Our final element of good acoustic engineering is ambience.
Ambience has to do with how much reverberated sound is desired within a space to create a specific effect.
For example, in a concert hall, reverberation after the music has finished is considered “resonance” and is often desirable for creating mood.
On the other hand, in a theater, where the clarity of spoken words is the most important thing, reverberation becomes an obstacle to intelligibility and is typically suppressed as much as possible.
This battle between clarity of expression and creation of mood creates a tug-of-war which can only be determined by deciding the ultimate goal or purpose of the space and the sound to be presented in it.
From Wikipedia:
Since the acoustic properties of rooms for different applications are almost incompatible, it is hardly possible to create a universal room that combines good speech intelligibility and good spatial music perception.
So what’s the point?
The next time you go to post something online, ask yourself:
“Am I trying to convey information, or emotion?”
Most likely, the more you succeed at one, the less you will succeed at the other.
