TABLE OF CONTENTS The perceptual effect of sound reflections depends on the size of the room. The situation in a recording studio, control room, or listening room is quite different from that in a music hall or large auditorium. The case of sound reflections in small rooms is considered first in this discussion.
Imagine two people in a small room as illustrated in Fig. 16-1. The first sound of the person speaking to reach the listener is that traveling a direct path because it travels the shortest distance. This direct sound, which arrives first at the ears of the listener, establishes the perception of the direction from which the sound came. Even though it is immediately inundated by a stream of reflections from the various surfaces of the room, this directional perception persists, tending to lock out the effects of all later reflections insofar as direction is concerned. Cremer has called this the law of the first wavefront. This fixation of the direction to the source of sound is accomplished within a small fraction of a millisecond and, as already mentioned, is unaffected by the avalanche of reflections following the arrival of the direct sound.
The average (mean) distance sound travels between successive reflections is...
