Remember when the shotgun was fired inside Music Hall to test whether noise from the coming FC Cincinnati stadium in the West End would impact performances inside Music Hall?

Well, the results are back and the answer is, in the words of the study's author, "sobering."

A draft report from the consulting firm Akustiks, shared with the media Monday night, shows noise from a typical game will be “readily audible by the audience and performers” and will interfere with performances and rehearsals in Music Hall’s Springer Auditorium.

"We all have an obligation to preserve the successful ongoing operation of Music Hall, and to protect it as a critical community asset, especially given the recent $143 million investment in its revitalization," said Van Ackerman, a spokesman for the Cincinnati Arts Association (CAA).

CAA, which operates Music Hall, and the hall's performing resident companies – the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Ballet, Cincinnati Opera, and the May Festival – commissioned the study because they're concerned about noise intrusion from the stadium.

A final report, which is expected to include solutions, is expected before the end of the month.

More:Music Hall: Group wants to fire shotguns to test for FC Cincinnati stadium sound issues

An FC Cincinnati spokeswoman said team officials had just gotten the draft report and no discussions with the arts association have taken place.

Team President and General Manager Jeff Berding pointed out games are now played at University of Cincinnati's Nippert Stadium, which is next to performance, rehearsal and classroom buildings for UC's College-Conservatory of Music.

And that's even with Nippert being an open stadium, which has drawn crowds larger than 30,000 at times.

"I have never received a single call of complaint from anyone from UC or CCM regarding noise disruption," Berding said. "Our team has worked in good faith collaboration with these arts groups and their consultant, and will continue to prove how our organizations can be great contributors to what makes Cincinnati a major league community."

FC Cincinnati is building a 26,000-seat stadium in the West End, just blocks from Music Hall, where the city's symphony, orchestra and other performances are held on Saturday nights – when soccer games would sometimes be going on simultaneously.

Stadium renderings show a canopy over seating, which is meant to muffle noise. West End and Over-the-Rhine neighbors have also expressed concern about noise.

The Over-the-Rhine landmark is fresh off a $143 million renovation, during which acoustics were a primary concern.

"The results for Springer Auditorium are sobering, as they revealed that even crowd noise by itself can be loud enough to cause intrusion in the house and on stage," the study said.

To blame, the report said, are Music Hall's lightweight roof and numerous plaster openings in the auditorium for lighting, canopy rigging and the chandelier.

The other issue is that Springer Auditorium's heating and cooling system has been made exceptionally quiet, a priority of the recent renovation.

As a result, "Crowd noise from soccer matches will be readily audible in Springer Auditorium," the report said. The model predicts that at its peak (fans responding to a home team goal, for example) crowd noise will exceed the background noise in Music Hall by as much as 12 decibels.

"This noise would be readily audible by the audience and the performers and would interfere with the subtle moments of performances by the resident companies," the report said.

The report deems sound barriers included in the stadium construction plan ineffective.

It says although the roof provides some containment of the sound, the opening at the center would be large enough to allow a significant amount of noise to escape into the neighborhood. And that exterior portions of the stadium, dubbed “ribbons” by FC Cincinnati, specifically designed to mitigate sound, are constructed of such lightweight materials "they are essentially ineffective as barriers to noise propagation."

Berding said the stadium's lead engineer, the Kleingers Group, has assessed sound related to distance between the venues.

The closest FCC is to Music Hall, is 488 feet and the closest FCC is to Music Hall's performance venue is 630 feet. Compare that to Nippert Stadium, where the closest the stadium is to CCM is 98 feet; the closest Nippert is to a CCM performance venue is 404 feet.

"So when considering the noise model projecting an imagined reality for a stadium smaller in capacity, farther away from arts venues and with an enclosed design, I think the real world experience of FCC at Nippert Stadium is much more credible," Berding said.

In response, the acoustics firm issued a rebuttal Tuesday night, saying "comparing CCM to Music Hall is comparing apples and oranges."

CCM was last renovated in 1999, letting architects plan more sound buffering and shielding after a major expansion of Nippert in 1992. The Music Hall renovation was planned in 2015, a couple years before FC Cincinnati started to consider the West End for a stadium.

The acoustics firm also countered Berding's claim about distance being a bigger factor shielding Music Hall, saying its calculations show the greater distance would only reduce the noise levels at Music Hall by four decibels compared to the CCM location. Fr comparison, the sound of human breathing is 10 decibels.

"It is often tempting to compare an existing venue to the proposed development. Unfortunately, some aspects of acoustics are counterintuitive, which makes such comparisons far less accurate and therefore less insightful than might be supposed," the consultants said.