Proceedings of the International Symposium on Room Acoustics, ISRA 201029-31 August 2010, Melbourne, Australia

The Acoustical Design of the New Yamaha Hall
Hideo Miyazaki (1), Shinjiro Yamashita (1), Yasushi Shimizu (1),Yoshihide Shiba (2), and Ami Tanaka (2)(1) Sound & IT Development Division, Yamaha Corp., 203 Matsunokijima Iwata, Shizuoka 438-0192, Japan(2) Nikken Sekkei Ltd., 2-18-3 Iidabashi, Chiyoda-ku Tokyo 102-8117, Japan

PACS: 43.55.Fw, Hy, KaABSTRACT
The Yamaha Ginza Building, which opened about 60 years ago, was renewed as a commercial complex that has fourtypes of facilities: shops, music instruction rooms, hall facilities, and an information center. The new Yamaha Hall,
located on the seventh to ninth floors, has been designed under the concept of a concert hall that has attractive andunique acoustics that are optimal for acoustical instruments and can never be experienced in other spaces. To control
the ASW of a small room, where strong reflections from side walls often cause ambiguous sound images, scale modelexperiments and subjective tests using an auralization system based on a computer simulation have been used tostudy the pattern of the side walls. In addition, Yamaha’s original wood enhancement technologies, which have been
gained through the development of materials for musical instruments and utilized for violins, acoustic guitars, etc.,
have been implemented in the stage floor to achieve the mature, warm sound of the hall.

1. INTRODUCTION
The previous Yamaha Building and Yamaha Hall, whichwere designed by the famous architect Antonin Raymond,
opened in 1951 and had been known as one of the popularvenues in Ginza, Tokyo’s fabulous fashion and cultural district, for more than half a century. Due to the age of the facilities and thanks to the 1998 easing of the architectural
regulation about building height in the Ginza area, thesestructures were reborn as the new Yamaha Ginza Building onFeb. 26, 2010.

Music instruction rooms(10F to 12F)

The new building has twelve floors above ground and threefloors below ground. The building has four types of facilities:
shops, music instruction rooms, hall facilities, and an information center named Portal. The hall facilities include theYamaha Hall (333 seats), which is designed to hold performances of classical music, and the Yamaha Ginza Studio(96 seats), which is designed for multiple purposes, such as
holding performances of light music and presentations of newproducts. In this paper, the studies of the acoustics of theYamaha Hall during both the design and construction stages
are summarized with a focus on the ASW (Apparent SourceWidth) control and the stage floor.

Salon, Dressing rooms(6F)

Yamaha Hall
(7F to 9F）

Shops (B1F to 5F)
Portal (1F)

Yamaha Ginza Studio
Recording room(B2F）
Architect: Nikken Sekkei Ltd.
Contractor: Kajima CorporationStructure: SRC（partly RC）
Construction period:
May 2007 to Feb. 2010

Figure 1. Facilities of the New Yamaha Ginza Building
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Proceedings of the International Symposium on Room Acoustics, ISRA 2010

2. SUMMARY OF THE ACOUSTICAL DESIGNOF THE YAMAHA HALL
The interior of the Yamaha Hall is shown in Photo 1 and afloor plan of the first and second tiers is shown in Figure 1.
To realize the concept of a small concert hall that provides aunique and attractive sound, the design of the hall’s shapeand interior was studied with a focus on the following aspects: (1) richness of acoustical resonance (reverberance), (2)clear and vibrant sound (clearness), (3) ease of performance(support for players on the stage), and (4) resonance variety.
Regarding (1), the ceiling was set as high as the limitations
imposed by the size of the building would allow. Moreover,the side walls spread toward the ceiling, which creates a richreverberance falling from above despite the relatively small
volume per seat (7.6 m3). Regarding (3), the walls surrounding the stage are well-designed and reflectors are suspendedover the stage to compensate for poor early reflections fromthe high ceiling. Regarding (4), reverberance can be controlled by opening doors that are connected to the highly
absorptive area above the ceiling. In addition, by using theAFC system (Active Field Control system) [1], the reverberation time can be extended up to approximately 3 seconds byelectro-acoustic means. This makes it possible to achieve theconcept of falling resonance that is the goal outlined in (1).
Regarding (2), the sightlines of the audience and the shape ofthe stage reflectors have been designed to provide the audience with a clear sound even with pianissimo music in a richreverberant space. Meanwhile, lateral reflections, which areusually considered an important factor for spaciousness, tend
to become too strong in a small, narrow room and consequently cause ambiguous sound images. As such, while focusing on ASW as an index related to the sound image, scalemodel experiments together with subjective tests using anauralization system based on computer simulations have beenused to study the optimum pattern of the side walls that control ASW.

