Requirement for Low-Frequency Reverberation in Spaces for Music: Part 1: Smaller Rooms for Different Uses

Low-frequency sound and noise are shown to play a prominent role in generating and propagating music and speech. In smaller rooms, the unavoidable excitation of modal field structures causes masking and Lombard effects, which reduce the clarity of music and the intelligibility of speech, thus triggering an inevitable loudness spiral in ensemble play and verbal communications. Practical case studies in teaching and performance spaces demonstrate room-acoustic measures to cope with this omnipresent problem. The solution calls for a flat reverberation spectrum of the room instead of a bass rise, as is usually up-to-date and tolerated by most standards and regulations worldwide. Teachers and students in classrooms, conductors and musicians in orchestra pits, and chairmen and participants in conferences may equally gain from an improved acoustic quality of their environment.