Many of the acoustic characteristics of rooms and auditoriums can be directly attributed to specific physically measurable properties. Because the music critic or performing artist uses a different vocabulary to describe these characteristics than does the physicist, it is helpful to survey some of the more important features of acoustics and correlate the two sets of descriptions.

“Liveness” refers directly to reverberation time. A live room has a long reverberation time and a dead room a short reverberation time. “Intimacy” refers to the feeling that listeners have of being physically close to the performing group. A room is generally judged intimate when the first reverberant sound reaches the listener within about 20 milliseconds of the direct sound. This condition is met easily in a small room, but it can also be achieved in large halls by the use of orchestral shells that partially enclose the performers. Another example is a canopy placed above a speaker in a large room such as a cathedral: this leads to both a strong and a quick first reverberation and thus to a sense of intimacy with the person speaking.

The amplitude of the reverberant sound relative to the direct sound is referred to as fullness. Clarity, the opposite of fullness, is achieved by reducing the amplitude of the reverberant sound. Fullness generally implies a long reverberation time, while clarity implies a shorter reverberation time. A fuller sound is generally required of Romantic music or performances by larger groups, while more clarity would be desirable in the performance of rapid passages from Bach or Mozart or in speech.

“Warmth” and “brilliance” refer to the reverberation time at low frequencies relative to that at higher frequencies. Above about 500 hertz, the reverberation time should be the same for all frequencies. But at low frequencies an increase in the reverberation time creates a warm sound, while, if the reverberation time increased less at low frequencies, the room would be characterized as more brilliant.

“Texture” refers to the time interval between the arrival of the direct sound and the arrival of the first few reverberations. To obtain good texture, it is necessary that the first five reflections arrive at the observer within about 60 milliseconds of the direct sound. An important corollary to this requirement is that the intensity of the reverberations should decrease monotonically; there should be no unusually large late reflections.

“Blend” refers to the mixing of sounds from all the performers and their uniform distribution to the listeners. To achieve proper blend it is often necessary to place a collection of reflectors on the stage that distribute the sound randomly to all points in the audience.

Although the above features of auditorium acoustics apply to listeners, the idea of ensemble applies primarily to performers. In order to perform coherently, members of the ensemble must be able to hear one another. Reverberant sound cannot be heard by the members of an orchestra, for example, if the stage is too wide, has too high a ceiling, or has too much sound absorption on its sides.