[Keith.]

If you listen to recorded or live sound from large Churches or Cathedrals,
the floor noise seems to quite distinctive. It is not electronic,could be
air-conditioning(I doubt this in recordings)or could be very low level
audience noise resonating.
Pop the headphones on to catch this sound, it is not unpleasant,could be
enhanced by compression but it's level to me seems constant.

What is it ?

Keith.

[Don Pearce[_2_]]

On Wed, 24 Dec 2008 15:01:22 +1100, "Keith."
wrote:

If you listen to recorded or live sound from large Churches or Cathedrals,
the floor noise seems to quite distinctive. It is not electronic,could be
air-conditioning(I doubt this in recordings)or could be very low level
audience noise resonating.
Pop the headphones on to catch this sound, it is not unpleasant,could be
enhanced by compression but it's level to me seems constant.

What is it ?

Keith.


Do you mean the background noise (noise floor), or a noise coming from
the floor? Assuming you mean the background noise, it is a phenomenon
similar to the old seashell against the ear. What you are hearing is
the sum of all noises - both internal and external - as resonated and
modified by the inside of the cathedral. Because cathedrals tend to be
big, with complex hard surfaces, the noise is well distributed in
frequency and strongly reverberant. It sounds nice.

Not sure what you mean by enhanced in that last sentence, so I can't
comment on that.

d

[Richard Crowley]

"Keith." wrote ...
If you listen to recorded or live sound from large Churches or Cathedrals,
the floor noise seems to quite distinctive. It is not electronic,could be
air-conditioning(I doubt this in recordings)or could be very low level
audience noise resonating.
Pop the headphones on to catch this sound, it is not unpleasant,could be
enhanced by compression but it's level to me seems constant.

What is it ?

I believe it is the normal "room tone" that you would hear anywhere,
but it is modified by the "infinite and complex acoustics" of the very
large space with very convoluted and hard reflective surfaces.