Rerurn to Romy the Cat's Site
In the Forum: Audio Discussions
In the Thread: The sound of Concert Halls
Post Subject: Looking the part [of a good-sounding hall]Posted by Paul S on: 2/5/2008
I'm sure lots of us would be happy to trade halls with someone else, and I'll bet some us would swap without having heard what we're swapping for. I know I would, because I know the odds would be in my favor.
The "funny" thing these days is that even large endowments and new halls designed by "leading acoustical engineers" don't seem to be helping with bad sound, let alone poor playing of stupid programs, because the people who could possibly make it better either don't know any better, or they don't really think about it rigorously. Probably analagous to building a hi-fi, actually...
IMO, one of the worst things to happen in my lifetime is "sound reinforcement", with speakers "strategically" placed around the hall. I think that typically this is part of the "Total Control Strategy", where the hall itself is made about as dead as they can get it and then they put a "sound engineer" in charge of creating what he thinks we should hear. Well, I have NEVER heard this done well and I have NEVER heard a concert that used these sound better than the natural acoustics of a good hall, or even a mediocre hall, for that matter, given an equal calibre of play.
Of course, the conductor figures in, too, or rather he should. And wouldn't it be nice if he did...
In fairness, I have heard a couple of "new" concert halls that are not that terrible, and these are by and large the ones that people regard as "good" today.
I used to love going to the old Hollywood Bowl and Greek Theater, OUTDOOR venues that IMO blew the doors off most of what I hear indoors or out these days.
Best regards,
Paul SRerurn to Romy the Cat's Site