Speaker Design: Comprehensive list of Recommended Design Tools

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List as of June 2018 - Trying to keep this page simple, most links go directly to the download page or to the online calculator page, but some of the sites are worth having a longer look around, with links to other Loudspeaker related pages etc.
- Please post if you know of other tools worth listing.
Also, If you know that any already listed here are inaccurate or problematic please post so note can be added or can be pulled from the list. Thanks.

Abacus, From SpeakerBuilding
Adua Speaker Workshop, at archive
A J Designer, (Enclosure Calculators) here
AkAbaK, (simulation program for electro-mechano-acoustical networks) here
ARTA, (program for the impulse response measurement and for real-time spectrum analysis and frequency response measurements.) here
Assorted Dos and early Win programs on nice old webpage here
AxiDriver, (Axis-Symmetric Acoustic Boundary Element Calculator) here

BassBox Pro, (speaker enclosure design program) here
Baffle Diffraction and Boundary Simulator, here
Basta!, (Tolvan Data), computer program for simulation of loudspeaker systems, here
BIB Calculator Spreadsheets. here
Blaubox by Blaupunkt , on this page (also need DosBox to run on a modern system - available on the same page)
BoxBuilder-Car, (from Speakerbuilder) here
BoxModel,
Boxnotes, ( find the best dimensions for your enclosure) here
BoxPlot, From SpeakerBuilding
BoxSim, (measurement based simulation includes baffle-step calculation) From Visaton's website, or from Boxsim

Calsod, (loudspeaker system optimization and design/ optimize crossover networks) here
CLIO, (measurement system with proprietary hardware) here

Eminence Designer, (loudspeaker enclosure design program) here
Eminence Designer Demo, (loudspeaker enclosure design program) here

Flare-It, (port and flare) page here
Flexsys, Dos based , original page on Archive, here
FuzzMeasure, (audio and acoustic measurement - Mac) at SuperMega, at RØDE Microphones

HOLMImpulse, (freeware program for frequency- and impulse-response measurement) here
Horn Response - (David McBean) - here. Also , nice "How to" thread Here


To Be added to Part Two


Qspeakers (recommended by TechTool) Link is Here
 
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PART TWO

LEAP, (Enclosure and Crossover) here
Listen Inc. (Multiple measurement system tools here
Loudsoft Design & Test Tools here
Loudspeaker Design Calculations Tool (by Robert Dunn ), cross-platform application with many calculations commonly used in loudspeaker design here
LDC7, Vance Dickason's (!) page, email for software here
LDS/ALAB, software in Italian. links in post 26 below linked here
LSPcad, (Loudspeaker Computer Aided Design) From SpeakerBuilding, Current Version (6) here

MacSpeaker, From SpeakerBuilding
Mataa (Mat's Audio Analyzer) here
MH-Audio, Online tools, Nice page ! here

Omnimic, (omnidirectional acoustic measurement system) Dayton Audio

PCD, (crossover simulation and speaker design tool built into an Excel spreadsheet) here
Perfect Box,
Praxis (Liberty Instruments) here

REW, (free room acoustics analysis software for measuring and analysing room and loudspeaker responses) webpage here

SIRP, (Tolvan Data),measurement on loudspeakers, here
SpeakerSim, thread with links here
SOFMEA, (" . . . conception tool for loudspeakers. It's possible to measure loudspeakers, to visualize the result, and to simulate a crossover with it.") here
Sonosub, (for sonotube based sub) here
SoundEasy, homepage,
Speaker Builder Pro, (Online Enclosure Calculator) here
Speaker Edgy, (Baffle Calculator), here
SpeakerSim Thread Here
SpeakerWorkshop , (From most recent working page on Archive =June 24 /2015) here
SubSaver, (high pass filter design page) here

SynRTA, (freeware soundcard-based audio FR analyzer for optimization of loudspeaker & listening room responses) here


Thomas Neumann SATlive - SATlive Audio Measurement Software- FFT Measurement
Torres' Box Tuning Calculator - Car Audio - Web Page/Thread. Direct Download here


Unibox, (Design Your Own Loudspeaker Cabinet using Microsoft Windows Excel 2000 spread sheet) here

VituixCad, (free engineering and simulation software for passive and active multi-way / multi-driver loudspeakers) here

WinISD, ( freeware speaker designing software for Windows environment.) here
Winspeakerz, ( loudspeaker simulation program for Windows XP/Vista/Windows 7/8) here
Woofer Box and Circuit Designer , (advanced woofer and box design tool using MS Excel) here
WinPCD, (application for designing passive crossovers originally based on the UI format of the Passive Crossover Designer spreadsheet by Jeff Bagby) here
WinSub, here at ajdesigner


