Reverberation

“Reverb” redirects here. For other uses, see Reverb The time it takes for a signal to drop by 60 dB is the re-
(disambiguation). verberation time.
RT 60 is the time required for reflections of a direct sound
Reverberation, in psychoacoustics and acoustics, is the to decay 60 dB. Reverberation time is frequently stated
persistence of sound after a sound is produced.[1] A re- as a single value, if measured as a wide band signal (20
verberation, or reverb, is created when a sound or signal Hz to 20 kHz), however, being frequency dependent, it
is reflected causing a large number of reflections to build can be more precisely described in terms of frequency
up and then decay as the sound is absorbed by the sur- bands (one octave, 1/3 octave, 1/6 octave, etc.). Being
faces of objects in the space – which could include furni- frequency dependent, the reverberation time measured in
ture, people, and air.[2] This is most noticeable when the narrow bands will differ depending on the frequency band
sound source stops but the reflections continue, decreas- being measured. For precision, it is important to know
ing in amplitude, until they reach zero amplitude. what ranges of frequencies are being described by a re-
Reverberation is frequency dependent: the length of the verberation time measurement.
decay, or reverberation time, receives special consider- In the late 19th century, Wallace Clement Sabine started
ation in the architectural design of spaces which need to experiments at Harvard University to investigate the im-
have specific reverberation times to achieve optimum per- pact of absorption on the reverberation time. Using a
formance for their intended activity.[3] In comparison to portable wind chest and organ pipes as a sound source,
a distinct echo that is a minimum of 50 to 100 ms after a stopwatch and his ears, he measured the time from in-
the initial sound, reverberation is the occurrence of re- terruption of the source to inaudibility (a difference of
flections that arrive in less than approximately 50 ms. As roughly 60 dB). He found that the reverberation time is
time passes, the amplitude of the reflections is reduced proportional to room dimensions and inversely propor-
until it is reduced to zero. Reverberation is not limited tional to the amount of absorption present.
to indoor spaces as it exists in forests and other outdoor The optimum reverberation time for a space in which mu-
environments where reflection exists. sic is played depends on the type of music that is to be
Reverberation occurs naturally when a person sings, talks played in the space. Rooms used for speech typically
or plays an instrument acoustically in a hall or perfor- need a shorter reverberation time so that speech can be
mance space with sound-reflective surfaces.[4] The sound understood more clearly. If the reflected sound from one
of reverberation is often electronically added to the vocals syllable is still heard when the next syllable is spoken, it
of singers in live sound systems and sound recordings by may be difficult to understand what was said.[5] “Cat”,
using effects units or digital delay effects. “Cab”, and “Cap” may all sound very similar. If on the
other hand the reverberation time is too short, tonal bal-
ance and loudness may suffer. Reverberation effects are
often used in studios to add depth to sounds. Reverbera-
1 Reverberation time tion changes the perceived spectral structure of a sound,
but does not alter the pitch.
Lp Basic factors that affect a room’s reverberation time in-
(dB) clude the size and shape of the enclosure as well as the
materials used in the construction of the room. Every
object placed within the enclosure can also affect this re-
60 dB verberation time, including people and their belongings.

1.1 Sabine equation

RT60
0 t (s)
Sound level in a reverberant cavity excited by a pulse, as a func-
tion of time (very simplified diagram).
Sabine's reverberation equation was developed in the late
1890s in an empirical fashion. He established a relation-
ship between the RT 60 of a room, its volume, and its total
absorption (in sabins). This is given by the equation:

1
2 1 REVERBERATION TIME

24 ln 101 V V
RT60 = ≈ 0.1611 sm−1
c20 Sa Sa
where c20 is the speed of sound in the room (for 20 de-
grees Celsius), V is the volume of the room in m³, S total
surface area of room in m², a is the average absorption co-
efficient of room surfaces, and the product Sa is the total
absorption in sabins.
The total absorption in sabins (and hence reverberation
time) generally changes depending on frequency (which
is defined by the acoustic properties of the space). The
equation does not take into account room shape or losses
from the sound travelling through the air (important in
larger spaces). Most rooms absorb less sound energy Automatically determining T20 value - 5dB trigger - 20dB mea-
in the lower frequency ranges resulting in longer reverb surement - 10dB headroom to noise floor.
times at lower frequencies.
Sabine concluded that the reverberation time depends
upon the reflectivity of sound from various surfaces avail- the trace on the level recorder will show a distinct slope.
able inside the hall. If the reflection is coherent, the re- Analysis of this slope reveals the measured reverberation
verberation time of the hall will be longer; the sound will time. Some modern digital sound level meters can carry
take more time to die out. out this analysis automatically.[6]