15m

Photo 1. Interior of the Yamaha Hall11m

6m

Figure 2. Floor Plan of the First (Above) andSecond Tiers (Below)

Door to high-absorption room, AFC (4)Creates a variety of sound fields

12m

Side walls spreading toward ceiling (1)Create resonance falling from above
Height of ceiling (1)Creates resonance falling from above
Swelling ceiling (1)Scatters sounds by reflectors that have different curvatures

Step height and zigzag alignment of seats (2)Optimum seats and step configuration provide
clear, direct sounds
Front reflectors (2)Provide clear sounds from the front

Suspended reflectors (2), (3)Provide early reflections to the audience for clear
soundsProvide reflections to players for performance
supportSide walls (3)Control lateral reflections to avoid too much ASW

Capacity： 333 seats(1F: 250, 2F: 83）
Volume: 2,520 m3
Surface: 1,440 m2
V/N:
7.6 m3RT:
1.6 seconds
α:16％

Figure 3. Summary of Design Concept

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Proceedings of the International Symposium on Room Acoustics, ISRA 2010

3. STUDY OF SIDE WALL PATTERNSTHROUGH THE USE OF SCALE MODE
EXPERIMENTS
3.1 SummaryThe interior design is based on two concepts. On one hand,the acoustical design viewpoint of lateral reflection control.
On the other hand, the architectural (visual) design viewpointof harmony with the building’s external design of a grid
made of obliquely-crossed lines, which express the movement and vibrations of sound and rhythm. Consequently abalance between the acoustical and architectural designs wasconsidered by tilting diamond-shaped panels surrounded withobliquely-crossed grids in order to control the direction anddiffusivity of the reflections. As a result of discussions withdesign teams, the length of each square panel side was set at
800 mm, the maximum panel-tilt-anglewas set at 15 degrees,
and the panel-tilt-direction was set at front-down or rear-up.
A 1/5 scale model of the panels was made and a variety ofside wall patterns were configured by stacking panels in aframe whose sides were each 1.2 m (6 m in the actual configuration). To figure out the reflection diffusivity of the sidewalls, the polar patterns of reflections were measured in an
anechoic room (Figure 4).

6 m x 6m (actual)

Speaker
Microphone
DW: Front Down3.2 Conditions of the Scale Model Experiments
The impulse responses were measured using a TSP (TimeStretched Pulse) signal as a sound source and speakers thatcan provide playback of up to 50 kHz (10 kHz in the actual
configuration). After convolving the impulse responses with
the inverse filters of the speakers, the reflections were cut off
and their energy was calculated. While changing the incident
angle (elevation sα: 0 to 30 degrees, azimuth sβ: 30 to 90
degrees) corresponding to the angle from the stage to the sidewalls, a hemispherical polar pattern of each incident angle
was measured at each 15 degrees of elevation (rα: 30 to 90degrees) and azimuth (rβ: 0 to 345 degrees) (Figure 5). Threeside wall patterns were selected to examine the basic characteristics: all panels set as front-down [DW], all panels set as
rear-up [UP], and alternately-displaced mound shapes [MT](Figure 4).

UP: Rear Up
1.2 m x 1.2m (model)

MT: MoundFigure 4. Scale Model Experiment

3.3 Experiment Results
The experiment results are shown in Figure 6. In the DW
pattern, geometric reflections that correspond to the soundincident angle against panel direction (ex. rβ=135 degrees atsα=45 degrees) are strong. In the UP pattern, geometric reflections like the DW pattern and reflections at 30 to 90 degrees of rβ can be seen. This indicates that some energy isreflected from the small surface at the edge of the panels thatare facing the sound source. In the MT pattern, scatteringreflections can be seen.
The basic policy of the side wall pattern was decided basedon these results and the design concept shown in Figure 3. Inthe lower area along seats [A], the UP pattern is mainly used
to avoid first order reflections to the audience. In the middle
area, above A, [B], the DN pattern is mainly used to create
the second and third order reflections to the audience andthen to make reflections moderate by lengthening the distance of the sound propagation path. Each tilting angle wasadjusted depending on the panel’s height from the floor. In
the upper area, above B, [C], the MT pattern is mainly used
to create a resonant sound. In the rear area [D], the UP pattern is mainly used to support spaciousness by creating reflections behind the audience. For the side reflectors on thestage [E], the MT pattern is mainly used to get sufficientdiffusive reflections considering the support required for both
ISRA 2010Incidence

Reflection
Elevation: sα
Azimuth: sβ

Elevation: rα
Azimuth: rβModelFigure 5. Angles of Incidence and Reflection

solo and ensemble performances. Discussions with architects
led to the final overall pattern shown in Figure 6. In addition,
random wood slats were placed on the flat panels in the low
area to prevent glaring sounds by scattering high frequencysounds.

