Concert Hall Design Research Articles

Listening to the structure: Mass-timber construction at the Groton Hill Music Center

Historically, Western music spaces were built with massive masonry-bearing walls. While these designs offer structural and acoustical benefits, today’s construction culture is conscious of more fluid forms and embodied carbon, which influences how consultants think about the design of spaces for music. The recently completed Groton Hill Music Center is unique for its use of mass timber’s sculptural capabilities to shape performance space acoustic volumes forthrightly, with little additional finish treatment. The center features studio classrooms for students of all ages, an orchestral rehearsal space, a 300-seat recital hall for soloists and small ensembles, and a grand 1000-seat concert hall that opens to view for a 500-seat lawn audience. Structure and architecture are largely unified, with one’s acoustic experience defined by the sculpted mass timber structure. The comparatively light-weight timber/concrete composite structure represents a significant and somewhat acoustically risky reduction in mass to provide an acoustically warm environment. This presentation will explore how the structure was optimized to provide stiffness and multi-scale diffusion, taking the ideals of classic concert hall design, and embracing contemporary construction technologies and acoustical analyses.

Psychophysiological responses to changes in the acoustic design of concert halls

This study examined the psychophysiological responses of listeners to changes in the acoustic environment design of a concert hall. The research focused on both general audiences and experts in order to analyze the design of the acoustic environment based on their psychological and physiological aspects. The study involved the measurement of architectural acoustics of the hall and sound source produced through auralization based on the impulse responses collected earlier and the acoustical parameters gathered for the analysis. Changes were implemented through a refurbishment condition by the alterations to finishing materials. The objective sound environment improvement was evaluated by analyzing the electroencephalogram response in relation to the highly evaluated acoustic environment of the hall and the sound condition from the existing acoustic environment. The study found significant changes in the area related to emotion, preference for the acoustic environment, fatigue through the HRV parameter, and EEG. The results confirmed that psychophysiological responses to changes in the acoustical design provide an objective evidence of better concert hall acoustics.

Integrating generative parametric design workflow in the terraced concert hall design process

Compared to shoe box halls, terraced concert halls are popular due to their proximity to the stage and expressive design. However, its complex geometry requires delicate adjustments during the design process to effectively deliver a design that satisfies both the needs of acoustics and creativity. The study aims to explore the integration of generative parametric design workflow into the design of terraced concert halls and apply the workflow to an actual competition project. This workflow consists of three steps: defining basic parameters and reference geometries, generating and composing geometric elements with synchronized acoustic and geometric verification, and conducting performance evaluation of the results. The workflow enables integration of diverse viewpoints for the competition project, covering both the acoustics of the concert hall and the spatial integration with the surroundings. The outcome is a multi-layered, terraced concert hall with acoustic performance comparable to a traditional shoebox hall, and a metaphorical image of the topography of the city in which the concert hall is located.

Generative design of terraced concert hall – a case study of Taipei music and library centre

ABSTRACT The terraced concert hall offers a wide range of design options. Yet the knowledge barrier within a design team makes it difficult to effectively deliver a design that satisfies both the needs of creativity and acoustics. The study aims to explore the integration of generative parametric design collaboration workflow into the design of terraced concert halls and apply the cumulative results of the pilot study to the Taipei Music and Library Centre design competition. We propose an enhanced collaborating model between architects and acoustic consultants, integrating geometric design with acoustic verification in concert hall design. This cooperating model embraces and integrates three key steps: defining basic parameters and reference geometries, efficiently generating and composing geometric elements, and conducting geometric and acoustic statistical assessments. This design strategy enables integration of diverse viewpoints, covering both the acoustics within the hall and the space integration with the surroundings. The outcome is a terraced concert hall with an acoustic performance comparable to traditional shoebox-shaped halls.

