Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Forum Ideal acoustics of the music room

Just out of interest, how many of the pianists here know about acoustics? Do you know the acoustic properties (RT30, room curve) of the room you play your instrument? Have you tried to improve the acoustics? Does someone have a professionally designed room for playing?

I measured the Rt60 for my room and it is about 0.35-0.40 s.

A bit, no, a little (it is pretty good to start with), no.

I've done some experimentation, no professional input. IMHO the ceiling height and material is very important.
My previous studio had 8' ceiling, standard textured sheetrock, I tried adding acoustic treatment to walls and ceiling, still not good. Current studio is same size but has 10' ceiling with acoustic ceiling tiles, minimal wall treatment - major improvement. Just my observation, no professional help - haven't a clue about RT30 or room curve.

Nothing. I just added soft materials until it sounded about right.

Not much / no / no / no.

My pianos sound absolutely fine in my piano room.

It was not until I started to read threads on this forum that I realised that room acoustics might be something to worry about in a private house (obviously a concert hall is different). For me, there is nothing to worry about.

Is there an app for Android smartphones to measure reverberation times? What are good values? The one who must be obeyed wants to replace the carpet with a stone or wood floor.

It matters for recording to get a cleaner sound, and you'd need alot of material to do this. It's not expensive, but it's not pretty because effective panels have to be quite large and thick. Not practical for most homes. If you just want to improve acoustics from the player position, this is easier and doable with smaller/ fewer panels, but that's only the case in a geometrically simple room. If you've got hallways, opening to the kitchen, sloped roof, then it again quickly becomes impractical because you need to hang panels all over just to figure things out.

I tossed a few pillows under my piano and it sounds really good.