Stage acoustics in two new concert halls

This study aims to compare objective-subjective similarities and differences in the stage acoustic conditions between two relatively new high-profiled concert halls located in Scandinavia, Danish Radio, DR Konserthuset (DR) in Copenhagen, and Malmö Live Konserthus (LIVE), Sweden, inaugurated in 2009 and 2015 respectively.

The overall design philosophy of the two halls are very different; DR has a terraced vineyard design, whereas Malmö Live has a traditional shoebox design. Stage shape, size and riser configuration are however nearly identical, since Malmö Live took inspiration a successful user participated stage planning in DR.

Because of geographical proximity, many musicians have regularly played in both halls, and described the stage acoustic conditions to be quite different. The study will present how objective parameters such as STearly/late, G20-100 and Glate and RT measured at 9 different stage positions, correlates with score responses collected from the residing musicians in each hall.

A linear mixed model is deployed as a statistical inference tool, since it efficiently operates on datasets with missing values, which is the case when not all subjects have played in both halls. The paper also discusses to which degree the average measurements result values can explain the verbal comments made by the musicians.