Objective Measures and Musician Preference for Concert Stage Acoustics

The purpose of this research was to examine musician preference for various stage enclosures in an actual concert hall setting and to determine the extent to which preference relates to objective measures of reflected energy and on -stage sound pressure levels. Twelve string and brass trios performed standard musical selections in four stage shell configurations and gave preference ratings for the configurations based on Ease of Ensemble, Ability to Hear Oneself, and Ability to Hear the Other Players. The judgments indicate differences in preference between string and brass players for Ease of Ensemble, and a stage preference across all subjects for Ability to Hear Oneself. Objective measurements of reflected energy ratios conducted in the performance spaces indicate relatively low degrees of correlation with subjective preference, with approximately 29% as the highest level of subjective variance accounted for by the ratios. Stage shell configuration had minimal effect on sound pressure levels within the four stages. It was determined that, in terms of the influence of stage shell configuration, reflected energy ratios are preferred over measures of sound pressure level as indicators of musician preference.