Article
Simulated reverberation for choir recordings in virtual churches (de)
* Presenting author
Abstract:
The performance of singing, especially in religious context, is supposed to be strongly influenced by the room acoustic environment. The research project Sacred Sound - Sacred Space deals with the interaction of the environment and the performance and perception of singing in religious spaces. In this project, a technical setup has been created to enable ensemble singers to perform in virtual environments. For this recording setup multiple singers are situated in an hemi anechoic chamber and perceive the response of the virtual space via open headphones. Recordings of professional singers were conducted for two spaces which were originally built around the 12th century, the still existing Cistercian church of Maulbronn monastery and the Maior Ecclesia in Cluny, whose current remnants make up only a small portion of this once largest church in Europe. The reverberation of these spaces was simulated for different positions by creating binaural room impulse responses, which were then applied using low-latency convolution to the headset microphone signal of each singer. In addition to research the impact of the room acoustic environment on the singing, the recorded data can be used to create interactive auralizations of (church) spaces which no longer exist.