DESIGN OF ROOMS FOR

MUSIC
BUILDING UTILITIES 3
Module 1 Lecture 6
An architectural acoustician relies on the physics of

SOUND PROPAGATION,

MATERIAL PROPERTIES, and

NOISE CONTROL

to craft a desired soundscape.

Most of music making is carried out indoors.

The listener's experience is formed almost by the room itself as

by the instruments.

For a successful performance (or recording), the concert space

(or studio, or living room with recorded sounds) must fulfill the
following requirements:
The audience must clearly hear all of the music with the proper balance
between instruments, and the proper tonal balance for each instrument.

The performer must clearly hear himself and the other performers.

Reverberation should be appropriate to the style of the music.

Extraneous sounds must be inaudible in the concert space.

The sound of the concert should be inaudible outside of the concert

space.

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 DIRECT SOUND AND EARLY REFLECTIONS

DIRECT SOUND The other paths involve one reflection.

the shortest path

The paths taken by the sound as it travels.

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ARRIVAL TIMES OF A SINGLE SOUND

The amplitude of a particular reflection is determined

by the path length and the efficiency of the wall in
reflecting sound.

That efficiency is described as the coefficient of

absorption.

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REVERBERATION

Sound continues and is reflected again

by the other walls of the room.
A sound may bounce several
times before it fades away.

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TIME AND AMPLITUDE OF SOUNDS
AT LISTENER'S EAR

Sound made

Most of the sound energy that is reflected

twice, or more is heard as reverberation. The duration of reverberation
is very important.

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 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
COLORATION
Reverberation time is the most often quoted description of a performing space.

The frequency response of the reverb should be reasonably flat, which is sometimes
described as "warm reverb".

The opposite effect, where high pitched sounds linger, can be very annoying.

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ISOLATION
Isolation is a matter of the materials and techniques used to build the
room.

The walls must be heavy and solid.

Attention must be paid to such details as air ducts and holes for
electrical cables, for sound can leak through any opening.

Noise generating devices must be kept out.

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As a special field of room acoustics, concert hall acoustics
focuses in the design of spaces for live music events, typically
unamplified.

Concert halls are usually intended for classical music

performances (mainly symphonic works) with audience
capacity ranging from 300 to 2500 seats.
DESIGN DETERMINANTS
 Ideally, each music type requires a different type of space to
maximize listening pleasure.

 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.
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TYPES OF CONCERT HALLS
“SHOEBOX” CONCERT HALL
 The shoebox shape is simply a
rectangular room, typically with
some balconies.
 Characteristic of most shoebox
halls – particularly the historical
ones – is their “fullness” of
sound, the importance of the
room effect and the sensation of
being surrounded by sound.
 Ornamentations or other
elements are essential to avoid
the undesirable effects of
reflective parallel walls that color
the sound and generate flutter
echoes between the walls.
 VINEYARD
CONCERT HALL
 Named such because the seating sections
resemble slopes in a vineyard.
 This type of room has several advantages:
– It is visually interesting.
– The irregular pattern helps to avoid acoustic
issues, such as flutter echoes and focusing.
 The design is very complicated and expensive.
– The location of the audience behind and to
the sides of the stage, plus the absence of a
balcony results in a room width much bigger
than shoebox halls, and wider than what is
acoustically acceptable.
ARENA AND AMPHITHEATRE CONCERT
HALL
 Works acoustically well for theatre
and speech.
– However, this shape creates acoustic
problems for music and it is necessary
to increase the reverberation and the
room effect by closing off the acoustic
volume.
 Needs to “break up” the concave
shape that generates focusing and to
add reflective surfaces inside the
volume to obtain a better distribution
of the acoustic energy.
– Acoustic reflectors covering part of the
stage and the audience can be
installed for better energy distribution.
FAN-SHAPED CONCERT HALL
 Fan-shaped rooms are the more
common; able to accommodate a
large number of attendants while
keeping a frontal view of the
performers.
 Not prone to flutter echoes, simply
because of the non-parallel walls.
– The width of the room at the rear seats
allows for spaciousness of sound.

