There are three basic types of performance spaces:

Single purpose rooms

Multipurpose rooms

Rehearsal rooms

Spaces with a focused acoustical function, such as

concert halls, recital halls, and dedicated lecture

rooms, offer a real opportunity for a client with a

limited budget to achieve acoustical excellence.

Limit the size, exclude background noise, focus the

design around acoustical function, and excellence

acoustics comes well within reach.

Stretansky

Recital Hall

Susquehanna

University

Multipurpose performance spaces are often built to

save the money it would entail to build several

dedicated spaces. A school, for instance, that

might be better served by a music recital hall and a

speech theatre, builds one large, multipurpose

auditorium because of cost. The large, multipurpose

performance space is one of the most difficult

acoustical challenges, even under the best of

circumstances.

Cumberland

Valley High

School

Auditorium

Rehearsal rooms, unlike most performance spaces, are

usually too small. Sometimes, a music group that is too

large or too loud will simply overwhelm the space. For

these rooms, one needs a combination of sound

absorption and sound-diffusing geometry that makes the

room act like a larger room. Sufficient height is critical. A

rehearsal room that has sound-absorbing surfaces, but

lacks sound-diffusing surfaces will sound dead and

unresponsive and will pose difficulties for hearing amongst

members of an ensemble.

Binns

Rehearsal

Hall,

Pennsylvania

Academy of

Music

http://www.orpheus-acoustics.com