Anyone know anything about Acoustics?

[nkbswe5]

Wow I cant believe im asking but im getting preeety desperate. If you can't tell, considering im on a nintendo wii board :wtf:

Yeah...anyone know how the acoustics of a venue affect sound and musical performance.

Year 11 music. Last Question. Google = No help...

 

[wii love gamin]

no idea at all

 

[nkbswe5]

Yes, thats what my answer shall be! Not like I care if my music teacher gets one less answer than needed, though i made up most of the others.

 

[Cabe]

Yeah...anyone know how the acoustics of a venue affect sound and musical performance.

I did a sound engineering course last year and got an A so I may be able to help.

All sound actually is is vibrations in the air. Different venues will have structures or materials which will effect these vibrations in different ways.

For example, Sound studio's generally don't have a big 'live room' so if the walls were made of metal they would just bounce the sound waves around the room giving a jumbled up, blurry sound. (The sound will be picked up by the mic but it will bounce off the wall infront of the source, then off the wall behind the source and back to the mic) To avoid this the walls tend to be wood with a layer of fabric suspended about 1 inch infront of the wood to absorb the sound meaning it can't bounce around the room and be picked up multiple times.
If you are listening to a band live you want something in the middle. ie - you don't want sound waves bouncing around all over the place giving a mash of noise and likewise, you don't want a dead sound from absorbing all the waves.
Because high pitched sound has a much shorter wavelength than deep sounds they are absorbed much more easily. This can distort the sound as certain parts may be absorbed before it actually gets to the listener

A venue with good acoustics will let the listener hear the sound from just about anywhere in the venue exactly as it sounds at the source.
A venue with bad acoustics will distort the sound (ie certain frequencys absorbed, echo's etc)

Since most musicians base how they play on what they hear bad, bad acoustics can cause the musician to play off key or out of time.


I hope this helps in some way

 

[nkbswe5]

Wow, thats exactly what I needed! Thank you! now I have to put www.wiichat.com on my bibliography