THE EFFECTS OF ACTUAL RECITAL HALL AND FOUR DIGITALLY-PRODUCED VARIABLE PRACTICE ROOM ENVIRONMENTS ON PHONATORY, ACOUSTICAL, AND PERCEPTUAL MEASURES OF VOCAL PERFORMANCES BY EXPERIENCED FEMALE SINGERS

Abstract

Virtual acoustics practice rooms have been marketed as a means to simulate acoustics of larger performance venues, thus potentially allowing users to practice as if they were in a given performance venue. No study to date has examined singer phonation behaviors in such virtual acoustics environments, compared these behaviors to phonation behaviors exhibited by the same singers in an actual recital hall, and solicited singer perceptions of virtual acoustics environments. The purpose of this study was to assess selected phonation behaviors and perceptions of female vocal soloists (N = 20) as they performed in two rooms: (a) a university Recital Hall, and (b) an individual practice room with 4 digitally-adjustable simulations of reverberation and reflections (Practice Room, Large Auditorium, Large Recital Hall, and Arena). Participants performed the same sung material at the same tempo in each environment, with the order of the 5 environments randomized among participants to control for potential order effect. Primary results of this study indicated that participants on the whole (a) exhibited significantly greater mean distance dose and timbral spectral energy in the Real Recital Hall than in the virtual acoustic conditions and (b) perceived significantly greater hearing efficiency and singing efficiency in the Real Recital Hall compared to the four simulated conditions. Although (c) there appeared to be no significant relationships between participants' exhibited amplitude and their perceptions of hearing and singing efficiency, (d) participant comments favored singing in the Real Recital Hall over singing with the virtual acoustic conditions.