Computer model investigations on the balance between stage and pit sources in opera houses

The acoustical balance between the singer on the stage and the orchestra in the pit is typically found inside an opera house. The competition of the two sources is crucial, since in an opera the singer and the orchestra are performing at the same time. This topic of balance is receiving increasing attention in recent years, but several aspects are still to be clarified. The aim of this work is twofold: firstly the procedure for the acoustical qualification of the balance between the singer and the orchestra is investigated and secondly the means of controlling the balance at the design stage or during renovations is considered. For both tasks the study was conducted in a group of opera houses modelled within an acoustical CAD program. As regards the qualification of the balance this investigation compares the directional characteristics of two loudspeakers and of a dodecahedron omnidirectional loudspeaker in the emulation of a soprano during simulated room acoustics measurements. It is shown that, in order to emulate a soprano singer, the directional characteristics of the source on the stage are quite important. The control of balance was also studied and the work reserves a special emphasis to the case of historical opera houses. In fact, when such theatres are refurbished, the range of possible architectural interventions is often limited to the orchestra pit only, due to the heritage nature of the hall which prevents from any substantial change in the area of the forestage. For this reason it is important to investigate the effectiveness of such limited interventions in the pit, and this is done here by a detailed study of the effects on balance of some major changes of the orchestra pit only.     

Objective and subjective evaluations of twenty-three opera houses in Europe, Japan, and the Americas

The room acoustical parameters, reverberation time RT, early decay time EDT, clarity factor C80, bass ratio BR, strength G, interaural cross-correlation coefficient IACC, and initial-time-delay gap ITDG [definitions in Hidaka et al., J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 107, 340-354 (2000) and Beranek, Concert and Opera Halls: How They Sound (Acoustical Society of America, New York, 1996)], were measured in 23 major opera houses under unoccupied conditions in 11 countries: Argentina, Austria, Czech, France, England, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Japan, The Netherlands, and the USA. Questionnaires containing rating scales on the acoustical quality of 24 opera houses were mailed to 67 conductors, 22 of whom responded. The objective measurements were analyzed for reliability and orthogonality, and were related to the subjective responses. Presented are (a) the rankings of 21 opera houses each rated by at least 6 conductors for acoustical quality as heard by them both in the audience areas and in the pit; (b) relations between objective room acoustical parameters and subjective ratings; (c) findings of the most important of the parameters for determining acoustical quality: RT (or EDT), G(M), ITDG, [1 - IACC(E3)], texture (appearance of reflectrograms in the first 80-100 ms after arrival of the direct sound), a lower limiting value for BR, and major concern for diffusion and avoidance of destructive characteristics (noise, vibration, echoes, focusing, etc.); (d) the differences between average audience levels with and without enclosed stage sets; and (e) the differences between average levels in audience areas for sounds from the stage and from the pit.     

A scale value for the balance inside a historical opera house

In the framework of opera house acoustics, the term "balance" refers to the acoustical competition between the singer on the stage and the orchestra in the pit. The mechanism allowing the operatic singers to be heard over the orchestra has to do with their skill in enhancing the vocal emission by a peculiar use of the formant frequencies. This vital factor is sensed by the listeners and, apart from the obvious sound power ratio of the stage and the pit sources, is the main cue that helps to formulate a subjective impression of the balance. To achieve its objective qualification, two calibrated sound sources can be placed on the stage and in the pit, respectively, and their sound level difference is measured at the listeners' seats. The scope of this work is to investigate the relationship between the subjective impression and the objective indicator of the balance and to develop a scale value for the parameter in the case of a historical opera house. For this scope a set of acoustical data from the Teatro Comunale in Ferrara will be used to create synthetic sound fields with controlled conditions of the balance between the stage and the pit. This methodology employs an anechoic piece for soprano (with piano accompaniment) and is implemented in a dead room equipped with an acoustical rendering system. The sound fields are used to investigate the appropriate balance values by means of listening tests. The results of the scaling exercise show that a suitable range of values can be extracted and that the sound from the stage and the pit is perceived as balanced when the loudness difference between the two is comprised within -2.0 dBA and +2.3 dBA.     