 A type of hall to avoid from an acoustic point of view

– Reflections of the lateral walls are directed toward the back of the room while
the front and middle areas do not benefit from any of those lateral reflections.
– This absence of lateral reflections results in a weak subjective sense of
envelopment.
– The lack of lateral reflections can only be partly compensated for by ceiling
reflections.
REVERSE FAN-SHAPE HALL
 A type of hall derived from the fan-shape, but is more an extension or optimization
of the shoebox shape in which the lateral walls are not perfectly parallel to each
other but create a room which is wider at the front than it is at the back.
– The advantage of such a room is that the reflections of the lateral walls become more
efficient at the back of the room.
 For a rectangular shoebox, the
reflections on the rear end of
the lateral walls do not reach
the middle area of the room.
– By narrowing the back of the
room, these reflections can be
orientated toward the listeners
in the middle area.
– The reflections are therefore
being reinforced in the back of
the room and for the entire
audience.
CAPACITY OF THE ROOM
 Three different capacities for symphonic concert halls:
– Between 1300 (or less) and 1500 seats;
– Between 1500 and 2000 seats;
– More than 2000 seats.
 The sound level of a symphony orchestra does not depend on the
number of listeners.
– The hall and its acoustic volume is designed in view of sound levels and
acoustic conditions relating to the orchestra, rather than paying too much
attention to the number of listeners.
– For rooms with a capacity of less than 1500 seats, the sound volume per
listener is therefore significant and increases further as the seat count
decreases.
 Halls with more than 2000 seats present a double challenge.
– The sound level in the room needs to be maximized - acoustic energy is
limited.
– Room dimensions need to be increased.
OTHER GEOMETRICAL
CONSIDERATIONS
SUSPENDED REFLECTORS
 An important objective of a concert hall is to deliver the sound to
different audience sections as uniformly as possible.
 The room’s actual ceiling is unlikely to be able to accomplish this.
– Therefore, it is common to install suspended reflectors off the ceiling, at angles
that will reflect the sound towards different audience sections.

SPACIOUSNESS/ENVELOPMENT
 By taking into consideration the angles of the walls at both sides of
the audience, and adjusting reflections of the walls using reflectors, it
is possible to redirect the sound from the stage back into the audience
at a very lateral angle.
– The result will be a perception of the music source being much wider than it
really is, compared to the case where a listener only receives the direct sound
from the stage.
– The attribute related to lateral reflections is called the apparent source width
(ASW). The greater the ASW, the better the music.
STAGE SUPPORT
 Room acoustics must be designed with not only the audience in mind,
but also considering the musicians.
 A concert hall without high enough sound strength will make the
musicians feel like their instrument is not producing strong enough
sound, leading to frustration and unbalanced overall sound.
 It is also important that the musicians are able to hear themselves, so
it is helpful to have reflectors at their sides and/or above them.
ROOM ACOUSTIC
PARAMETERS
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 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
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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
– 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

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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

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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
– For listeners close to sound reflecting surfaces where the difference between
the direct and reflected paths is small, they perceive the hall as being intimate
 Controlling the width of the hall, or providing side walls close to the
audience is useful strategy.
 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
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
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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, early decay time (EDT) and reverberation time (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
 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

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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
 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 (EDT).
 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
 ARCHITECTURAL
REQUIREMENTS
PARAMETERS
Ideal : between 12m3 and 13m3.
Volume per person
Acceptable : between 11m3 and 14m3
Approximately 30000m3 (between 28000
and 32000m3) to obtain 12 to 13m3 per
Total volume
person in the audience and for 2400
seats.
1400m2 including 500m2 close to the
Reflective surfaces musicians (less than15m from a point of
the stage).

Height of the auditorium
Height of the reflectors above stage
Variable acoustic absorption
(curtains or other elements)
The height will be chosen by the design
team to obtain the appropriate volume of
30000m3.
The ceiling will not necessarily be flat. It is
understood and considered acceptable
that the total height (omitting the acoustic
reflectors) above the stage can be greater
than 20m.
Required variability: between 10 and 16m
for a continuous large reflector (canopy)
and 8 to 14m for a set of smaller acoustic
reflectors
More than 1200m2 of absorbing material is
required, which shall be exposed to sound
or removed with the use of motorized or
mechanized machinery.
A small concert hall was given acoustical
treatments in a recent renovation.