There are three basic types of performance spaces:

Single purpose rooms

Multipurpose rooms

Rehearsal rooms

Spaces with a focused acoustical function, such as concert halls, recital halls, and dedicated lecture rooms, offer a real opportunity for a client with a limited budget to achieve acoustical excellence.

Limit the size, exclude background noise, focus the design around acoustical function, and excellence acoustics comes well within reach.

Stretansky Recital Hall Susquehanna University

Multipurpose performance spaces are often built to save the money it would entail to build several dedicated spaces. A school, for instance, that might be better served by a music recital hall and a speech theatre, builds one large, multipurpose auditorium because of cost. The large, multipurpose performance space is one of the most difficult acoustical challenges, even under the best of circumstances.

Cumberland Valley High School Auditorium

Rehearsal rooms, unlike most performance spaces, are usually too small. Sometimes, a music group that is too large or too loud will simply overwhelm the space. For these rooms, one needs a combination of sound absorption and sound-diffusing geometry that makes the room act like a larger room. Sufficient height is critical. A rehearsal room that has soundabsorbing surfaces, but lacks sound-diffusing surfaces will sound dead and unresponsive and will pose difficulties for hearing amongst members of an ensemble.

Binns Rehearsal Hall, Pennsylva nia Academy of Music

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