In search of good sound

Sixteen meters below the Pompidou Center in Paris, rustlings intersect with echoes, the trills of birds change into electro music. We can imagine ourselves in the forest, on the edge of a river or in the trance of a dance floor. The Institute for Acoustic/Music Research and Coordination (Ircam) makes heard the phenomenal acoustic spatialization of its Espace de projection (Es-pro), a place of sound experimentation designed by Renzo Piano and Pierre Boulez. Inaugurated in 1978, this hall, which had been closed for work for eight years, reopened its doors to host Ircam en fête from January 12 to 17, a festival that will allow its excellence to be appreciated.

This sound cathedral with vertiginous ceilings, with a retrofuturistic look with its 339 loudspeakers, is fully modular: its volume can vary from 1,200 to 4,000 cubic meters; its walls change depending on whether you want to diffuse, absorb or reflect sounds. A gem of technology which this season is hosting concerts by drummer Lucie Antunes and Jean-Michel Jarre – on January 14 he will present Oxymore, a tribute album to pioneers Pierre Henry and Pierre Schaeffer.

The place will also be a research space for contemporary creation. Among its missions: “Spatialize music, finely transform voices, define sound design models, experiment with tones, model their expression…”, details Frank Madlener, director of Ircam. This research has multiple applications. “In culture, the big question today is to wonder what will push people to go out, to have an experience that they will not have at home”, underlines Frank Madlener. Surrounding the audience with intimate and ample sounds, near and far, responds to this priority.

Beyond concerts, working on a better spatialization of music would prevent platforms, which use very strong sound compression, from setting listening standards. Building immersive electronic universes would also provide video games with better sound quality, approaching that of the image. But the scope of these explorations goes beyond the cultural domain. Voice transformations, for example, help in the fight against crime. “We have developed an application that allows the police to infiltrate pedophile networks on the Internet, speaking with children’s voices”, explains Ircam.

The “sound” heard remains a construction of our brains. “Sound can trick the brain or invent landscapes from another world”, sums up Florent Caron Darras. This composer will create on January 17 the musical piece Transfer under the ambisonic dome of the Es-pro. Starting with birdsong recorded with a 32-sensor microphone, his work moves from the forest to the concert hall, from instruments to computers, from nature to culture, from the material world to our perceptions of it. “Sound is a key element in our understanding of the world”, confirms Christian Hugonnet, president and founder of Unesco’s Sound Week. This event celebrates its 20th edition from January 16 to 29 under the sponsorship of Thomas Dutronc, around the theme “Knowing how to listen, knowing how to talk to each other”. A dialogue that can only be established in an atmosphere that is comfortable for our ears and our brains.

“Awareness of the impact of auditory stress on health continues to grow. The WHO has highlighted serious consequences: cardiovascular accidents, hypertension, diabetes, sleep disorders…”, explains Fanny Mietlicki, director of Bruitparif. This noise observatory in Île-de-France was created in 2004 on the model of Airparif to characterize the sound environment of Ile-de-France residents, draw up noise maps, assess the health consequences and support concrete actions.

“Our surveys show that it is not the noise that has increased, but its perception, notes Fanny Mietlicki. More than a quarter of Ile-de-France residents say they are more sensitive to noise pollution since the Covid pandemic, during which we were able to experience an impressive calm and the reappearance of lost sounds of nature, including birdsong. »

Solutions exist: preservation or creation of quiet zones, sanctions against unbridled exhaust pipes, road surfacings which can remove 2 to 8 decibels of noise on the main roads… The public authorities are demanding, with regard to the social cost of noise in France, assessed by the Environment and Energy Management Agency (Ademe) in 2021 at 147 billion euros.

Designing the sound environment for major public projects is the work of architect Cécile Regnault. Construction of districts, creation of parks, rehabilitation of areas, this researcher at the CNRS, teacher at the National School of Architecture in Lyon, believes that “sound design remains a field to be cleared”.

However, “many techniques exist”. Optimal organization of the volumes of buildings, design of the facades, positioning of the masses of habitat, transverse housing, creation of baffles on urban axes, laying of wood on the ground in the parks, revegetation of the sidewalks… “We know how to create improved sound environments so that cities remain livable”, she pleads.

After alerting in 2022 to the dangers of compressed sound in music, Sound Week is campaigning this year for restaurants and bars to lower their tone. Sylvain Coudret, acoustic expert from Ecophon, a subsidiary of Saint-Gobain specializing in the production of noise-reducing materials, has been working for three years on the development of Afnor and Iso standards on the sound quality of these places. “The labor code sets maximum levels: you must not exceed 80 decibels for eight hours. But restaurants and bars experience an escalation in noise at rush hour, with peaks that can exceed 90 decibels. You can absorb sound waves with good materials and design spaces well with a design that improves acoustics,” he explains.

Restaurant owners are interested. To protect themselves and their highly exposed staff, but also to prevent their customers from fleeing. According to a survey conducted by OpinionWay for Ecophon Saint-Gobain on the occasion of Sound Week, “81% of French people say they avoid a restaurant if it is noisy”. The survey adds that “65% of them say they have already given up on a place to eat because of excessive noise levels”.

A contradictory demand for calm, because these customers form the main source of hubbub. But which also attests to a growing desire: to live in a world where sound is never noise.

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