Resources in Acoustics
Wenger Corp. has long championed the vital importance of acoustics for music education, performance and enjoyment.  We are pleased to offer the following bibliography of resources, and gratified that many of today’s leading acoustical experts recognize Wenger’s innovation and expertise in this area.

Spaces Speak, Are You Listening?  Experiencing Aural Architecture.  Barry Blesser and Linda-Ruth Salter.  MIT Press, 2007.
Cites Wenger’s active acoustics practice room as example of “how market forces influence the design” of aural architecture.

Concert Halls and Opera Houses: Music, Acoustics and Architecture, 2nd Ed.  Leo Beranek.  Springer-Verlag, 2004.

The Soundscape of Modernity: Architectural Acoustics and the Culture of Listening in America, 1900-1933.  Emily Thompson.  MIT Press, 2002.  Author won the 2002 Acoustical Society of America science writing award for this book, which describes Wenger’s active acoustics practice room as illustrative of “postmodern acoustical technologies”…that “summon forth the sound of space so easily and in so many varieties…”

Spatial Hearing: The Psychophysics of Human Sound Localization, Revised Ed.  Jens Blauert.  MIT Press, 1999.

Architectural Acoustics: Principles and Practice.  Edited by William J. Cavanaugh and Joseph A. Wilkes.  John Wiley & Sons, 1999.
Cites Wenger as source for photo of typical installation of music practice rooms, and asserts “there is an increasing trend toward use of preengineered and prefabricated sound isolation rooms.” 

Architectural Acoustics: Principles and Design.  Madan Mehta, James Johnson and Jorge Rocafort.  Prentice Hall, 1999. 
Wenger is source for illustration and photograph showing typical installation of music practice rooms.

Acoustics and Noise Control Handbook for Architects and Builders.  Leland K. Irvine and Roy L. Richards.  Krieger Publishing Company, 1998.
Mentions advantages of modular, sound-isolating music practice rooms like Wenger’s Virtual Acoustic Environment (VAE), and the benefits of active acoustics technology.  Also cites Wenger as source for two diagrams showing two views of typical acoustical shell configuration.

Acoustics: Architecture, Engineering, The Environment.  Charles M. Salter Associates, Inc.  William Stout Publishers, 1998.

Music and Concert Hall Acoustics.  Edited by Yoichi Ando and Dennis Noson.  Academic Press, Harcourt Brace & Company, 1997.

Proceedings of Wallace Clement Sabine Centennial Symposium of the Acoustical Society of America.  Cambridge, Mass., June 5-7, 1994.
Describes first public exhibition of Wenger’s practice room utilizing active acoustics technology.

Auditorium Acoustics and Architectural Design.  Michael Barron.  E&FN Spon, Chapman & Hall, 1993.

Architectural Acoustics.  M. David Egan.  McGraw-Hill, 1988.

 

This bibliography was selected by Ron Freiheit, director of acoustical research at Wenger Corp. and a Fellow of the Acoustical Society of America (ASA).  Freiheit was recognized by the ASA in 2003 for his “contributions to the practical application of acoustics of musical performance and to virtual room acoustics.” 

For his work developing the “acoustical virtual environment” that is marketed today by Wenger as VAE® technology, Freiheit was awarded U.S. Patent #5,525,765 in 1996.  By providing acoustical simulations of different environments, VAE technology makes practice sessions more realistic, effective and enjoyable for musicians.