Room Properties

There are four knobs that control properties of the room: SIZE, DECAY, DAMPING and COLOR. By turning the SIZE knob, the room length can be adjusted from 3 meters up to 150 meters. The width follows automatically with a fixed aspect ratio of 2/3, that is, width is approx. two third of room length.

Using the DECAY knob you can control the time that sound needs to decay. Sound decays over time while travelling and the amount of decay depends on the media in which it is travelling. If we would restrict ourselves to the simulation of natural rooms only, this knob should be fixed to a certain value that is appropriate for sound travelling through air. But in some situations it can be helpful to change this value. Turning DECAY fully left gives a large decay time, that is, sound hardly decays over time. Turning it right makes the sound decay fast.

DAMPING and COLOR control absorbtion at walls. When sound hits a wall, some of the sound gets reflected and carries on travelling while the rest is absorbed by the wall. For example, a wall of concrete absorbs less sound than a wooden wall and a wooden wall absorbs less than a wall made of carpet. Moreover, absorbtion at walls depends on the frequency of the sound, that is, some frequencies get more absorbed than others. Usually, high frequencies tend to get more absorbed than lower frequencies. The DAMPING knob determines how much of the sound is absorbed by walls, independent of frequency. If DAMPING is turned left, walls hardly absorb sound. If turned fully right, most of the sound is absorbed at walls. The COLOR knob controls the balance between low and high frequencies. If turned fully left, only very low frequencies get reflected, all higher frequencies are absorbed. As a result, the room sounds dark and low. If turned right, all frequencies get absorbed equally and the room sounds bright and somewhat metallic.

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