Have you ever paid attention to the echo and subdued speech when you are inside a church? Well, a team of researchers is looking into the prejudiced acoustic traits of church architecture.
For the last seven years, the team has paid visit to more than 40 churches from Gothic to contemporary in style. For the study, they picked nine edifices for a five-song test of their acoustics. After the churches were closed, engineers and acoustic experts fitted sound-test dummies set with binaural microphones. The team also recorded every spot with 3-D SoundField microphones for evaluation.
Prelude results find that the addressees favor sounds from paleo-Christian churches, thanks to the insulating wooden ceilings while Baroque buildings were also preferred. The most terrible are the Cavernous Gothic buildings with the 430 feet long San Petronio Basilica turning out to be a nightmare for a listener with 12 minutes of reverberation.
The book called Worship, Acoustics and Architecture containing findings for the first round is to come in April. Leonello Tarabella, head of the Research Council’s Computer Music Lab anticipates unveiling a CD of the findings by the end of the year.
Via: Wired
