Re: Direct Sound, Early Reflections, and Tone
Wow. that's heavy thought!
One of the best lessons that I have learned over the years is when to give up. I used to try all sorts of things to fix the problems that you mention because of issues that are beyond the realm of a one off performance. While it's true that we can't equalize a room, I have found that I can do things to soften the blow of a space by making sure that I don't over-excite a frequency. Playing a large, un-treated, room means that maybe the only things I can do is find that modal frequency and try to make sure that I don't make it worse. Another example is playing in a tent with plastic walls- all of the top end gets real excited, real fast.
The peaks/notches thing is a real interesting observation. I'll admit that I'm a big proponent of FFT in rooms or systems that I'm not familiar with so I sometimes go straight to the visual for correcting when time isn't on my side. I really think that it depends on where the frequency shift happens as to whether or not we notice. There are certain notes in the scale that I think that we find displeasing to the ear and may want us to act on it. Psychoacoustics might tell us to pay more attention to frequencies such as 2.5kHz because the equivalent note (D#) isn't one that we hear on a regular basis and thus our brain may not know what to do about it. Another D# is 160Hz- a frequency that also seems to bother me both because of the note itself and the interference that it has within a small performance hall. Those peaks/notches are going to be relative to the space and program music that you are supplying to excite the environment.
