Online guide to room acoustics for musicians
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Online guide to room acoustics for musicians
Malte Kob (Detmold University of Music) [PI] with Martha de Francisco (McGill University), Fabien Lévy (Hochschule für Musik une Theater Leipzig), Kit Soden (McGill University), and Caroline Traube (Université de Montréal)
September 15, 2020
Aim:
Creation of an internet-based guide for musicians that describes in layman terms the fundamentals of acoustic features of musical instruments, stages, performance and rehearsal rooms using visual and auditory examples from, e.g., the ODESSA project. The guide also explains what and how parameters can be assessed along with the audio recordings to document a musical performance.
Description:
For the assessment and documentation of musical performances it is necessary to describe the conditions under which musicians performed to have an idea about the potential impact on the recording. Acoustic aspects such as the propagation of sound, radiation of musical instruments, and room and stage acoustics are relevant factors in musical performance. For the musicians these factors impact on their musical performance whereas listeners experience changes in e.g. clarity, loudness, ensemble sound and many more aspects. At the convergence of science and art, this project aims to create an easily accessible "Guide to Acoustics" that can provide a detailed documentation in layman terms about the above aspects. This can be used within the ACTOR members or can be used as an open-source website/ document that can be used for the public after publishing it at a conference.
The acoustic guide for musicians would include the following details using text, animations, videos and sound examples:
Fundamentals of the science of musical sounds and room acoustics
Basics of operation and radiation of musical instruments
Fundamentals of how to record instruments and measure room parameters
Examples of the influence of room & stage acoustic factors on musical performance