COMMON PITFALLS IN COMPUTER MODELLING OF ROOM ACOUSTICS

COMMON PITFALLS IN COMPUTER MODELLING OF
ROOM ACOUSTICS
| Rees Adrian James Acoustics Ltd, Norwich, UK
1 INTRODUCTION
1.1 With advanced tools, advanced mistakes can be made
The above heading is one of the author's favourite obsen/ations by Bengt-Inge Dalenback,
developer of GATT-Acoustic. Adrian James Acoustics Ltd has acted as distributor and provided
technical support for GATT-Acoustic in the UK and Ireland for many years and particularly over the
past live years has delivered regular training courses to consultants and academic staff hailing from
_thrcughout the UK, Ireland and sometimes beyond. We have always started off the courses with a
smattering of such quotations, partly to give the morning caffeine time to kick in before we start on
the heavy technical stuff, but mostly to focus the mind and encourage the right approach to using
the software. Indeed, the key aimof our training is not only to explore all the technical nuts and
bolts of the software but to encourage users to consider carefully how and why they are using the
software, what "Geometrical Acoustics☜ (GA) means, and to take the time to analyse and challenge
the results obtained from calculations.
This paper considers some of the common pitfalls and misconceptions surrounding the use of GA
based room acoustics modelling software that we have encountered and offers some general
advice on avoiding these. As our day-to♥day experience and expertise is with GATT-Acoustic,
technical discussion of programme features relates specifically to this software, but general
principles will apply to other GA-based software offean similar technical feature