Primacoustic - Acoustical Solutions

In early recording studio designs, covering all room surfaces was the typical approach used in studio acoustics. This image shows excessive treatment with acoustic foam on all walls creating an overly "dead" control room.

Chips Davis is credited with designing the first LEDE control rooms. This image shows an early design whereby the source end of the room is completely treated while the receive end has been left totaly reflective (no acoustic treatment). Since then, the LEDE concept has evolved. Today it is common to see variants where acoustic treatment is more dispersed yet still retains the live-end, dead-end concept.

An LEDE designed room minimizes reflections from the walls near the loudspeakers while retaining the natural room ambience.

The LEDE or live-end, dead-end concept is one that has been applied in studios since the mid 1970's. It begins with the concept that the control room of a studio should be a place where you can critically discern what is being recorded. This is accomplished by using a combination of absorbing, reflective and diffusing acoustic treatment to minimize the effects room acoustics have on the sound coming from the monitor speakers. Once done, a LEDE designed studio, coupled with skill, will yield recordings that can be transported to other playback systems such as the car, a friend’s house or boom-box and still sound balanced.

It is important to note that many famous recording engineers and producers have favorite rooms that they always return to. They become familiar with these spaces, how they ‘sound’ and they know what to expect after the recording is done. The point here is simple: you have to get use to your room. A studio is often tweaked after the acoustic treatment has been applied. For instance, if you find that your mixes tend to be bass light, your sub may be set too loud or you may need additional bass trapping. This is part of the normal process in developing your room. An LEDE based approach will help get you there by tackling common problems.

So what is LEDE and why does it form the basis for most modern room designs? Early on, most recording studios were heavily damped "dead" rooms which resulted in recordings that were often over-laden with artificial reverberation. As studio designs evolved in the 1970's, more naturally balanced rooms came to be.

Today's thinking is that the best studio acoustics must allow the engineer to clearly hear each instrument and how it sits in the mix while providing a relatively natural acoustic environment to work in. The LEDE concept accomplishes this by establishing a well defined listening area or "sweet spot", usually at the console or computer work station where the monitor speakers are focused. Once the listening area is defined the LEDE concept divides the room into two sections. The room is divided across the width making the front section the "source" where the loudspeakers are located and the rear section the "receive" end. The dividing line is approximately located just behind the sweet spot.

The source end of the room would generally feature a greater amount of absorption to minimize the powerful and harmful early reflections that color the direct sound from the monitors. Less absorption at the receive end of the room creates a live-end that retains the rooms natural ambiance. This further evolved with the use of acoustic diffusers of varying shapes and sizes.

Bottom line: A well designed studio will ultimately be a relatively neutral acoustic working space where reflected sound is controlled but not eliminated. Primary reflections are focused away from the listening area and secondary reflections are diffused.

Creating a LEDE room begins with a plan view of your control room and where you intend to position your work area. Ideally, you want to create a balanced room design whereby you will be sitting in a space that is equidistant to the left-hand and right-hand walls and closer to the front wall than the rear. Controlling powerful early reflections is usually accomplished using absorptive materials like Primacoustic Broadway panels. By drawing vectors from the loudspeakers to the wall and then to the listening position, one can quickly determine where side-wall acoustic treatment will be needed first.

To help eliminate standing waves and flutter echo, front to back surfaces must now be addressed. In LEDE rooms, the front ‘source’ wall is generally treated more heavily while the rear wall tends to be kept more live. If you have the budget, adding 3 or 4 Razorblade Quadratic Diffusers behind you spanning the width of the console or work area, will result in a greater sense of air or space. Other devices such as book cases can also provide some diffusion. Another great ‘trick’ is to apply Soft Diffusion™ or the use of small acoustic panels like the Broadway 12” x 12” Scatter Blocks . These randomly positioned panels absorb some energy while allowing plenty to reflect back into the room. This creates an effective type of diffusion that is very affordable and works great!

