Sound · room acoustics

RT60 reverb time calculator.

Enter the room size and an absorption coefficient for the walls, ceiling and floor. Get the reverberation time (the time for sound to fall 60 dB) and the absorption needed for a shorter one.

Sabine formulaMetres or feetTarget RT60

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Inputs

Between 0 (fully reflective) and 1 (fully absorbent). Use the figure from the material data sheet.
Furniture, panels, people: the area times coefficient, in square metres (or square feet).

Result

Enter the room size and absorption.

The Sabine reverberation formula

RT60 is the time for sound to fall 60 dB after the source stops. Wallace Sabine found empirically that it depends on the room volume V and its total absorption A, measured in sabins: RT60 = 0.161 x V / A in metric units (V in cubic metres, A in square metres of absorption), where A = sum of (surface area x absorption coefficient). Wikipedia gives the constant as about 0.1611 s/m, and HyperPhysics uses 0.161 in its own reverberation calculator. In feet the constant works out to about 0.049 by unit conversion; this page converts feet to metres internally so you need not.

Worked example. A 6 m x 4 m room with a 2.7 m ceiling has a volume of 64.8 m3 and a surface area of 102 m2. With walls at 0.05, ceiling at 0.05 and floor at 0.1, the total absorption is 6.3 sabins and RT60 = 0.161 x 64.8 / 6.3 = 1.66 seconds. To bring that to 0.5 s the room needs 0.161 x 64.8 / 0.5 = 20.9 sabins, about 14.6 more.

The formula assumes sound is spread evenly through the room, which fits large, fairly reflective spaces best. Wikipedia notes that Eyring's equation was proposed to better estimate small, heavily absorbing ("dead") rooms. Coefficients vary with frequency, so a single number is a rough average. Absorption values for your materials are not on this page: take them from the product data sheet.

Frequently asked questions

What is RT60?

The time it takes for sound in a room to decay by 60 dB after the source stops. Longer means a more echoey room.

What is a sabin?

A unit of sound absorption: one square metre (or square foot) of perfectly absorbing surface. A surface with coefficient 0.5 and 10 m2 area contributes 5 sabins.

Is Sabine accurate for a small studio?

It is a rough estimate. The formula is least accurate in small rooms with a lot of absorption, where Eyring is usually preferred.

How do I lower the reverb time?

Add absorption: rugs, curtains, upholstered furniture or acoustic panels. The page shows how many extra sabins a target needs.

Sources

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Scope

Estimate from the simplified Sabine model. It is not a substitute for a measured RT60 or an acoustic consultant for a studio or performance space.

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