Description of Space
Recording taken outside on Pomona’s Marston Quad, a large, grassy field, dotted with trees and pedestrian pathways – is a popular, centralized area of the college. It is late February at the time of the balloon pop recording, meaning that many of the trees on Marston don’t have any leaves. This likely has an impact on the space’s reverberance, and it may be worth revisiting this location in another season when the leaves have returned.
Recording Setup
The balloon pop was recorded with a FiFine microphone into Audacity, with the microphone held approximately 5 feet away from the balloon. The balloon was popped in the center of Marston Quad. There are a few trees in the general vicinity, but none are particularly close to the microphone.
Reverberation Time
Maximum Intensity: 86.39 db
Minimum Intensity: 31.32 db
30 db decay: 0.081 seconds
50 db decay: 0.432 seconds
Acoustic Description
The sound created by the balloon pop is very sharp and dissipates very quickly, though there is a faint echo. There is little here for the sound to bounce off of, resulting in an exceptionally fast decay time: over 50 decibels in less than half a second. Again, it may be worth revisiting this space at another time of year to see if the leaves on the trees have any effect on the reverberation of the space.
