI is the only parameter that
cannot be experimentally measured
– It can be estimated only subjectively from a visual
inspection of the irregularities in a hall
• Although the 5 other parameters are measurable, they
are not generally calculable
– The only 2 parameters that can be calculated from the
drawings are EDT and BR – even EDT cannot be calculated
directly.
– However, measurements done for most concert halls
indicate that EDT is nearly 10% higher than RT. Thus, EDT
can be estimated from the calculated value of RT
• In view of the non-calculability of acoustical
parameters from drawings, a scale model of the hall is
recommended to be prepared for acoustical testing
PRELIMINARY DESIGN of CONCERT HALL
• Determine the approximate floor area and
volume
– Both determinants are directly related to seating
capacity, but it is not a fixed number, but
adjustable within certain limits
– Therefore, it is suggested that the preliminary
design of the hall should begin by specifying the
value of Gmid (desirable value lies between 4 to
5.5dB)
– After specifying Gmid, specify the required value of
RTmid (optimum value is between 1.8 to 2.0s)
PRELIMINARY DESIGN of CONCERT HALL
• Determine the number of seats from the
equation:
N = [ 0.2V/RTmid]
• Assume area/seat as 0.69m2, multiply this
number by the number obtained from above
equation to get total area ST
– The value ST includes the orchestral area
– Assume orchestral area to be 200m2
GROSS SHAPING OF THE HALL
• Traditionally, narrow rectangular or horseshoe shaped rooms have worked
best for orchestral music
– Fan shaped rooms are successful only if early lateral reflections can be
supplied from the sides of seating terraces located at different elevations
– Hall-within-hall and vineyard floor plans are some of the successfully tried
alternatives
• Decision needs to be made whether or not balconies and boxes should be
incorporated
– If they are not, the entire audience area will be on one level, and a relatively
low ceiling height to achieve the desired volume
– Since the ideal hall width is 27m, the hall may become too long, placing the
last rows too far from the performers
• Using a fan shaped hall to keep the audience close is acoustically
undesirable
– A better alternative is to stack the audience in balconies and boxes around the
upper walls
– Thus, tall-and-narrow halls are promoted to keep the listeners close to the
action
– In this case, the balcony fronts and soffits become useful elements in the
diffusion and reflection scheme
SIGHT LINES, BALCONIES, REAR WALLS
• Sight lines must be carefully considered for listeners in the higher seating
areas
– The higher above the stage a seat, the steeper the look angle, and the steeper
the risers
– Fewer balcony rows are not only easier for sight lines, they create shorter
overhangs to the advantage of seats below them; this has to be weighed
against the concept of getting more of the audience up higher in the room to
reach the right proportions of tall and narrow
• Seats located too far under a balcony suffer from reduced loudness,
reduced reverberance and a lack of envelopment because sound can
arrive from only a few directions
– Overhead sound under a balcony is particularly lacking; thus, the depth of
balcony overhang should be as small as possible, not greater than the opening
height
• The rear wall should be suitably treated to avoid echoes
– The considerations that apply to halls for speech apply to concert halls
– However, as far as possible, avoid treating the rear wall with sound absorbing
material
– A sound diffusing rear wall is a better alternative for concert halls
– Geometrical irregularities or quadratic residue diffusers may be used
INTERIOR FINISHES
• The best-rated music halls have walls made of
plaster on masonry; slightly less regarded halls
have thick plaster with a small air space
behind
– Wood should be veneered directly to plaster or to
a thick, heavy substrate, but avoid thin panels of
wood, plaster, gypsum board, plastic having deep
air cavities behind them; such interior finish robs a
hall of its bass energy
SOUND ISOLATION and BACKGROUND NOISE
• Any audible background noise is undesirable, whether momentary
intrusions from within or outside the performance space, or ambient
sound from air conditioning or other noise sources
– The quietest passages in music may approach the threshold of hearing;
competition from unwanted sound intrusion is distracting and unwelcome
• Where possible, do not locate a concert hall near exterior noise
sources, such as major highways, rail lines, airport traffic, or industrial
plants
– Attention to the initial plan, using less sensitive spaces as sound buffers,
allowing space for creating sound locks, and locating noisy function rooms
such as mechanical rooms and rooftop equipment away from sensitive
spaces will help decrease the reliance on more complex costly
construction
• A concert hall in which the orchestra must play very soft passages can
afford little masking sound from ventilation system
– The acoustician and the mechanical engineer must try to bring the system
noise to near inaudibility
• A space in which amplified music is the norm can allow noisier AC
since the music can be amplified over the background
DIFFUSION
• Diffusion of sound which gives envelopment,
can be achieved in a number of ways
– A concert hall with a lot of detail, rich in
ornamentation sounds better
– Designers have realized that richness in detail
properly served can yield lasting visual pleasures
as well as provide more sound diffusing surfaces