How we Measured the Acoustic Scale Model of Stonehenge

The Sound Blog

Fig. 1. The 1:12 Acoustic Scale Model of Stonehenge. Read this blog post for more on how the model was constructed.

Impulse response

To characterise an architectural space, we measure a set of impulse response. You could measure one of these by creating a short impulsive sound and picking up the sound elsewhere on a microphone. Fig. 2 is an example from the model scale measurement for the source near the altar stone and the microphone inside the outer sarsen stones. First the sound direct from source to receiver arrives, followed quickly by a series of reflections from various stones.

Fig. 2. Impulse response, source near altar stone, microphone inside outer sarsens.

Impulsive sounds can be used, for example you can make quick room measurements by bursting a balloon. But more accurate results are obtained using a signal that sweeps through all the frequencies from low to high in a…

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