So how are absorption and diffusion generally used to shape the acoustic conditions of rooms?

Each room requires a different acoustical design.

We can begin with what I call production rooms.

Production rooms, such as a recording studio or a mix room, they must be acoustically neutral so that the signature of the room does not imprint itself on the recording.

So for example, if the room is boomy, the mixing engineer will compensate by reducing the bass, resulting in a mix that sounds very thin elsewhere.

It lacks bass elsewhere.

And so to prevent this, porous absorption is used to control early reflections and eliminate interfering echoes.

It's evolving very quickly and hopefully we'll have the opportunity to bring the community together again for another special issue in the future.