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Re: All you acousticians out there...

Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2003-04-07 14:58

I was at Oberlin when they built the new conservatory, including a three-floor practice room building. The had acoustical paneling on the ceiling and cloth covering on the walls. About half the rooms were only 6' square, and some had upright pianos in them. Talk about claustrophobic.

The theory at the time was that you wanted a dead room, both because it was more "analytical" about your sound and because if you could sound good there, you could sound good anywhere.

I ended up going into the larger rooms whenever I could. It was just too discouraging and cramped otherwise. I used the small rooms maybe 1/3 of the time, but none of them came close to the old conservatory, with large rooms and lots of wood and plaster. They were a perfect balance of resonance and clarity.

Getting away from the acoustics question, the lighting in the Oberlin practice building was from hanging globes. They finally replaced them after violinists kept breaking bows. Go with recessed lighting.

Noisy ventilation is also a problem. With a dead room and a constant swoosh, it sucks the sound right out of you and leaves you quickly discouraged.

Best regards.

Ken Shaw

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