329-31 August 2010, Melbourne, Australia

sα=30 degrees

Proceedings of the International Symposium on Room Acoustics, ISRA 2010sα=45 degrees

sα=60 degrees

sα=75 degrees

sα=90 degrees
60 dB0 degrees
rβDW

UPMT
Figure 6. Polar Pattern of Reflections from Side walls (sβ = 0 degrees, 1 kHz in real application)

C: Upper Area
MT base for creation of reverberation

E: Stage SideMT base for diffusion on the stage

D: Rear Area
UP base for providing reflections below audience

Tiltangle
Tiltdirection

15 degrees

10 degrees

DWUP

A: Lower Area
UP base for avoiding too many first orderreflections

B: Middle Area
DW base for creation of second or thirdorder reflections

LightWoodslats* The right side pattern is based on the same concept, but its pattern is not identical. One
reason is the visual design. Another reason is to not make a parallel surface with theleft side.
Figure 7. Side Wall Pattern (Left side)

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Proceedings of the International Symposium on Room Acoustics, ISRA 2010

4. STUDY OF SIDE WALL PATTERNSTHROUGH THE USE OF ACOUSTICALSIMULATIONSTable 1. Summary of Sound Fields

4.1 Summary
Using geometrical simulations, comparative studies withother rooms were done on the final pattern that was determined through the scale model experiments. The ASW wasfocused on as an index for evaluating sound images.The following formulae proposed by Morimoto et al. [2] were used
to calculate the ASW.

ASW = −39.6 × DICC + 1.55 × BSPL − 31.9
BSPL = 6 log 2 (2 Ll 2 + 2 Lr 2 )Capacity

Since these fomulae were derived from subjective experiments, it is not certain that they can be utilized for real fields,
but here it was assumed that comparative studies based onthese fomulae were possible. The sound fields that werecompared are shown in Figure 8 and Table 1. The soundfields were produced by the Yamaha Hall with different sidewall patterns: the final pattern, all flat (no tilt), all DW, andall UP and two other halls that are approximately the same
size as the Yamaha Hall (halls X and Y). In hall X and hallY, the members of the design team actually listened to andevaluated performances, and then adjusted the target imageof the sound field based on the results. Since the ASW of hall
Y was a bit bigger than the assumed target because of lessdiffusion of the side walls and the ASW of hall X was a bitsmaller because of the hall’s wider width, a value in the middle of the two halls’ ASW values was set as the target.
The first 30 seconds of Fantaisie by Chopin was used as thesound source. Using the CATT-Acoustic™, the impulse responses at both ears were calculated, and then major acoustical indexes and ASW derived from fomula 1 were calculated
after convolving the sound source with the impulse responses.
The average values for each sound field were calculated fromthe 27 measument points on the first tier.

(e) Hall X

333 seats-(f) Hall Y
300 seats

Volume3

V=2,520 m

3

V=3,595 m

V=2,190 m3Seats

W=11.0 m

W=14.0 m

W=11.0 m

D=15.0 m

D=22.0 m

D=18.0 m

H=12.0 m

H=12.0 m

H= 8.3 m

Stage

Ll：SPL at Left Ear, Lr：SPL at Right Ear
Fomula 1. Definition of ASW and BSPL(a) to (d) Yamaha Hall

W=11.0 m
D= 6.0 mRT

1.6 sec

W=11.0 m-D= 6.0 m

1.5 sec

1.6 sec(a) Final pattern(b) All Flat: FL(c) All DW: DW(d) All UP: UP(e) Hall X(f) Hall Y

4.2 Simulation Results
The ASW, LE5 (Lateral Efficiency), 1-ICC (ICC: Interaural
Cross Correlation), and G (Strength) results are shown inFigure 9 to Figure 12. The ASW of (a), the final pattern, is86.6 degrees and is between the ASW of (e), hall X (84.1degrees), and (f), hall Y (89.2 degrees). This result corresponded to the assumed target. The G, 1-ICC, and LE5 results are similar to the ASW result. The other ASW values
are (in descending order) (b) all FL (87.5 degrees), (c) all
DW (86.9 degrees), and (d) all UP (83.1 degrees). The G
results have the same order. On the other hand, the largest
LE5 value was produced by (c) at 34.2%, followed by (b) at29.0%, and (d) at 21.9%. This result indicates that ASW derived from Formula 1 includes some factors which cannot be
expressed only by LE5.

