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Live End / Dead End Control Rooms
The control room or listening area has a different acoustic purpose than the recording studio, resulting in a slightly different set of acoustical parameters to control. Generally, the listener only wants to hear the direct sound coming from the monitor speakers, with no influence or coloration by the room's acoustics.
To prevent stray reflections, the wall areas behind and directly adjacent to the speakers are normally treated with a sound absorbing materials such as acoustical foam or wall panels to provide a "dead" end to the room. The opposite or back wall is left "live" and can be treated with sound diffusers to break up any possibility of standing waves within the room. This will create a small early time gap between the time of arrival of the direct sound and the arrival of the first highly diffused sound from the live end. This technique is known as "live end/ dead end acoustics" and has been the standard in professional listening environments for many years.
This design will create a very clean recording environment with better sound clarity, improved stereo imaging and smoother frequency response.