You now need to look at the front of the room and the bass traps. Bass traps are one of the most important pieces needed to build a successful room. And they are particularly important in small rooms where similar room dimensions, such as the width and ceiling height, can create room modes that can cause your room to have an imbalanced bass response. For years, studio designers have placed bass traps in corners as this is where bass tends to concentrate. Corners also provide designers with a simple means to create deep cavities behind the acoustic panels. The deeper the cavity the better the bass absorption properties will be. Rarely can you have too much bass absorption. In fact, when budgets permit, most studio designers tend to use all four corners for bass trapping.

Bass traps can be created using simple panels like the Primacoustic Broadway 24”x48” Broadband absorber panels. These are easily hung in corners using our Corner impalers. You can increase their effectiveness by adding recycled cotton or fiberglass batting behind them to fill the cavity. For those that have extra budget, Primacoustic MaxTrap™ bass traps have the added benefit of being able to extend down into the 75Hz range. This is accomplished with a ‘limp mass’ in the form of a suspended diaphragm that will vibrate and convert bass into kinetic energy. If you have a limited budget or space, you should consider using Cumulus traps. These are easily positioned at the ceiling & wall apex and provide very effective absorption.

Once you have determined the bass trap options and positioning, you are now set to finish up the source wall. Oddly enough, treating the space behind the loudspeakers is next. Sound, especially in the lower frequencies becomes omni-directional and will wrap around behind the loudspeaker. By treating this area, you not only help reduce monitor fold-back, you also help eliminate flutter echo from bouncing between the front and rear walls.

Finally, the ceiling should be addressed. This is done using what is commonly known as an acoustic cloud. In the simplest form, it can be panels mounted on the ceiling. In more advanced rooms, a device like the Primacoustic Stratus Cloud is suspended from the ceiling and spans the listening area. The Stratus at once eliminates primary reflections from the loudspeakers and flutter echo between the console surface and the ceiling.

Once all of your treatment is in place, you will find that the ‘sweet-spot’ is significantly larger. This makes working more enjoyable and reduces ear fatigue. Best of all, once you get familiar with how your new room sounds, your mixes should translate better as you move them from one room to another.



