State of the art listening room

[rhd1953]

Ohh, I forgot, it seats 350! ASU Katzin Hall (Tempe, AZ).

This place is simply amazing. So quiet you can hear a pin drop...on the carpet. Acoustics of course are superb...ideal with a full house, but excellent with just 2 dozen people.

This is a recital hall at Arizona State University's College of Music, music majors perform as part of their major...of course. So you can hear all kinds of music, all kinds of instruments, and pretty good performances. A lot of the music selections are picked to demonstrate the performer's skills (not the same old selections you hear in concert). Oh, and they're all free.

The second photo is of a percussion recital with a BIG marimba!
Really stunning sound and I don't know how the performer can play with 2 sticks (what are they called?) in each hand. And I though piano was tough.

Reflective surfaces on stage, sound deflectors and absorbants along the side walls, reflective and infinite baffle ceiling. Serious design.

For some reason, the audience (performer's friends) always sit in the back half for brass instrument recitals. Guess why.

Now, how are you going to position your speakers? Room treatment?

 

[kach22i]

U of M has a room built around a pipe organ over at North Campus. You can walk in there just about any time during the day and catch some music student practing - it's awesome, but not as pretty as the AZ room.

 

[rhd1953]

Details on the ASU "Organ Hall" are here:
http://music.asu.edu/facilities/organ.php

Suffice to say, it is a "typical church" (16th-17th century, that is). Several pipe organs and small/to large harpsicords. Church pew seating...bring your own padding.

I never got any photos in Organ Hall, though.

The School of Music used to have a monthly schedule of student, faculty, and guest performers. Student recitals were several times a day, on week days.

The whole complex is climate controlled (it is Arizona) for constant temperature and humidity. Reduces piano tuning a lot.

 

[Steve]

Yup, I miss the sound of a full concert marimba. I spent a lot of time playing music growing up. While I played all percussion, marimba was my specialty (had one like the ones in the picture in my house for several years). My mother loved listening to me practice. The two sticks in a hand thing was impressive to watch, but not as difficult as it appears.

I miss having a marimba to play. I plan to add a party room out by our pool at some point, and I'd love to put a nice concert marimba out there...unfortunately, the piece I have in mind costs almost as much as the room!

That room at ASU looks like a very nice setup for unamplified music, such as a good percussion ensemble. UT here in Austin has a pretty big music school. I'll have to do some poking around to see if they have something simliar, open to the public.