Practice where you perform—that’s Wenger’s mantra for its Virtual Acoustic Environment (VAE) Rehearsal System, which allows musicians to replicate the acoustics of their performance space in their practice environment. To make practice time more valuable, musicians can alter a room’s acoustics to sound more like a concert hall or even a sports arena by setting up microphones, speakers, and a central processor in rehearsal rooms.
Wenger currently offers nine standard acoustic environments and can program additional custom settings. “What we typically do with any space is we make it non-reverberant,” says Ron Freiheit, director of design engineering at Wenger. “Through microphones, we pick up the sounds, run it through a digital model, and run those reflections back into that room.”
Now, Wenger is preparing to release a new iteration of its VAE system—one for the stage that will function similarly to an orchestral shell. “It’s really focused [on] supporting musicians onstage,” Freiheit says. “We’re providing them reflections to hear each other. When the microphones above them pick up the sound, it broadcasts around them.”
Visit wengercorp.com/acoustics/vae-rehearsal.php for details.