A research in how sound-delay needs to be compensated as an orchestral percussionist. Sound delay occurs when sound needs to travel from one location to another. The ionger the distance, the longer it takes for sound to arrive. Sound delay can occur when percussionists play from their position on a concert stage. Their position is usually furthest back on the stage, the backrow of the orchestra ensemble. This means that percussionists usually has the largest distance from the audience, in most settings.

Observing and recording my own performance practises, reading existing written works and interviewing experienced percussionists has been the foundation for this research. By playing on multiple stations consisting of different percussion instruments in varying distances from a fellow musician in a performance practice, I could systematically observe how bodily movement changed between the varying distances in order to be on time with the colleague.

The results of this research shows the complexity of sound delay compensation, and has shown that the topic includes more factors than expected. The sounding nature of the percussion instruments has, in this research, been observed to play a big part in the compensation of sound delay.