ОСОБЕННОСТИ ПРОЕКТИРОВАНИЯ КУЛЬТУРНО-ЗРЕЛИЩНЫХ ЗДАНИЙ В КРУПНЫХ ГОРОДАХ

Today, when the development of the country and society is inextricably linked with the development of culture, the demand of the population for modern buildings of cultural and entertainment purposes is extremely high. The conducted indicative assessment of foreign and domestic experience in designing cultural and entertainment buildings and complexes showed the dynamics of the development of buildings from monofunctionality to multifunctionality. To form a new perspective on the design of concert halls, design methods have been studied from the point of view of their use in the design of buildings of this type. the considered design strategies applied to the architectural design of multifunctional cultural and entertainment complexes and the identified factors of the formation of cultural and entertainment buildings: external (urban planning, climatic and socio–economic) and internal (spatial planning, acoustic, functional) are designed to streamline and improve the design process of cultural and entertainment buildings. A universal algorithm is proposed for the design of cultural and entertainment complexes as a new typological object with a multifunctional space-planning structure, which consists of five stages: the first stage is the problem statement (analysis of factors, problem statement and development of technical specifications), the second stage is urban planning justification (the territory for the design of a cultural and entertainment building is considered using a conflictological approach),the third stage – conceptual (involves the choice of the functional content of the design area and the object, the strategy and method of design, the development of an idea / concept / draft design); the fourth stage is the design stage (includes sections of the project documentation):the fifth stage (verification of compliance of the developed project with the assigned tasks).The proposed algorithm for the formation of multifunctional cultural and entertainment complexes as a new typological object with a multifunctional space-planning structure was tested when developing a proposal for a cultural and entertainment building on Chicherina St. in Belgorod.

Energy spectral element method for longitudinal acoustic propagation in ducts

Sound field behavior in an acoustic enclosure is an important part of the design of transportation vehicle passenger cabin, concert halls, conference rooms, and etc. Different analysis methods are available and have strengths and weaknesses. Low frequency band envelopes and negligible absorption in the walls can be modeled by Modal Analysis or Finite Element Method. However, as the frequency band increases, both methods become computationally intensive and Statistical Energy Analysis or the Sabine model can be an efficient approach. However, these methods do not take into account any spatial variation within the enclosure. The Energy Flow Analysis (EFA) solution for acoustic enclosures can be done analytically. In this paper, the Energy Spectral Element Method (ESEM) is formulated and applied to predict the spatial distribution of energy flux and density of acoustic ducts at high frequencies. ESEM is a matrix methodology based on EFA to solve acoustic and structural vibration problems. In this work, numerical models involving simple and coupled one-dimensional acoustic ducts are generated by ESEM, and the results are compared with energy densities calculated from the pressure fields predicted by the Spectral Element Method (SEM).

Szilard-Wigner distributions completely define physics and perceptions of concert halls

At the second joint meeting of the Acoustical Society of Japan and the Acoustical Society of America in 1988 Yamasaki and Itoh presented time-frequency measurements of several concert halls employing Fourier transforms on autocorrelations, the same device Szilard and Wigner had developed for quantum theory in the 1920s. In 1995, it was proved that resonant scattering in the body of good halls generates power spectra resolved in time and frequency, correctly presenting musical information emanating from the orchestra. In poor halls specular reflections from hard flat surfaces generate echoes encoding architectural information about size, shape, features of the hall, necessarily detracting from desired musical information. Yamasaki and Itoh also demonstrated that “reverberation-time” tells essentially nothing about properties, physical or perceptual, of concert halls; impulse responses, from which Szilard-Wigner distributions are computed, tell much more. Careful study of these matters explains why after the era of Wallace Sabine, when “reverberation-time” became the sine qua non of concert hall theory, design of fine concert halls became impossible.

Singing in different performance spaces: Associations between room acoustic and singers perception

While the acoustic design of concert halls and other performance venues has evolved over time, the fact remains that the acoustic environments are generally designed for the benefit of the listening audiences rather than that of the performers. However, singers adapt their voice to room acoustics. This paper expands upon our current understanding of how a room’s acoustic environment influences a singer’s performance from the perceptions, observations, and lived experiences of performers. The subjects were nine classically-trained singers. Subjects sang the same aria in five different performance venues. After the performance, the singers filled out a questionnaire. Questions were subdivided into five major sections that were designed to capture their perceptions of (1) overall impressions; (2) background noise levels; (3) voice support; (4) Voice clarity. It was observed the overall impression of the room was mostly correlated with STv and IACClate. The perception of reverberation and the noisiness were correlated with C80 and EDT. The perceived voice support and clarity were mostly correlated with STv. This finding indicates the importance of auditory feedback in singers’ performance and the need for an acoustical design that takes into account the performers perception.