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Figure 8. Sound Fields for Comparative Study529-31 August 2010, Melbourne, Australia

Proceedings of the International Symposium on Room Acoustics, ISRA 2010

0.8

1-ICC
ICC

ASW [deg.]

9085

0.780(a)
Ⅰ(b)
Ⅱ(c)
(d)
Ⅲ
Ⅳ
Sound
Field
音場

(e)
Ⅴ(f)
Ⅵ

ASW

(a)
Final(b)
FL

(c)
DW

(d)
UP

(e)
Hall
X

(f)
Hall
Y

Ave.

86.6

87.5

86.9

83.1

84.1

SD

2.7

2.8

3.3

4.0

4.3

0.6

(a)
Ⅰ(b)
Ⅱ

(c)
(d)
Ⅲ
Ⅳ
音場
Sound
Field(e)
Ⅴ(f)
Ⅵ

1-ICC

(a)
Final(b)
FL

(c)
DW

(d)
UP

(e)
HallX

(f)
HallY89.2

Ave.

0.74

0.73

0.75

0.68

0.69

0.77

2.5

SD

0.07

0.07

0.08

0.08

0.12

0.07

Ave. : Average Value
SD: Standard Deviation

Ave. : Average Value
SD: Standard Deviation

Figure 9. and Table 2., Comparison of ASW [degrees]

Figure 11. and Table 4., Comparison of ICC

3513G [dB]

LE5 [%]

30
122520(b)
Ⅱ(c)
(d)
Ⅲ
Ⅳ
Sound
Field
音場

(e)
Ⅴ

(f)
Ⅵ

LE5(a)
Final

(b)
FL

(c)
DW(d)
UP

(e)
HallX

(f)
HallYG(a)
Final

Ave.

28.4

29.0

34.2

21.9

26.5

28.4

Ave.

SD2.93.4

2.5

3.5

5.6

2.3

SD

Ave. : Average Value
SD: Standard Deviation
Figure 10. and Table 3., Comparison of LE5 [%]611(a)
Ⅰ(a)
Ⅰ(b)
Ⅱ(c)
(d)
ⅢⅣ
Sound
Field音場(e)Ⅴ(f)Ⅵ(b)
FL

(c)
DW

(d)
UP(e)
HallX

(f)
Hall
Y

12.2

12.5

12.0

11.5

11.4

12.6

0.9

0.9

1.3

1.2

0.9

0.7

Ave. : Average Value
SD: Standard Deviation
Figure 12. and Table 5., Comparison of G [dB]

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Proceedings of the International Symposium on Room Acoustics, ISRA 2010

5. COMPARATIVE STUDY BY LISTENING TEST

6. DESIGN CONCEPT OF THE STAGE FLOOR

5.1 Summary

Besides the hall shape studies mentioned above, a new idea
was introduced into the design of the stage floor. A unique
technology called A.R.E. (Acoustic Resonance Enhancement) has been developed for designing musical instruments.
This technology can change the characteristics of wood to thesame characteristics of aging wood by controlling temperature, pressure, and humidity. A.R.E. wood has been used inthe implementation of the Yamaha Hall stage floor. Thestructure of the stage is shown in Figure 15. A.R.E. technology was used to process the top layer of cypress and the next
two layers of cedar. In the design phase, sample stages wereconstructed with wood that had under gone the A.R.E procedure and with wood that had not, in order to examine theacoustical features of the sample stages and to confirm theirefficiencies. The vibration responses of the stages when hit
by an impulse hammer are shown in Figure 16. The differences can be especially seen at the beginning of the responses.
In addition, actual listening tests were performed using instruments such as cellos and pianos.. Both the listeners andplayers mentioned that the sound of the instruments on theA.R.E. stage was bigger, brighter, and clearer (Photo 3).