歌剧院声学的和建筑的设计工具,现状和前景

现代歌剧院和剧院内部建筑的设计及其实现,趋向于标准化和遵循同样的审美倾向,这导致这些大厅的声学性能比较低劣,大厅设计的历史过程是,从独特的审美和视觉的途径,转向实用性地复制一些最成功的样板,然后又转向声学的理论化和各式各样的模型化,首先出现了小型的声学硬件的模型,随后是计算机模型,除了能够可靠地预计声学质量之外,计算机的真正优势在于它们的灵活性,它们能够完美地满足设计者之间的对话需要,特别是满足声学家和建筑师之间的对话需要,这就是新千年的伟大革命,它必须一些古老大厅建筑的丰富内含可能重新综合,只要人们重新引进对某些这类大厅的高声学质量的有助益的一些模式。     

中国传统庭院戏场若干声学特征

中国传统戏场在世界建筑史中别具一格,它与现代剧院迥然不同。传统戏曲表演是虚拟化的,因此可在面积不大的亭式舞台上演出,形成三面围观的格局。这类戏场以顶面敞开的庭院形式为其主流。本文讨论了下列相关声学问题:(1)亭式舞台的演唱效果;(2)庭院式戏场的混响感;(3)不同戏场布局的声场强度(响度)变化;(4)伴奏乐队位置变迁的声学效果;(5)舞台下设瓮助声之谜剖析。      

北京长城全周影院的音质设计

一种具有大影像、３６０度水平视野、接近于全方位的立体声效果，以高保真的声画环境将观众包围，使观众产生强烈临场感的全周影院在国际上也为数不多，而在我国建造更是一种新的尝试。本文通过介绍北京长城全周影院的音质设计和声学性能的测试说明，虽然这种新电影系统与常规电影有明显区别，具有很多特殊要求，但通过建筑、声学光学设计者的共同努力及密切配合，最终获得了视听性能的满意的结果，使影院达到了国际先进水平，也为全     

TEMPORAL AND SPATIAL ACOUSTICAL FACTORS FOR LISTENERS IN THE BOXES OF HISTORICAL OPERA THEATRES

Acoustical measurements were conducted in a horseshoe-shaped opera house to clarify the acoustical quality of a sound field for listeners inside the boxes of an historical opera house. In order to investigate the effects of multiple reflections between the walls inside a box and scattering by the heads of people, the location of the receiver and the number of persons in the box were varied. In each configuration, four orthogonal factors and supplementary factors were derived as temporal and spatial factors by analysis of binaural impulse responses. Each factor is compared to that at a typical location in the stalls of the same theatre. An omni-directional sound source was located on the stage to emulate a singer or in the orchestra pit to reproduce the location of the musicians. Thus, in this paper, temporal and spatial factors in relation to subjective evaluation are characterized against changes in the listening conditions inside a box, and procedures for improvement and design methods for boxes are proposed. The main conclusions reached are as follows. As strong reflections from the lateral walls of a hall are screened by the front or side walls of a box for a receiver in a seat deeper in the box, the maximum listening level (LL) in the boxes was observed at the front of the box, and the maximum range of LL values for each box was found to be 5 dB. Concerning the initial time delay gap (Δt₁), a more uniform listening environment was obtained in boxes further back in the theatre than in one closer to the stage. The subsequent reverberation time (T_sub) lengthens for boxes closer to the stage due to the stage house with its huge volume, and a peak is observed at 1 kHz. For the box at the back, T_sub monotonically decreases with frequency in the same way as in the stalls, and moreover, its values approach those in the stalls. As the contribution of multiple reflections relatively increases for a receiver deeper in the box, the IACC in such positions decreases in comparison with that seen at the front of the box.     

Relaxation of sound fields in rooms of diffusely reflecting boundaries and its application in acoustical radiosity simulation

The acoustical radiosity method is a computationally expensive acoustical simulation algorithm that assumes an enclosure with ideal diffuse reflecting boundaries. Miles observed that for such an enclosure, the sound energy decay of every point on the boundaries will gradually converge to exponential manner with a uniform decay rate. Therefore, the ratio of radiosity between every pair of points on the boundaries will converge to a constant, and the radiosity across the boundaries will approach a fixed distribution during the sound decay process, where radiosity is defined as the acoustic power per unit area leaving (or being received by) a point on a boundary. We call this phenomenon the "relaxation" of the sound field. In this paper, we study the relaxation in rooms of different shapes with different boundary absorptions. Criteria based on the relaxation of the sound field are proposed to terminate the costly and unnecessary radiosity computation in the later phase, which can then be replaced by a fast regression step to speed up the acoustical radiosity simulation.     