Study on the Optimal Strategy of Campus Concert Hall--Take the Concert Hall of Sun Yat-sen University as an Example

With the increasing functional demand of universities, the construction of campus concert halls is become more common. In addition to being a venue for bands to perform, university concert halls are often used as conference halls, in particular. They not only require good music sound effects, but also have certain requirements for speech intelligibility. Using the ODEON software to simulate the design plan of the concert hall of the Zhuhai campus of Sun Yat-Sen University, it is found that the acoustic parameters in the balcony area are unsatisfactory such as uneven sound pressure level, low bass ratio and so on. In response to the shortcomings, the body shape was changed by adjusting the ceiling and adding floating cloud reflectors, so as to vary the distribution of sound field. This strategy can make the above-mentioned acoustic parameter values more evenly distributed in the concert hall and keep the speech intelligibility in the auditorium at a medium level. The above design methods can effectively guide the sound quality design of university concert halls.

Composing and Performing Complex Systems: From the Quantum to the Cosmological

Abstract This paper discusses the creation and development of a large distributed immersive multimedia computation system and environment based on the discipline of orchestral music composition, concert hall design, and performance. Just as the orchestra evolved through mechanical engineering to become a large distributed multiuser instrument whose information can be transmitted by either a client-server model (i.e. orchestra-conductor) or a client-to-client model, as in an instrumental ensemble, large-scale distributed multimedia computational platforms can be modeled in the same way, facilitating the users as performers of the system. Multiple researchers can mine large, complex data sets to uncover relationships of interest in their spatiotemporal structures.

Optimizing sound diffusion in a concert hall using scale-model measurements and simulations

To propose optimal guidelines for the diffusion design of concert halls, sound field variations in the presence or absence of reflectors (canopies and clouds) and diffusers were comprehensively examined in terms of stage and auditorium acoustics using 1:25 scale-model measurements and acoustic simulations. The sound field variations were investigated based on the just-noticeable differences. For stage acoustics, the stage support parameters STEarly and STLate were analyzed; for auditorium acoustics, the reverberation time (RT), early decay time (EDT), clarity (C80), and center time (TS) were analyzed. The canopies reduced the reverberations but increased STEarly and STLate. The clouds increased STEarly and reduced the deviation of the auditorium EDT and TS whilst increasing the initial EDT that had been reduced by the canopies. The diffusers decreased STEarly, STLate, RT, EDT, and TS regardless of the attachment position, and they increased the C80 of some auditoriums. However, diffuser attachments reduced the seat-to-seat deviations of acoustic parameters. Furthermore, attaching diffusers near to (as opposed to far from) the sound source represents the optimal design strategy for increasing the density of early reflections. This study is significant as an initial attempt to examine the effects of concert hall diffusion design in terms of both auditorium and stage acoustics, and it is significant in that it presents an appropriate method for evaluating the effects of a concert hall diffusion design that can be employed by architects and sound consultants. The findings of this study are expected to be suitable as basic data for the diffusion design of rectangular concert halls.

A study of the just noticeable difference of early decay time for symphonic halls.

The just noticeable differences (JNDs) of room acoustic parameters are important for the design of concert halls and, in general, research of room acoustics. Precise knowledge of JNDs helps the concert hall designer in assessing the impact that changes in the geometry or materials of the hall will have on its perceived acoustics. When designing a concert hall, creating an appropriate feeling of reverberance for the audience is of prime importance. The early decay time (EDT) parameter has proved to be a better predictor of the perception of reverberance than the classical reverberation time (T30), but no studies have been conducted to specifically determine the EDT JND. In the present study, the EDT JND was investigated for broadband conditions and assessed for individual frequency ranges. A subjective study was conducted with 26 subjects with musical training, in which 21 were considered reliable. The participants listened to orchestral music convolved with measured spatial room impulse responses from three concert halls. The stimuli were auralized in an anechoic chamber using third-order Ambisonic reproduction. The obtained values show that the JNDs for the broadband conditions are lower than those for the individual frequency ranges. The EDT JND for the broadband conditions was found to be approximately 18% of the EDT value.