Xdir, Tolvan Data), Directionality simulation. here
X-Over Pro here
Xover204a, (Crossover Simulation) here (German) and here (English/GoogTrans)
XMACHINA, ("Automatic passive crossovers planning ") here
XSim, here


Driver Design

COMSOL - (Most Precise) Video here

MoTIV - (Fastest) at DyneAnalytics




. . . . . . . . . .There's more out there, please post if there are others you like.
Thanks
 
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I thought about doing a poll but that requires that I know which ones to list (only 10 allowed) and there are dozens out there, some of which are old and no longer used, but it would take me weeks of web searching and I'd still miss some that others here might be using. Maybe I should try this. (Next Post)
 
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What speaker design software are you using in 2018?

Hello again, this is an attempt to put together a comprehensive list of speaker design software tools you find useful and why. There is a large number of tools found online and I'm hoping to separate the really useful and accurate ones from the rest of the crowd.
To help organize it , if you would at least say which part of the process you use it for. (ie box, crossover, sim, test etc.)

Thanks
 
I am unaware of any software that can offer more than LEAP for enclosure, crossover, and filter design. Now that LinearX is defunct, you may be able to find a used copy with the 4-book manual (completely worth it), but there are "illegal" ways to download the software too.

If you are designing drivers, COMSOL is most precise, and MOTIV is fastest.
 
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You should also add Leonard Audio Transmission Line, it is probably the best free transmission line simulator, but unfortunately it is dead.

I use REW for measuring.
I used Visaton's BoxSim (only useful for Visaton drivers) for crossover.

Now I would use my SpeakerSim for all speaker design, except measuring and transmission line simulation.

When working on SpeakerSim I use other simulators to compare. Like Woofer Box and Circuit Designer, Baffle Diffraction and Boundary Simulator, Xsim, VituixCAD, BoxSim.
 
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Thanks guys!

Jazbo, I'm holding off the Quarterwave link until I find a way to get to his actual software.(requires password right now) If the list starts to contain reading material other than actual tools it will cease to be useful as a concentrated tool box.

I briefly tried going through the archive but didn't get there. Sometimes you have to click on every archived date to find the actual page content and that can take time.

Just thinking out loud, It might be good to start a reading list as well but that would be better on the Loudspeakers forum menu. . . . and making it usefully navigable would be a big job for whoever wanted to be the editor.
 
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Jazbo et al. Just an update with respect to the Quarter Wave Loudspeaker Design software.

M.J. King kindly emailed, "Unfortunately the MathCad worksheets are no longer available . . .The free MathCad explorer program is over 20 years old and has been finicky on newer operating systems. I no longer have a method for maintaining the worksheets and updating then saving them in the proper MathCad format."

Also from M.J.K :

"The only suggestion for your list would be to remove the EDGE software and add BASTA in its place.

"BASTA is a complete speaker design package that includes the EDGE baffle simulation. Many people get confused by the EDGE program and think it is predicting the speaker response when all it is really doing is estimating the impact of the baffle."

(Basta is on the list, The Edge has been taken off, but for anyone interested in trying it, it can still be found in the margin on the Tolvan Data/Basta page)

Thanks Martin!
 
500 views in the first 24 hours means there's interest. So bumping this back into view to see if anybody has another to put on the list, anything to take off, comments on relative usefulness etc.

Probably because most speaker software doesn't work / work properly, or is so poorly written that you don't know where to start first, so we are constantly on the lookout for better software.

For example I use Bassbox Pro 6 (latest update) which is a commercial software, and I was trying to model a passive radiator box (which most software can't do) and it is auto populating the PR with the wrong data, and is therefore making the results useless.

I have been trying to find a suitable replacement but can't find anything on the list so far. Gone through a few but yet nothing that comes close. Most programmers just don't seem to have a clue. You should be able to load a driver and a box type without needing to do a tutorial, if it isn't blatantly obvious then it is poorly written. If I knew all the formulas and math required I would write my own.
 
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I am still partly old school, even though i use REW, boxsim and others i still use IMP (thank you Mr Waslo) and other oldies like SSD4 (speaker system designer 4), woofer satellite offset, Bass box and marc bacon loudspeaker design power sheet software (good for multi chamber passive radiator design, though it is partially trial and error and requires a bit of prior speaker building knowledge)..some of this is still running on an old HP laptop running windows 98, but all are now working on a "newer" dell with docking station running Linux (wine)
cheers, Arthur.