New Method of Measuring Reverberation Time

A new method of measuring reverberation time is described. The method uses short pulses of acoustic energy, such as pistol shots or tone bursts, to excite the enclosure. An integral over the response of the enclosure yields, in a single measurement, the average of infinitely many decay curves that would be obtained with random noise as the excitation signal. The smooth decay curves resulting from the new method improve the accuracy of reverberation-time measurements and facilitate the detection of nonexponential decays. In a recent publication J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 37, 409–412 (1965), the fundamental relationship between decay curves obtained from impulse and noise excitations, on which the new method is based, was proved. In this talk, progress with instrumenting the new method is described. Results obtained in a large concert hall are described subsequently (B. S. Atal, M. R. Schroeder, G. M. Sessler, and J. E. West. Paper J5, this meeting).