Spatial extrapolation of early room impulse responses in local area using sparse equivalent sources and image source method

The room impulse response (RIR) is important in most acoustic applications, such as the design of concert halls and sound field control, because it characterizes the sound propagation. The measurement of RIRs at multiple points is challenging, as it requires a huge microphone array or repeating the experiment by microphone replacement. Several RIR interpolation and extrapolation methods of RIRs have been developed for obtaining RIRs from multiple measurement points efficiently. Extrapolation methods offer more efficient RIR measurement compared to interpolation. However, previous studies focused on extrapolation at frequencies below 1 kHz, and the extrapolation at higher frequencies was difficult. In this study, we propose an extrapolation method for RIRs of direct sound and early reflections in a local area using a small number of measurement points. The proposed method represents the RIRs around the microphones using superpositions of sparse equivalent sources located around the loudspeaker and image sources. We conducted a measurement experiment in an anechoic chamber to estimate RIRs around microphones using sound-reflecting boards. From the experimental results with 2.5 dimensional conditions, the proposed method achieved about above 10 dB of signal to noise ratio (SNR) near the microphone array from 0.5–8.5 kHz. For the extrapolation accuracy over the entire evaluation area (0.6 × 0.54 m2), the proposed method improved the SNR by about 5–6 dB compared to results using the plane wave decomposition.

Sound Power Characteristics of Chinese Traditional Wind Instrument Qudi

The standards for design and evaluation of Chinese concert halls have followed that of western music and western concert halls all the time. In recent years, studies on the sound characteristics of Chinese traditional musical instruments have been conducted. Wind instrument is an important type of traditional national musical instruments of China. The Chinese flute (Di) is the most representative one among them, the oldest type with a history almost 9000 years, and it is still one of the most widely used instruments now. So the study of Qudi (a main kind of Di) can be seen as a representative research work of traditional national wind instruments of China. The measurement presents the sound power level, dynamic range and frequency characteristics of Qudi when single notes, a music scale and a typical melody are performed at various dynamics. This is the first time a research measures the sound power of Qudi by multi-channel real-time analysis method in a reverberation room according to ISO and Chinese national standards. It shows that, Qudi has higher sound power level and a limited dynamic range when compared with Chinese traditional stringed and plucked instruments. The main energy radiation of Qudi is in the alto (middle) range and soprano (high) range. Here, we use sound power level of the music scale performed at forte dynamic as the representative value of Qudi’s SWL, and it is 96.2dB.

Listeners Sensitivity to Different Locations of Diffusive Surfaces in Performance Spaces: The Case of a Shoebox Concert Hall

Diffusive surfaces are considered as one of the most challenging aspects to deal with in the acoustic design of concert halls. However, the acoustic effects that these surface locations have on the objective acoustic parameters and on sound perception have not yet been fully understood. Therefore, the effects of these surfaces on the acoustic design parameters have been investigated in a real shoebox concert hall with variable acoustics (Espace de Projection, IRCAM, Paris, France). Acoustic measurements have been carried out in six hall configurations by varying the location of the diffusive surfaces over the front, mid, and rear part of the lateral walls, while the other surfaces have been maintained absorptive or reflective. Moreover, two reference conditions, that is, fully absorptive and reflective boundaries of the hall have been tested. Measurements have been carried out at different positions in the hall, using an artificial head and an array of omnidirectional microphones. Conventional ISO 3382 objective acoustic parameters have been evaluated in all conditions. The results showed that the values of these parameters do not vary significantly with the diffusive surface location. Moreover, a subjective investigation performed by using the ABX method with auralizations at two listening positions revealed that listeners are not sensitive to the diffusive surface location variations even when front-rear asymmetric conditions are compared. However, some of them reported perceived differences relying on reverberance, coloration, and spaciousness.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Surround-Type Concert Halls

Following the significant number of new shoebox-type halls that opened in the last decades of the 20th century, the first decades of the 21st century have seen large concert hall design and construction dominated by halls in a surround format. This typology is characterised by the audience surrounding the concert platform, with a significant percentage of the audience seated to the sides of or behind the platform. These halls often use vineyard-style terracing. This paper discusses some advantages and disadvantages of surround halls, with respect to both acoustics and wider performance aspects. The perspectives of audiences, performers and hall operators are considered. Factors include acoustical quality, equality of audience experience, multiple performance genre use and ticket revenue. In particular, the implications of locating a high percentage of the audience behind the concert platform are examined. This is because, in most surround halls, a significantly higher percentage of the audience is located behind the platform as compared, for example, to shoebox halls.