The reverberation time RT 60 and the volume V of the Several methods exist for measuring reverb time. An
room have great influence on the critical distance d (con- impulse can be measured by creating a sufficiently loud
ditional equation): noise (which must have a defined cut off point). Impulse
noise sources such as a blank pistol shot or balloon burst
may be used to measure the impulse response of a room.
√
V Alternatively, a random noise signal such as pink noise or
dc ≈ 0.057 ·
RT60 white noise may be generated through a loudspeaker, and
then turned off. This is known as the interrupted method,
where critical distance dc is measured in meters, volume and the measured result is known as the interrupted re-
V is measured in m³, and reverberation time RT60 is sponse.
measured in seconds.
A two port measurement system can also be used to mea-
sure noise introduced into a space and compare it to what
1.2 Absorption Coefficient is subsequently measured in the space. Consider sound
reproduced by a loudspeaker into a room. A recording of
The absorption coefficient of a material is a number be- the sound in the room can be made and compared to what
tween 0 and 1 which indicates the proportion of sound was sent to the loudspeaker. The two signals can be com-
which is absorbed by the surface compared to the pro- pared mathematically. This two port measurement sys-
portion which is reflected back into the room. A large, tem utilizes a Fourier transform to mathematically derive
fully open window would offer no reflection as any sound the impulse response of the room. From the impulse re-
reaching it would pass straight out and no sound would be sponse, the reverberation time can be calculated. Using a
reflected. This would have an absorption coefficient of two port system allows reverberation time to be measured
1. Conversely, a thick, smooth painted concrete ceiling with signals other than loud impulses. Music or record-
would be the acoustic equivalent of a mirror, and would ings of other sound can be used. This allows measure-
have an absorption coefficient very close to 0. ments to be taken in a room after the audience is present.
Sound absorption coefficients of common materials used Reverberation time is usually stated as a decay time and is
in buildings are presented in this table. measured in seconds. There may or may not be any state-
ment of the frequency band used in the measurement.
Decay time is the time it takes the signal to diminish 60
1.3 Measurement of reverberation time dB below the original sound. It is often difficult to inject
enough sound into the room to measure a decay of 60 dB,
Historically reverberation time could only be measured particularly at lower frequencies. If the decay is linear, it
using a level recorder (a plotting device which graphs the is sufficient to measure a drop of 20 dB and multiply the
noise level against time on a ribbon of moving paper). time by 3, or a drop of 30 dB and multiply the time by 2.
A loud noise is produced, and as the sound dies away These are the so-called T20 and T30 measurement meth-
2.3 Spring reverberators 3

ods. 2.3 Spring reverberators

The concept of Reverberation Time implicitly supposes
that the decay rate of the sound is exponential, so that the “Spring reverb” redirects here. For the album by The Big
sound level diminishes regularly, at a rate of so many dB Wu, see Spring Reverb (album).
per second. It is not often the case in real rooms, depend- A spring reverb system uses a transducer at one end
ing on the disposition of reflective, dispersive and absorb-
ing surfaces. Moreover, successive measurement of the
sound level often yields very different results, as differ-
ences in phase in the exciting sound build up in notably
different sound waves. In 1965, Manfred R. Schroeder
published “A new method of Measuring Reverberation
Time” in the Journal of the Acoustical Society of Amer-
ica. He proposed to measure, not the power of the sound, Folded line reverberation device.
but the energy, by integrating it. This made it possible to
show the variation in the rate of decay, and to free acous-
ticians from the necessity of averaging many measure-
ments.

