Room Acoustics Exercise

1. Determine the response of your measuring system.

*  Find “reverberation time” for echo-free area outdoors.

*  Find spectrum of your noise source (handclap and slapstick). Use either SFSWin or Audacity to do this.  In Audacity, highlight sound and go to View-Plot spectrum menu.  Comment on the frequency content of noise source. Include this plot in your report.

2. Pick the room you want to analyze.  The room shouldn’t be too small or complicated architecturally.  You will be calculating the volume and absorbing area using the Sabine model discussed in class.

*  Make a drawing of the room with both vertical and horizontal elevations.  You might also include a digital picture.

3. Measure the reverberation time using handclaps and/or slapstick strikes.   For the sound you are analyzing, include a plot of sound intensity [dBs] versus time in your report. See this webpage for help.

4. Comment on the possible uses for this room as determined by the reverberation time and the room volume.

5. Calculate the reverberation time using the Sabine model.  Use the absorption values for frequencies that are present in your noise source.  (See Exercise 1.)   For information on this calculation, see section 23.5 in your text and this webpage.  Compare your result with what you measured.

6. Write a report of your findings.  This should contain all of the material above plus your own observations.  Various criteria for judging a room's acoustics may be found on this webpage.