The simulation results mentioned above were confirmed byactually listening to each sound field and performing
comparative listening tests. The measuring point was set atthe center of the first tier approximately 12 m away from thesound source. The directional impulse responses were calculated using CATT-Acoustic™, and each sound field wassynthesized with the 6-ch auralization system [3] (Figure 13and Photo 2). The SD method was used to evaluate the ASWof each sound field. Six acoustical designers and one recording engineer were selected as the subjects for the listening test.
5.2 Results
Each subject’s results are shown in Figure 14. The results ofhall X (V), hall Y (VI), and the final pattern (I) are in thesame order as the assumed target which is hall X > the final
pattern > hall Y. In addition, the ASW values that were calculated by the acoustical simulation (Table 2) exhibit thesame trend as the listening test results. Moreover, if we add
the results of the listening tests and calculations from FL (II),DW (III), and UP (IV), the values nearly exhibit the sametrend. As a result, it can be said that the ASW value derived
from Formula 1 is effective as an index used to evaluate
ASW in the design stage.

A
D
G

B
E
average

CF

76Model Input

5ASW

Geometrical Simulation

4Calculation of Directional IR

36-ch Auralization System

2

Anechoicroom

1UP

Directional IRs

Ⅰ(a)

FL
DrySource

RL

2.5m

FRⅡ(b)

Ⅲ(c)Ⅳ(d)
音場FieldSoundⅤ(e)(f)ⅥFigure 14. ASW Listening Test Results

RRDOWNby A.R.E.
Cypress 40 mm
Cedar 15 mm (two layers)

Figure 13. Method for Listening Tests
Joist

Photo 2. 6-ch Auralization RoomSleeper
Post

Ground SillFiberglass

Figure 15. Structure of the Stage Floor
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Proceedings of the International Symposium on Room Acoustics, ISRA 2010

7. MEASUREMENT RESULTS IN A REAL
FIELD

3.0

RT [s]

2.0

The reverberation time, absorption coefficient, and LE5
measurement results in a real field are shown in Figure 17 toFigure 19 and Table 6.

8. CONCLUSIONS

1.00.5

To control lateral reflections in a small hall,this paper has
proposed an acoustical design that focuses on ASW . Geometrical simulations and 6-ch auralization systems were utilized to evaluate sound fields. As a result, this paper has indicated the feasibility of this design method. Further work includes a discussion of the correspondence between simulated
and actual measured results. Many concerts have been held in
the Yamaha Hall. We have received responses from bothstage players and audience members. As a next step, in addition to the evaluation of those responses, the design method
for small halls will be further developed through on-sitemeasurements and performances.

4k8k

Absorption
Coefficient
平均吸音率

0.263

1252505001kFrequency [Hz]

2k

4k

8k

Table 6. RT and Average Absorption Coefficient
Freq.

63

125250

500

1k

2k

4k

8k

RT

1.64

1.73

1.63

1.63

1.70

1.52

1.19

0.69

α0.16

0.15

0.16

0.16

0.15

0.17

0.21

0.33

12.0 -15.0
21.0 -24.0
30.0 -33.0

Photo 3. Listening Test Using an Automatic Piano

15.0 -18.0
24.0 -27.033.0 -36.0

18.0 -21.0
27.0 -30.0
36.0 -39.0

Figure 19. Measured Results of LE5 (Average at 500 to 2 kHz)
5k

General wood

A.R.E. wood

2k
Frequency [Hz]2kFrequency [Hz]2k

Figure 18. Average Absorption Coefficient of Yamaha Hall

H. Miyazaki, T. Watanabe, S. Kishinaga, and F. Kawakami, “Active Field Control –Reverberation Enhancement System Using Acoustical Feedback Control” AES
115th Convention, New York, Oct. 10-13, (2003)
M. Morimoto and K. Iida, “A practical evaluation methodof auditory source width in concert halls” J. Acoust. Soc.
Jpn. (E), 16, 2 (1995)
Yokoyama et al., “6-ch recording/reproduction systemfor 3-dimensional auralization of sound fields” Acoust.
Soc. Jpn., 23, 97–103 (2002)

5k500
1kFrequency [Hz]0.30.1

WORK.REFERENCES

32500.4

The authors wish to thank Dr. H. Iida for his advice in thiswork.

2125

Figure 17. Reverberation Time of Yamaha HallACKNOWLEDGEMENT

163

1k500

1k500

200

200

100

100020406080

Time [ms]100120140020406080

Time[ms]

100120140

Figure 16. Vibration Responses of Stages When Hit by an Impulse Hammer
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