St. Margaret’s Church – National Centre for Early Music

Impulse responses were captured in St. Margaret’s Church in York. The space has since been redeveloped and is now used for concerts and conferences, and for this reason its acoustics have been extensively redesigned by ARUP Acoustics. Using different configurations at the panel absorbers (reflective on the one side, absorbing on the other) as well as drapes in the roof the acoustic behaviour can be changed. The first cofiguration, for musical/opera performances, includes drapes and 75% of panels in use (open). For the second configuration, the drapes and 100% of the panels are in use, suitable for lectures/speech. For the third configuration, suitable for music recitals, only the drapes are in use (all panel absorbers closed). Photographs show the configurations being used. Receiver positions were chosen in order to create a virtual grid of 26 points equidistant from each other in the audience area. The source was placed as a performer would be in the space. The positions of these sources and receivers are described in the attached diagram. —–NOTE: The Impulse Responses have been updated on 22nd March 2012. For more information please contact with Aglaia Foteinou (af539@ohm.york.ac.uk or A.Foteinou@wlv.ac.uk)