Proceedings of the 11th Convention of the
European Acoustics Association
Forum Acusticum / EuroNoise 2025


Málaga, Spain
June 23 - 26, 2025





Session: A15.01 Room acoustics - General
Date: Tuesday 24 June 2025
Time: 18:00
Title: Echoes In Iberian Bullrings
Author(s): Manuel Martín-Castizo
Miguel Galindo
Sara Girón
Pages: 3697-3704
DOI: https://www.doi.org/10.61782/fa.2025.0318
PDF: https://dael.euracoustics.org/confs/fa2025/data/articles/000318.pdf
Conference proceedings
Abstract

The presence of echoes in an acoustic event can ruin the capture of a spoken message and the perception of a piece of music. Likewise, in the performers’ area, clear hearing of one’s own voice or instrument and that of the rest of the performers is essential for the coordination and execution of the ensemble. Bullrings are buildings with a circular plan in which echo-encouraging focalizations can occur. Since bullrings lack a roof, the density of reflections is lower than that in a closed area and therefore strong isolated reflections perceived by the audience as an echo can be created. In this work, the echo parameter (Echo Criterion EC) is studied, together with an inspection of the impulse responses and the energy decay curves in the audience zones and in the arena area where the EC parameter exceeds the thresholds: in 4 bullrings highly emblematic of the Iberian Peninsula, one of which has a mobile roof. The results indicate, according to the EC parameter, that there is no echo for the music in the audience zone of the venues, and that the most critical area is where the source and receiver are both in the ring.