EVAA: A platform for experimental virtual archeological-acoustics to study the influence of performance space

Research in historical musical acoustics has for several decades focused significantly on instrument fabrication. Such research has been able to highlight the acoustical impact of material and construction choices. Musicolog-ical studies have concentrated in parallel on understanding historical notation, playing styles, and even changes in musician posture over the centuries. In studying player and listener conditions in these historical studies, little attention has been given to the acoustical conditions of the performance, aside from extreme cases such as cathedral acoustic conditions. Extending the methodologies of experimental archaeology, recent advances in computational accuracy of acoustic virtual reality simulations offer the possibility to create ecologically valid reconstructions of historic sites. We present the development of an interactive immersive real-time simulator allowing musicians to perform "live" within virtual reconstructions of historic venues, comprising real-time adaptation of source directives with performer movements, rendered in Higher Order Ambisonics. Observations of the impact of acoustic variations on player performance, and the comparisons of the resulting performance between historically suitable venues and modern performance spaces from an audience perspective will complete the feedback loop between performer and listener necessary for a full understanding of the historical musical context.