Subjective assessment of the intelligibility of noised speech in lecture room

Subjective assessment of the speech intelligibility is of great practical interest, since this parameter can be used in many engineering and natural-mathematical fields, such as bioengineering, design of lecture rooms and concert halls, mathematical modeling and medicine. By this time, several attempts were made to assess the intelligibility of the room. The results of such experiments became conclusions: 1) early reflections improve the intelligibility of distorted noise and reverb speech; 2) using binaural type of listening we will have better intelligibility than with monoural. But to re-implement such experiments, it is necessary to use a lot of expensive equipment, which is not always possible. Therefore, the purpose of this work is to study the influence of the characteristics of the room on the speech intelligibility without the use of a large number of equipment. The idea of the experiment is as follows: distorted by noise and reverb signals must be listened to by the participants in the experiment, the perceived sound is fixed and compared with the undistorted signal. The clear signal was recorded using a microphone, sound card and audio file software. Synthesis of distorted signals took place in two stages: 1) adding white noise; 2) filtering the resulting mix through a non-recursive digital filter using the impulse characteristics of the room for six distances to the source of sound. The mathematical model of the distorted (output) signal was the convolution of an additive mix of clear signal and white noise with a pulse characteristic. To ensure the necessary signal-to-noise ratio, the noise was weighed by the corresponding coefficients at the stage of adding it to the clear signal. Testing was carried out in five stages: 1) simulating of distorted signals; 2) voicing signal to participant; 3) signal listening; 4) fixation of the perceived sound; 5) intelligibility calculating. For testing, six binaural impulse characteristics of the room with known parameters from the Aachen database of impulse characteristics were used. Each of the impulse characteristics corresponds to a certain value of the distance from the sound source to the microphone. After the completion of the experiment, the overall result was obtained by averaging by the number of participants. The overall result has shown that for small values of the signal-to-noise ratio over long distances, the intelligibility is greater than for small distances. For high values, the signal-to-noise ratio is better for small distances. Such results may be explained by the fact that, at long distances, the combination of the effects of early reflections and binaural listening positively affects the intelligibility. The main reason for the low intelligibility of the distorted by noise speech in the room is a late reverberation. As a conclusion we can say that the computer modeling method makes it easy to create a distorted by the noise and influence of the room signal; It is shown that, for small values, the signal-to-noise ratio is more readable than for small distances.

Scale model test for the acoustical design of Arts Center Incheon concert hall and acoustic measurement after construction

The Arts Center Incheon (ACI) concert hall was designed to have 1,760 seats, the volume of 18,000 m3 and the reverberation time of 2.1s with seats fully occupied. To achieve the auditory and visual intimacy, the concert hall had a reverse fan shape with a combination of vineyard and balcony. Various scale models and computer simulation were used to determine the acoustical design including the volume of hall, locations of walls and shapes of finishing materials. Three types of sound diffusers were applied according to wall locations. Appropriate protrusion heights were determined based on sound diffusion targets by each part such as the stage and the sides and back of the auditorium. During the execution design stage, a 1:10 scale model of this concert hall was fabricated to measure acoustic characteristics. An auralization experiment was conducted to assess psycho-acoustic responses to the diffusion design. The acoustic measurements after construction matched the design objectives.

Peculiarities of using media fronts for concert-hall design

Peculiarities of using media fronts for concert-hall design

Design of concert hall in uremia based on notification to hidden role of music in architect

The growth of sound in a concert hall is reviewed with emphasis on hearing the direct sound clearly. Architecture in its daily means provides renewed space and is replaced within a larger space and people are moving in it and in it’s around. Music is purely mechanical conception, organized and deliberate scattering of sound waves in space. The aim of current research is design of concert hall based on notification to hidden role of music in architect in Uremia city. Methodology is based on librarian, descriptive-analytical method that is of applied kind. Results show that architecture and Music have practical visuals that no one can reject these characters. Also, we can presented three themes of foundation and basis physical creation, architecture and music for comparison (first: the physical essence; second: the evaluation tools for; Third: change the essence to the body with including of the idea and expand it).