	Back To Last Page Live-End Dead-End Studio Design In early recording studio designs, covering all room surfaces was the typical approach used in studio acoustics. This image shows excessive treatment with acoustic foam on all walls creating an overly "dead" control room. Chips Davis is credited with designing the first LEDE control rooms. This image shows an early design whereby the source end of the room is completely treated while the receive end has been left totaly reflective (no acoustic treatment). Since then, the LEDE concept has evolved. Today it is common to see variants where acoustic treatment is more dispersed yet still retains the live-end, dead-end concept. An LEDE designed room minimizes reflections from the walls near the loudspeakers while retaining the natural room ambience. The LEDE or live-end, dead-end concept is one that has been applied in studios since the mid 1970's. It begins with the concept that the control room of a studio should be a place where you can critically discern what is being recorded. This is accomplished by using a combination of absorbing, reflective and diffusing acoustic treatment to minimize the effects room acoustics have on the sound coming from the monitor speakers. Once done, a LEDE designed studio, coupled with skill, will yield recordings that can be transported to other playback systems such as the car, a friend’s house or boom-box and still sound balanced. It is important to note that many famous recording engineers and producers have favorite rooms that they always return to. They become familiar with these spaces, how they ‘sound’ and they know what to expect after the recording is done. The point here is simple: you have to get use to your room. A studio is often tweaked after the acoustic treatment has been applied. For instance, if you find that your mixes tend to be bass light, your sub may be set too loud or you may need additional bass trapping. This is part of the normal process in developing your room. An LEDE based approach will help get you there by tackling common problems. So what is LEDE and why does it form the basis for most modern room designs? Early on, most recording studios were heavily damped "dead" rooms which resulted in recordings that were often over-laden with artificial reverberation. As studio designs evolved in the 1970's, more naturally balanced rooms came to be. Today's thinking is that the best studio acoustics must allow the engineer to clearly hear each instrument and how it sits in the mix while providing a relatively natural acoustic environment to work in. The LEDE concept accomplishes this by establishing a well defined listening area or "sweet spot", usually at the console or computer work station where the monitor speakers are focused. Once the listening area is defined the LEDE concept divides the room into two sections. The room is divided across the width making the front section the "source" where the loudspeakers are located and the rear section the "receive" end. The dividing line is approximately located just behind the sweet spot. The source end of the room would generally feature a greater amount of absorption to minimize the powerful and harmful early reflections that color the direct sound from the monitors. Less absorption at the receive end of the room creates a live-end that retains the rooms natural ambiance. This further evolved with the use of acoustic diffusers of varying shapes and sizes. Bottom line: A well designed studio will ultimately be a relatively neutral acoustic working space where reflected sound is controlled but not eliminated. Primary reflections are focused away from the listening area and secondary reflections are diffused. Creating a LEDE room begins with a plan view of your control room and where you intend to position your work area. Ideally, you want to create a balanced room design whereby you will be sitting in a space that is equidistant to the left-hand and right-hand walls and closer to the front wall than the rear. Controlling powerful early reflections is usually accomplished using absorptive materials like Primacoustic Broadway panels. By drawing vectors from the loudspeakers to the wall and then to the listening position, one can quickly determine where side-wall acoustic treatment will be needed first. To help eliminate standing waves and flutter echo, front to back surfaces must now be addressed. In LEDE rooms, the front ‘source’ wall is generally treated more heavily while the rear wall tends to be kept more live. If you have the budget, adding 3 or 4 Razorblade Quadratic Diffusers behind you spanning the width of the console or work area, will result in a greater sense of air or space. Other devices such as book cases can also provide some diffusion. Another great ‘trick’ is to apply Soft Diffusion™ or the use of small acoustic panels like the Broadway 12” x 12” Scatter Blocks . These randomly positioned panels absorb some energy while allowing plenty to reflect back into the room. This creates an effective type of diffusion that is very affordable and works great! You now need to look at the front of the room and the bass traps. Bass traps are one of the most important pieces needed to build a successful room. And they are particularly important in small rooms where similar room dimensions, such as the width and ceiling height, can create room modes that can cause your room to have an imbalanced bass response. For years, studio designers have placed bass traps in corners as this is where bass tends to concentrate. Corners also provide designers with a simple means to create deep cavities behind the acoustic panels. The deeper the cavity the better the bass absorption properties will be. Rarely can you have too much bass absorption. In fact, when budgets permit, most studio designers tend to use all four corners for bass trapping. Bass traps can be created using simple panels like the Primacoustic Broadway 24”x48” Broadband absorber panels. These are easily hung in corners using our Corner impalers. You can increase their effectiveness by adding recycled cotton or fiberglass batting behind them to fill the cavity. For those that have extra budget, Primacoustic MaxTrap™ bass traps have the added benefit of being able to extend down into the 75Hz range. This is accomplished with a ‘limp mass’ in the form of a suspended diaphragm that will vibrate and convert bass into kinetic energy. If you have a limited budget or space, you should consider using Cumulus traps. These are easily positioned at the ceiling & wall apex and provide very effective absorption. Once you have determined the bass trap options and positioning, you are now set to finish up the source wall. Oddly enough, treating the space behind the loudspeakers is next. Sound, especially in the lower frequencies becomes omni-directional and will wrap around behind the loudspeaker. By treating this area, you not only help reduce monitor fold-back, you also help eliminate flutter echo from bouncing between the front and rear walls. Finally, the ceiling should be addressed. This is done using what is commonly known as an acoustic cloud. In the simplest form, it can be panels mounted on the ceiling. In more advanced rooms, a device like the Primacoustic Stratus Cloud is suspended from the ceiling and spans the listening area. The Stratus at once eliminates primary reflections from the loudspeakers and flutter echo between the console surface and the ceiling. Once all of your treatment is in place, you will find that the ‘sweet-spot’ is significantly larger. This makes working more enjoyable and reduces ear fatigue. Best of all, once you get familiar with how your new room sounds, your mixes should translate better as you move them from one room to another.

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