Hearing the past - acoustics prog on Radio 4

[RobHolt]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b014f9q5/Hearing_the_Past/

Professor Jim Al-Khalili explores what the past would have sounded like to our ancestors, and investigates how it is helping us to improve our acoustic designs of the future.

We hear what a singer in Coventry Cathedral would have sounded like before it was bombed in 1940, and how a Stonehenge ritual four thousand years ago had a bass-synthesiser effect going on that Depeche Mode would have been proud of!

Designers of modern concert venues are learning lessons from the layout of Stonehenge and we also learn how better acoustics in today's buildings improve our quality of life, and can even save lives.

 

[Tenson]

A nice program.

I found it interesting what the train station guy said about the importance of directional sounds making an immersive experience.

When they played the simulated acoustics of Coventry Cathedral and Stone Henge, I thought they sounded too strong, but I realised that's because they were being played back through headphones or speakers. When we are in a real acoustic the directionality of reflections helps us filter them out, but that isn't the case when listening on speakers. The result is a very strong sounding acoustic. This isn't just the case with the simulations of course, it is the case with any non-surround recording.

They visited a lab with an array of speakers designed to pick up sounds in the room and then send back the acoustics they wanted to impose. It sounded far too strong on the recording, but I bet it was much more subtle and real for the people there who could hear the direction of the sounds from the many speakers.

I noticed this when I went to the proms recently, the mics are very close to the performance compared to most of the audience, but when you listen to the thing back home on the radio it sounds like you are further back. Same reasons as above I think.

 

[speedy.steve]

Thanks, I enjoyed that.