Acoustical Heritage: Presentation of the European Project MusicSphere

The preservation of cultural heritage has traditionally centered on static physical and visual artifacts such as sculptures, paintings, and architecture. However, an equally vital aspect of cultural heritage lies in the acoustic properties of spaces and traditional instruments as they represent traditional craftsmanship, tradition, and performance. The MusicSphere project introduces a multimodal approach for digitizing, analyzing, and simulating classic wind instruments (e.g., hydraulis, organs) by employing three-dimensional scanning technologies, advanced acoustic analysis, and reproduction, as well as interactive experiences. In this paper we focus on the acoustic challenges of the project. We will present the tasks related to simulating organs including environment-induced degradation, measurement of complex room acoustic environments, and their parametrization for auralization purposes. Furthermore, we highlight our data-driven approaches, such as for audio synthesis and automatic music transcription.