2 Creating reverberation effects

A performer or a producer of live or recorded music often The folded coil spring is visible underside of the reverberation
induces reverberation in a work. Several systems have device.
been developed to produce or to simulate reverberation.
of a spring and a pickup at the other, similar to those
used in plate reverbs, to create and capture vibrations
within a metal spring. Laurens Hammond was granted
2.1 Chamber reverberators a patent on a spring-based mechanical reverberation sys-
tem in 1939.[8] Guitar amplifiers frequently incorporate
The first reverb effects created for recordings used a real spring reverbs due to their compact construction and low
physical space as a natural echo chamber. A loudspeaker cost. Spring reverberators were once widely used in semi-
would play the sound, and then a microphone would pick professional recording due to their modest cost and small
it up again, including the effects of reverb. Although this size.
is still a common technique, it requires a dedicated sound-
Many musicians have made use of spring reverb units
proofed room, and varying the reverb time is difficult.
by rocking them back and forth, creating a thundering,
crashing sound caused by the springs colliding with each
other. The Hammond Organ included a built-in spring
2.2 Plate reverberators reverberator, making this a popular effect when used in
a rock band.
A plate reverb system uses an electromechanical
transducer, similar to the driver in a loudspeaker, to cre-
ate vibrations in a large plate of sheet metal. The plate’s 2.4 Digital reverberators
motion is picked up by one or more contact microphones
whose output is an audio signal which may be added to Digital reverberators use various signal processing algo-
the original “dry” signal. In the late 1950s, Elektro-Mess- rithms in order to create the reverb effect. Since rever-
Technik (EMT) introduced the EMT 140;[7] a 600-pound beration is essentially caused by a very large number of
(270 kg) model popular in recording studios, contribut- echoes, simple reverberation algorithms use several feed-
ing to many hit records such as Beatles and Pink Floyd back delay circuits to create a large, decaying series of
albums recorded at Abbey Road Studios in the 1960s, echoes. More advanced digital reverb generators can sim-
and others recorded by Bill Porter in Nashville’s RCA ulate the time and frequency domain response of a spe-
Studio B. Early units had one pickup for mono output, cific room (using room dimensions, absorption and other
later models featured two pickups for stereo use. The re- properties). In a music hall, the direct sound always ar-
verb time can be adjusted by a damping pad, made from rives at the listener’s ear first because it follows the short-
framed acoustic tiles. The closer the damping pad, the est path. Shortly after the direct sound, the reverberant
shorter the reverb time. However, the pad never touches sound arrives. The time between the two is called the
the plate. Some units also featured a remote control. “pre-delay.”
4 5 EXTERNAL LINKS

Reverberation, or informally, “reverb,” is a standard au- 5 External links

dio effect used universally in digital audio workstations
(DAWs) and VST plug-ins. • Reverberation - Hyperphysics

• A database of measured room impulse responses to

2.4.1 Convolution reverb generate realistic reverberation effects

Main article: Convolution reverb • Spring Reverb Tanks Explained and Compared

• Care and Feeding of Spring Reverb Tanks

Convolution reverb is a process used for digitally simulat-
• Download possibility for a calculation software to
ing reverberation. It uses the mathematical convolution
Reverberation Time
operation, a pre-recorded audio sample of the impulse
response of the space being modeled, and the sound to • Calculation of the reverberation time after Sabine −
be echoed, to produce the effect. The impulse-response RT60 decay
recording is first stored in a digital signal-processing sys-
tem. This is then convolved with the incoming audio sig-
nal to be processed.

3 See also
• Acoustic resonance

• Audio mixing

• Exponential decay

• Reverberation room

4 References
[1] Valente, Michael; Holly Hosford-Dunn; Ross J. Roeser
(2008). Audiology. Thieme. pp. 425–426. ISBN 978-1-
58890-520-8.

[2] Lloyd, Llewelyn Southworth (1970). Music and Sound.

Ayer Publishing. p. 169. ISBN 978-0-8369-5188-2.

[3] Roth, Leland M. (2007). Understanding Architecture.

Westview Press. pp. 104–105. ISBN 978-0-8133-9045-
1.

[4] Davis, Gary (1987). The sound reinforcement handbook

(2nd ed.). Milwaukee, WI: Hal Leonard. p. 259. ISBN
9780881889000. Retrieved February 12, 2016.

[5] “So why does reverberation affect speech intelligibility?".

MC Squared System Design Group, Inc. Retrieved 2008-
12-04.

[6] Measuring Reverberation Time RT60

[7] Eargle, John M. (2005). Handbook of Recording Engi-

neering (4 ed.). Birkhäuser. p. 233. ISBN 0-387-28470-
2.

[8] Laurens Hammond, Electrical Musical Instrument, U.S.

Patent 2,230,836, granted Feb. 4, 1941.
 5

6 Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

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