Singing in different rooms: Common or individual adaptation patterns to the acoustic conditions?

A classical singing performance occurring in different rooms is likely to vary for different reasons. This study investigates to which extent this variation is due to different acoustic conditions. To analyse the performance of four singers rendering four musical pieces in eight different rooms, room acoustical parameters were used to predict musical performance features extracted from recordings based on linear mixed-effects models. Considering the common behaviour of all singers, only a small proportion of the variance in performance can be explained. Instead, rather individual patterns indicate that each singer developed a specific strategy of adaptation to the varying acoustic environment.