Written by:Rob Archibald
3/6/2009 9:02 AM

Several weeks ago, I conducted the Intel Singers and Intel Symphony Orchestra through three performances in three very different venues with very different acoustics.  All were in retirement homes with somewhat similar ages among the audience members. 

The first was sparsely attended in a very large and open dining hall with high ceilings.  The choir & orchestra performed under an overhang that slanted out about 45 degrees that gave nice feedback to the performers on their own sound and projected the sound out to the audience.  From my own investigation of the acoustics, the only sound the audience really received from the performers was from direct sound waves from instruments & voices as well as reflections off the ceiling & walls behind us.  Volume of the reflections from the rest of the room were very low in that acoustic space.  But, because the audience got direct sound plus one reflection (from the wall behind the performers) there was a sense of space in the sound. 

The second was a carpeted enclosed worship room which had high ceilings in the center of the room with a lower ceiling around the edges.  The choir stood under the lower ceiling while the orchestra was under the taller ceiling.  Behind the choir & orchestra was a large curtain so we didn't get many reflections off the back wall to project our sound out.  Because it was a more enclosed space we did get slightly more reflections off the ceiling, side & back walls but thanks to the soft back wall we got FAR fewer reflections from behind us.  To my ears, this resulted in a very dry sound for the audience.  The choir could hear themselves fine due to the low ceiling above them and the orchestra could hear OK as well, but due to the big almost "hole" in the ceiling between us and the audience (ceiling went up probably 8 feet in the center of the room for most of the width of the audience). it seemed that most all of our reflected sound was swallowed up in the hole. 

Our third concert was in a room that was only about 20 feet wider than our ensemble and the choir & orchestra took up about half of the room depth so it wasn't very deep either.  The ceiling was sloped upward and when the men of the choir stood in the back row their heads almost hit the ceiling.  Needless to say, the space was too small.  Because of the odd room shape and small size, sound reflections would hit the audience from the front and back and sides of the room all around the same time causing a very disorienting sound.  When we first started rehearsing, the sound was so disorienting that It was actually physically painful for me until my brain could adjust and learn to ignore the reflections.

So, what should a conductor do in each of these situations to maximize the experience for the audience and performers?  While I can't say that the choices I made were perfect as I'm not an acoustician by any stretch of the imagination, at least to my ear, the adjustments we made in the each space did make it sound better for us.

First, the principles and techniques I use in each space we perform in

1. Make sure you have sufficient time to warm up and rehearse a little in the performance space.  While the ensemble is performing, walk around the room to get a feel for what the audience will hear.  Circle whichever description best fits the sound you hear as you walk around relative to the typical sound of the ensemble.  In other words, if the group legato sound was muddy in the last rehearsal and it's not worse in the performance hall, don't blame the hall.  Do your best not to attribute technical issues to performance space issues.
   
   

   Legato Sound	Muddy	Clear	Overly detached
   Attack	Loud	Just right	Unheard
   Tone Color	Dark	Just right	Bright
   Frequency resonation	All resonating equally well	Just right	Some missing or over emphasized (specify)

   
   
2. Make adjustments with the ensemble based on what you hear in step 1 above.  One difficulty with this is that all 3 of the above items are inter-related.  For example, frequency resonation will greatly affect the tone color of the ensemble so as you change one thing you'll see that others are affected too.  Just keep experimenting until you get the sound you want considering all parameters.  And, remember that you're adjusting based on the sound the audience will hear, not the sound you'll hear at the podium. 
   1. Legato sound - in my experience this is most directly related to the amount of reverb that the performance space gives you since we perceive legato as a nearly uninterrupted sound.  If you're hearing an overly detached sound from the ensemble, ask them to meld notes together more.  Reduce the amount of space on cutoffs and increase the tempo slightly.  With muddy sound, try going the opposite way.
   2. Tone color - Similar to how different woods in a violin will resonate with the vibrating strings in very different way, the walls, floor, ceiling and even audience will resonate an ensemble's sound very differently too.  What may've sounded rich & full in one place may sound brittle and weak in another.  Once you've identified the color problem, ask the ensemble to adjust accordingly.  Sometimes it may require having the ensemble perform what may seem to them as unnaturally dark or bright. 
   3. Attack - If a choir sings the word "tock" for 4 measures, the vast majority of this time is singing the vowel "ah", but it is the "T" at the beginning and the "K" at the end that makes the word comprehensible.  These and similar types of attacks (yes, the cutoff consonant "K" is an attack too) have a very short duration and can be easily lost when there isn't much reverb to allow the attack to persist in the room for a little longer.
   4. Frequency resonation - Having trouble hearing all of the low frequency sounds in the performance hall?  Are certain frequencies over-emphasized. 
   5. Ensemble Technical issues - While this isn't something I called out in the chart above, I thought it was worth calling out here.  There are many halls that will almost encourage performers to make common mistakes.  For example, just the other day, I brought the Intel Singers into a new room and they immediately began over singing.  They couldn't hear themselves very well so they attempted to compensate by singing louder than they could sing beautifully.

Second, the choices I made to help the ensemble sound better

Space #1 - Cavernously large with a small amount of reverb  - For our first performance space, I rated the acoustics as shown below with a detached legato sound, an attack that was too weak from the choir, overall tone color that was fine, but with a slightly over-emphasized bass frequency response.  I chose to fix these by taking a slightly faster tempo and reducing space between cutoffs, asking the choir to give me more consonants and asking the basses in the choir to reduce the volume they were producing fairly significantly.

 

Space #2 - Medium sized room with almost no reverb - Our second performance space was similar to the first in its limited reverb except that it was worse and had almost none.  And, while the first space over-emphasized the bass response, this hall actually under-emphasized the bass.  The first had a great "sound shell" in the form of a hard wall behind the bass section while the second had beautiful sound-absorbing curtains behind the basses.  Excluding the difference in having the basses sing louder instead of softer, I chose to fix these issues the same way... by taking a faster tempo and reducing speed between cutoffs, asking the choir to give more consonants and asking the basses to sing louder.

 

Space #3 - Small room with lots of reverb - Our final performance space was very different than the other two.  It was small, perhaps too small for the ensemble and it had lots of weird reverb.  As I mentioned above, when I began conducting I actually felt physically ill at the beginning because I was so disoriented by the strong reverb I was getting from all directions.  The direct sound seemed to be about the same intensity as the sound coming from the side, back, ceiling and other directions.  I would hear a sound and honestly I couldn't tell immediately from the sound whether it was coming from behind me or in front of me, from the right or from the left.  It was a rather unpleasant experience to say the least.  In this case, I responded by having both the choir & orchestra dramatically back off on the volume they were producing.  In addition, I went for a more marcato, or separated, sound.  Fortunately, the dark tone color of the room helped to make the Russian piece "Kalinka" sound the best that it ever has so that was a nice plus from the space.  After the adjustments we made, performing in the room became bearable and even enjoyable in a few ways.  It still wasn't an easy place to perform, but it worked out well anyway.

 

Have you had any great, or not so great, experiences you'd like to share?  Join the conversation.

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