A portable noise-absorbing recording chamber for sound recordings of archaeological idiophones.

The article initially deals with the difficulties that can arise when sound recordings of archaeological sound objects are made in museum rooms. In order to reduce these problems as much as possible, a simple but effective, sound-reduced recording chamber has been developed. It is used in the FWF (Austrian Sciences Funds) project "Metallic Idiophones between 800 BC and 800 AD", which investigates bells, pellet bells, and jewelleries with jingles. The chamber was constructed from 8 mm thick poplar plywood panels. Its isolation consists of a double layer of mineral wool, Rockfon Facett Plano 20 mm. Measurements have shown a reduction of background noise by up to 21.4 dB SPL in various museum rooms. The transportable recording chamber is weighing only 7 kg and is therefore ideally suited for sound recordings in museums and other collections. This article describes shortly the making of the chamber and examines its noise reduction levels by means of a series of measurements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]