Underwater hybrid near-field acoustical holography based on the measurement of vector hydrophone array

Hybrid near-field acoustical holography(NAH) is developed for reconstructing acoustic radiation from a cylindrical source in a complex underwater environment. In hybrid NAH,we combine statistically optimized near-field acoustical holography(SONAH) and broadband acoustical holography from intensity measurements(BAHIM) to reconstruct the underwater cylindrical source field. First,the BAHIM is utilized to regenerate as much acoustic pressures on the hologram surface as necessary,and then the acoustic pressures are taken as input to the formulation implemented numerically by SONAH. The main advantages of this technology are that the complex pressure on the hologram surface can be reconstructed without reference signal,and the measurement array can be smaller than the source,thus the practicability and efficiency of this technology are greatly enhanced. Numerical examples of a cylindrical source are demonstrated. Test results show that hybrid NAH can yield a more accurate reconstruction than conventional NAH. Then,an experiment has been carried out with a vector hydrophone array. The experimental results show the advantage of hybrid NAH in the reconstruction of an acoustic field and the feasibility of using a vector hydrophone array in an underwater NAH measurement,as well as the identification and localization of noise sources.     

基于声学超材料的低频可调吸收器

在当今社会,噪声污染已经成为人类健康的一大威胁,如何有效地控制和消除噪声污染一直是科研领域的一个重要话题.本文以开口环嵌套结构为模型,设计并制备了一种声学超材料.通过理论分析、数值模拟和实验测试,发现由于模型内部空腔的强烈耦合共振效应,该超材料可以在低频区域实现接近完美的吸声效应.此外,通过简单地绕轴旋转其内腔开口方向,即可改变该超材料的相对阻抗值,进而在较宽的频带范围内实现对吸收峰位置的可调控制.由于该超材料具有深亚波长的尺寸,因此非常有利于低频吸声器件的小型化和集成化,同时该模型也为宽带吸收器的设计奠定了基础.     

Underwater moving noise source identification based on hybrid near-field acoustical holography

Near-field acoustical holography (NAH) is a powerful tool for identifying noise sources and visualizing acoustic field. By recording the acoustic pressures in the near-field, the acoustic quantities in the whole 3-D field can be reconstructed and predicted. However, the current theory of NAH is not applicable to tracking large scale moving noise sources. Therefore, the hybrid near-field acoustical holography is developed for reconstructing acoustic radiation, which is derived from statistically optimized ne...     

Acoustic source identification using a scanning laser Doppler vibrometer

This paper shows how a scanning laser Doppler vibrometer (LDV), an instrument designed to measure vibrations of structures or objects, can be used in a non-traditional fashion to identify acoustical sources. This is achieved by measuring the changes in the optical path induced by local fluctuation of the air refraction index to which the LDV is sensitive. The acoustical signal used is sinusoidal and may be recovered by scanning at a uniform rate over a subject area (continuous scan) parallel to the source axis and demodulating this signal. Due to the fact that the measured scan area is in fact a line integral over a measurement volume between the laser head and a rigid object needed to reflect the laser beam, multiple view planes around the axis of the acoustic source are usually measured. These are then passed through a tomographic algorithm, thereby reconstructing the full sound field. In this article however, only one view plane is measured, but the acoustic source is placed on a rotating surface with fixed rotational frequency, thereby imposing a modulation on the measured spectrum. Demodulation will allow reconstruction of the three-dimensional sound field.     

中国音乐学院琴房楼的声学设计和评价

中国音乐学院琴房楼是该各系学生个人琴的场所，楼内六层建筑共设１９８间琴房，房间面积小，又相互毗邻，因此，如何使小室获得良好的音质，又能避免相互间的噪声干扰，是声学设计的关键所在，本文着重介绍通过中国音乐学院琴房楼的工程实践，对解决上述问题所取得的成效。     

声学二维平面周期结构的吸声性能建模

声学周期结构兼具优化室内声场环境,节约建筑吸声材料的特性而在现代建筑中广泛使用。针对二维平面周期结构的声场优化特性,建立了一种吸声系数计算模型。首先,根据边界条件理论推导了吸声系数的线性方程组,继而通过数值分析方法进行求解,最后在驻波管和混响室中分别进行实验验证。实验结果表明,测量的吸声系数和理论计算曲线吻合良好,该模型可以准确测算二维平面周期结构的吸声系数。同时分析表明:在平面周期结构中,相同吸声材料面积情况下,吸声材料占比越大,吸声效果越好;在相同吸声材料面积和占比情况下,材料边缘长度越长,高频段吸声效果越好;随着材料边缘长度的减少,边缘效应影响减弱。      

