Set HIGH CUT to a fairly low frequency, between 4500 Hz and 7000 Hz, to simulate the air absorption in the space.

Set DECAY to 1.6 to 2.1, depending on the type of music that will be played in the space.Starting with the above criteria, we can dial in a realistic concert hall preset in ValhallaRoom. In practice, this means that an ideal hall will mix the reflections together rather quickly, and won’t have any strong discrete echos from any one location, or a part of the hall where the reverb hangs around too long (as can happen in cathedrals with high naves). Envelopment, in that the reverberation appears to come from all directions, rather than from limited directions.

This tends to be tied into phase differences in the signals hitting the left and right ears (which is often referred to as the IACC, interaural cross-correlation).

Spaciousness, in that the sound seems to come from a space wider than the instrument making the sound.

This translates to a low-frequency decay time that is somewhat longer than the mid-frequency decay time. “Warmth,” in that the bass tones are strong.This is why the “shoebox” shaped halls tend to be preferred by conductors and audiences – the initial lateral reflections start rather quickly, due to the relatively short distance that sound has to travel from the orchestra to the side walls to the listeners. This is the time between the direct sound and the first reflection, and produces a sense of “intimacy” for shorter settings. An initial time-delay gap at or below 25 msec.A mid-frequency decay time of 1.6 to 1.8 seconds for music from the “Classical” period (1750 to 1820), and around 1.9 to 2.1 seconds for music from the “Romantic” period.The physics and reverberant characteristics of concert halls have been studied extensively in the last century, starting with the work of Wallace Sabine (the acoustic consultant for the design of Boston Symphony Hall) and continuing with the work of Leo Beranek, Yoichi Ando, Manfred Schroeder, and many other acoustic researchers.Ĭoncert halls that are highly ranked by classical music listeners tend to have the following characteristics: From this perspective, a concert hall is nothing more than a really big room. ValhallaRoom was named for its ability to get realistic room sounds.

Valhalla room presets