 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: ClariBone
Date: 2005-03-05 01:35
How is this done. Are there common everyday things I can use to help make my bedroom have good acoustics so that when I practice, it will sound better. Should I collect egg cartons and paste them to the walls (my old band room had this done to it). Right now it sounds empty, like my sound is being absorbed. I can hear every little mistake, which is very discouraging. PLEASE HELP!!!!!
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Author: sfalexi
Date: 2005-03-05 01:43
Great question! One of those questions that I never knew to ask, but man am I looking forward to the answers!!!!
US Army Japan Band
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Author: ohsuzan
Date: 2005-03-05 03:33
I don't see why the rules for acoustics in your bedroom should be different from the rules for acoustics in any room: harder surfaces create a more "live" acoustic; softer surfaces tend to deaden the acoustics.
So, what is the practical application of this principle?
Remove as many of the rugs, draperies, wall-hangings, heavy wallpaper, and bedclothes as you can. Hardwood floors are great. You could also try sitting facing the barest corner, so the sound bounces off the wall and back at you (presuming the wall is not papered with grasscloth, or something else absorbent).
Or you could practice in the bathroom. ![[wink]](http://test.woodwind.org/clarinet/BBoard/smileys/smilie3.gif)
Seriously, the drawback to practicing in an acoustically dead space is that you will tend to overblow (play with a forced tone). The good thing about practicing in a dead space is that you DO hear every mistake. Hard on the ego, but good for the technique.
Susan
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Author: Synonymous Botch
Date: 2005-03-05 11:55
Pleasant practice rooms have more reflective surfaces, and are large enough to reverberate (slightly).
Most school practice rooms are designed to isolate sound from the outside hallways - and sound little like performance halls.
I have a large practice space with all hard surfaces and a 1 millisecond echo,
it covers most of my flaws, and leads me to practice longer.
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Author: John Stackpole
Date: 2005-03-05 12:58
SyBo:
How do you measure the reverb? Special instrument? Or just a physics (speed of sound / size of room) calculation?
Where I sit in a somewhat cluttered room - bookcases, tables here and there - I can sometimes hear "someone else" playing along with me, but only on some notes. Spooky, but sort of friendly, too. (Strange though, "he" makes the very same mistakes that I do!)
JDS
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Author: sanya
Date: 2005-03-05 15:48
Well, I practice in the upstairs family room, which has incredibly high ceilings, and is a huge room intself. I wouldn't even call it a room, because it has no door, and it's just open to the whole house. I think big, open spaces (mm high ceilings) help out a lot; just like in my music room.
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Author: Dano
Date: 2005-03-05 16:47
I practice in what I call my music room, that used to be called my office, that used to be called the "the Golden Gate Room". I think the acoustics are just perfect there. I believe that the main reason for that is the hardwood floors that do not absorb any sound. I like that sound and I realize that some people may think it is too much, but I like to be able to hear alot of my "mistakes". Maybe that is why the kitchen is a good room in which to practice also. The floors.
What you look at while practicing, during the breaks that is, also makes for good "acoustics". As long as the view is not a distraction, while it does not help literally, it helps to practice in a place that is lit with natural light and with some kind of view to help your brain get into a forward mode. I have tried practicing in basements and garages and no matter how great the acoustics, it was a depressing setting which affected my playing. My point is that if I didn't have the Golden Gate Bridge to look at while practicing, I think I would worry a bit more about acoustics being perfect.
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Author: poopsie
Date: 2005-03-05 18:03
There is a way to calculate the way the sound will reflect off of the walls using some basic Physics equations to find the focus point of the sound coming from your clarinet. Then again you would always have to sit in the exact spot where the sound is the strongest and not move. Hmm, that could get difficult...
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Author: msloss
Date: 2005-03-05 18:55
1ms reverberant time is basically flat-dead. I doubt it is that short. Really lush concert halls will have a reverb overhang of 2 seconds or more, and a moderate sized and somewhat drier room might have about 1.2 sec or shorter.
The volume an dimensions of the room, composition of the walls and ceiling, carpet, furniture, etc. all affect the sound. Surfaces absorb and reflect different frequencies to different degrees. Different shapes of surfaces also reflect and difract sound in a variety of ways. I would not suggest using egg cartons, because they will suck up sound at certain frequencies, and scatter the sound at others.
As others said, liven up the room if it is too dead. Take out heavy blankets and cushions, pull back curtains, close closet doors, etc. Bedrooms are problematic though, because you have a big ole' sound-sucking mattress in the middle of the room. You might want to find another room to work in.
Good luck.
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Author: music_is_life
Date: 2005-03-05 19:58
I am used to playing in a accustically dead school auditorium, so it's always nice to get out of there! However, sometimes I think a place can be TOO live. Maybe it's supposed to be, but sometimes, like in the hall that my orchestra plays in, the sound comes back at us, but it seems to come back slowly, so one section will hear another section and it will sound like it's late. And the clarinets seem to be in an accustically dead part of the stage (if I'm not making that up)- so we have to work to be heard.
my bedroom is horrible. but I guess you just have to adapt to different settings. isn't that sort of part of what playing is all about?
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Author: Synonymous Botch
Date: 2005-03-05 23:56
Reverberation time = .16 volume of room/A
A = total reflective surface area x absorbtion coefficient
Since my room is almost entirely hard surfaces, only the loose books and wall hangings appreciably delay sound return.
If the room were entirely hard surfaces (no absorbtion) I would expect a delay of .334 msec. In practice, the delay is 1 msec - you must count the surface area of the player, too.
To complicate matters, the walls flex at lower frequencies - and return (attenuated) some of that energy later than the average.
I'm taking a swag, but I suppose that's why the room sounds "warm" as opposed to sterile.
FYI - My wife is a mezzo soprano and sounds tremendous in larger rooms, congested in this one - so it's not always positive interference with reverb.
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Author: emylooa
Date: 2005-03-06 01:52
If you happen to have a sunporch, a Florida room, those work well!
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Author: msloss
Date: 2005-03-07 14:15
Delay and reverberation time are two different things. Delay is the time it takes for a reflected sound to arrive at the listening/measurement position after the direct sound. The distance of the reflective surface and the speed of sound (varies with air pressure) will effect delay time. The quality of the surface will affect the dispersion of the reflection and the absorption of some of that sound. Reverberation time, referred to as RT60, is the time it takes for the sound, including reflections, to die away to 60dB less than its original level.
The Sabine formula that you cited calculates RT60 (using measurement in meters). If you were playing in a coat closet 1m X 1m X 2.5m with a surface absorption coefficient of 1.0 (acoustically dead), the formula would still give you 0.03 seconds of reverb. In a room with a ratio of 3m ceilings, and 4m X 5m floor space (~200 sq. feet of floor space), and an absorption coefficient of 0.3 (which would assume some upholstery and carpeting, sheet rock walls, furniture and bookshelves), you'd get about 0.34 seconds RT60, not milliseconds.
1 msec is beyond the ability of the human ear to distinguish between the initial and delayed sound, much less distinguish a reverb tail that short from the initial sound. What you would hear from a 1 - 3 msec delay is phasing in a sustained tone as the reflected sound folds over and either reinforces or cancels certain frequencies (a popular toy with guitarists).
So, either you are a very small person playing a tiny clarinet in a very small and very dead room, or you may be counting seconds as milliseconds. I'm going with the very small person theory, in which case you might be very interested in Buffet's new Ab sopraninoninoninonino clarinet carved in Paris from long grain rice from Mozambique.
Best all,
MDS
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