声图像的恢复对纹理分析参数影响的研究

本文研究了声图像的恢复对声图像纹理分析参数的影响。论文阐述了一种用于Ｂ超图像恢复的方法。它利用三个声学特性已知的超声组织仿真模块作参考,在增益与ＴＧＣ设置不变的情况下,可对均匀组织的Ｂ超图像进行恢复,论文采用了几种不同的纹理分析方法对已恢复的Ｂ超图像及未经恢复且在不同设置下采集的图像进行了分析结果的对比研究,得到了一些有实用意义的结论。     

A direct method for acoustic impedance measurement based on the measurement of electrical impedance of acoustic transmitter

A simple and straight forward method for acoustic impedance measurement is presented and evaluated. In this method a speaker is used as the signal source. The relationship between the electrical impedance of the speaker and its acoustical load is developed and studied. It is shown that the electrical current and voltage of the speaker relate to the acoustical pressure and volume velocity. The mechanical and acoustical impedances are therefore easily derived by measuring the electrical current and voltage of the circuit. The proposed method yield itself to the automatic computer measurement and can be used for the field and in situ measurements.Comparison of the measurement data with those from other methods proves the applicability and accuracy of the proposed method.     

声纳导流罩吸声障板声学特性的研究

本文研究内容属于舰艇声兼容性技术研究的一部分。应用声学软件SYSNOISE计算了,声纳定向发射时某试验用声纳导流罩及尾部吸声障板的声场特性,同时进行相同工况的水下模型试验。计算结果与试验结果吻合良好,说明应用声学软件对声纳声场进行计算是一种可行的方法,有可能推广至其他的水下模型的声场计算。结果数据反映了吸声障板对声纳定向发射时声场的影响,为舰艇总体声纳导流罩内吸声障板的结构设计、声兼容设计提供依据。     

Acoustical investigations of a La<Subscript>0.75</Subscript>Sr<Subscript>0.25</Subscript>MnO<Subscript>3</Subscript> single crystal

The acoustical, resistive, and magnetic properties of a La_0.75Sr_0.25MnO₃ lanthanum manganite single crystal are investigated in the temperature range involving the second-order magnetic phase transition. The acoustical measurements are performed by the pulse-echo method in the frequency range 14–90 MHz. It is found that, as the temperature decreases, the velocity of a longitudinal acoustic wave propagating along the [111] axis in the single crystal drastically increases at temperatures below the critical point of the magnetic phase transition. No dispersion of the acoustic velocity is revealed. A sharp increase in the acoustic velocity is accompanied by the appearance of an acoustical absorption peak. The observed effects are discussed with due regard for the interaction of acoustic waves with the magnetic moments of the manganese ions.     

Long-Term Horizontal Vocal Directivity of Opera Singers: Effects of Singing Projection and Acoustic Environment

Vocal directivity refers to how directional the sound is that comes from a singer's mouth, that is, whether the sound is focused into a narrow stream of sound projecting in front of the singers or whether it is spread out all around the singer. This study investigates the long-term vocal directivity and acoustic power of professional opera singers and how these vary among subjects, among singing projections, and among vastly different acoustic environments. The vocal sound of eight professional opera singers (six females and two males) was measured in anechoic and reverberant rooms and in a recital hall. Subjects sang in four different ways: (1) paying great attention to intonation; (2) singing as in performance, with all the emotional connection intended by the composer; (3) imagining a large auditorium; and (4) imagining a small theatre. The same song was sung by all singers in all conditions. A head and torso simulator (HATS), radiating sound from its mouth, was used for comparison in all situations. Results show that individual singers have quite consistent long-term average directivity, even across conditions. Directivity varies substantially among singers. Singers are more directional than the standard HATS (which is a physical model of a talking person). The singer's formant region of the spectrum exhibits greater directivity than the lower-frequency range, and results indicate that singers control directivity (at least, incidentally) for different singing conditions as they adjust the spectral emphasis of their voices through their formants.     

Sound radiation from Caribbean steelpans using nearfield acoustical holography

The sound-field of a Caribbean low tenor steelpan is examined using nearfield acoustical holography (NAH). The particular instrument, a Bertrand Kelman low tenor, has been previously examined in a single plane using a four microphone sound intensity technique. This paper will examine the sound radiation in a cuboid space enclosing the instrument at three frequencies. Presented will be the results of sound pressure level (SPL), active acoustic intensity (AI), and reactive acoustic intensity (RI) obtained through application of the NAH technique. The limitations of NAH when applied to an irregularly shaped object such as a tenor steelpan will also be presented.