Architectural Acoustics: How Your Music Hall's Layout Affects Sound Quality

The science of modern concert-hall acoustics was born in the late 1800s and early 1900s in the United States. The father of architectural acoustics was Wallace Clement Sabine, an assistant professor at Harvard who helped to plan the internal acoustics of the new Boston Symphony Hall, erected in 1900, and is considered to have be one of the best concert halls for its acoustics in the world.

By testing various halls using seat cushions, people, a pipe organ, various other materials and a stop watch, Sabine carefully measured the time required for different sound frequencies to decay within the various spaces. Today, there are six attributes in considering the acoustics of concert halls. These six attributes are the standard for which all concert halls are based.

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