How do they design rooms with particular acoustics?
In: Engineering
If this is a concern at the design phase, there is software that could simulate acoustic behaviour. In the past, I imagine this was done with passed-down knowledge that was the result of trial and error, built over time to become trade knowledge.
If a room has already been built, the acoustic profile can be modified by using specific materials to absorb (much more often than reflect) (certain) sounds, in specific parts of the room.
If the room is going to be used for a concert or performance and have speakers, etc., one of the first things the audio engineer will do once the equipment is set up is to play some pink noise (kinda like white noise but more useful) and walk through the space with a frequency analyzer to figure out which frequencies are naturally amplified or reduced by the physics of the room, and this will be used to set up an initial EQ for the sound profile that will be tweaked as instruments etc. start making noise.
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