Rehearsal rooms are unlike regular concert halls; they commonly consist of smaller spaces and often have to be designed for multi-functional use. This means that rehearsal rooms, and small concert venues, have different features than the larger concert halls. The acoustics have to be adaptable to fulfill all demands in the best possible way.
Level Acoustics & Vibration has consulted on the design of several of these type of venues. Two examples are the cultural center Elckerlyc in Hilvarenbeek and the rehearsal space of Fanfare Concordia in Einighausen.
Cultural center Elckerlyc
The cultural center Elckerlyc was designed by Bedaux de Brouwer Architects and opened in Hilvarenbeek in 2013. A multifunctional flat floor venue is included in the design. This venue, the Grote Zaal, has extendable audience seating with approx. 250 seats. With the seating in use, half of the floor area is left as stage area. The venue is used for theater and music performances, concerts but also other rehearsals and bridge meetings. The room acoustics appeared to be adequate for gatherings, theater and (amplified) musical performance, but were considered too dry for rehearsals and performance of orchestras, choirs and smaller music ensembles that rehearse and perform unamplified.
The measured reverberation time proved to be too short for choir and symphonic music, since some reflections are actually desired, but almost all reflections were dampened by the large absorption areas at the walls and ceiling. The aim of the new acoustic design was to introduce flexible absorption and remove parts of the permanent absorption to make the hall more adaptable to the needs of the different users. Flexible absorption solutions that were suggested were sound absorbing curtains that can be tucked away and reflecting panels that can be arranged on the stage.
Fanfare Concordia Einighausen
Fanfare Concordia rehearses its musical pieces in the school building of De Leeuwerik in Einighausen. The room is used by several choirs and music bands (amongst others a drumband and a sambaband) but also for gatherings, meetings and similar events. The hall was considered too reverberant for the music rehearsals of the fanfare and also for groups of the school working together. At the same time the acoustics of the place cannot become too dry, since some form of reverberation is needed to be able to play music together. For the different ensembles different reverberation times should be made possible. This was created by installing absorbing rolling curtains in one half of the hall.
