A measurement database of US and European concert halls for realistic auralization and study of individual preference

Many aspects of a hall's design integrate in a complex fashion to shape a listener's auditory experience, but the question most listeners ask is sometimes quite simple: "Do I like this hall?" Despite this question's simplicity, its answer is quite difficult to study. To enable such a study, a measurement database has been generated using 20 different halls around the US and Europe. In each hall, two different types of measurements were taken using a 32-element spherical microphone array. The purpose of the first type of measurements was objective sound field analysis, measured at ten seat locations using a 3-part omnidirectional sound source. Room acoustic metrics and spatial beamforming analysis will be presented to demonstrate the variety of rooms included in this database. The purpose of the second set of measurements was to create a repeatable full-orchestral auralization in each hall. A 20-element compact loudspeaker array was used as the sound source to match the directional radiation characteristics of different orchestral instruments. At one seat, measurements were taken at 20 source locations in a standard orchestral stage layout. These measurements will enable subjective testing to compare each hall, side-by-side, in a realistic, repeatable manner. [Work supported by NSF Award 1302741.].