Akabak Simulator

[pinkmouse]

Does anyone use this? It looks very powerful, but extremely unfriendly. Any tips?

http://www.akabak.de/Ak-English.htm

[BAM]

Yeah. Read the manual and work through the "exercises" or else you've got no chance of understanding what's going on. I haven't had nearly enough time to get up and running on this system, but with its ability to model complex acoustic networks, it looks powerful enough to simulate anything I can build. The learning curve on this one is brutal.

Originally posted by BAM
... The learning curve on this one is brutal.

Indeed, but I'm not aware of a more powerful/flexible/unrestricted simulator out there. You can simulate every electro-acoustic assembly you can dream of... (at least I never reached any boundary so far)
It works script-based with pspice-like networks, of cause with special elements added for acoustical simulations.
This idea is not new, since it's no problem to simulate/evaluate electromechanical systems in pspice (if you know how to compose the right electronic analogy for a specific application), but as AkAbak is biased towards acoustics, it is much more easy do to these things here. But in general one could call it a pspice for acoustics-related-simulations (and it is possible to add electronic components, too).

There is even a dll-interface to add software-modules by yourself, but this is far beyond my skills for now.

The price for this total flexibility is a more complex to use program:
I.e. it lacks a graphical interface to build the structures, you are thrown back to paper and pen and node numbering by hand, then writing a script in the internal editor. You will have to learn the structure of the scripts and some keywords to do so, a little bit like learning a programming language. The internal parser gives convincing advice on errors.

If you need this kind of freedom to explore really weird acoustical structures you will have no alternative (as far as I know...)
This program is sure overkill if you just intend to simulate a simple woofer-in-box-response.

On the other hand you really learn (and have to) how acoustical structures are to be devided into sub-structures and how everything works together. This pays!

Side note: This little wonder of a 16bit win-program never crashed nor hung in the years I used it (and I mean never, not just really scarce or so seldom that I've forgotten now). And: You can use it on any old PC/Laptop that is able to run at least win3. Or OS/2. About wine/linux I don't know, but perhaps it will work there too.

I purchased this program years ago when v2.1 was just out (no, at that time there was no free version available), cost me quite some bucks, never ever regretted.
You see, I'm still in love

[kiwi_abroad]

It doesn't run under the 64 bit version of Vista though :-(

That's hardly the fault of the program....

You can't have everything.

[aceinc]

What would be really useful would be a library of Akabak script prototypes/templates. Maybe some getting started quick guide type notes, as well.

Perhaps broken down by application/design, such as Expo Horn, TL, TQWT... It would be imperative that the templates were well documented, so that folks could make changes to the relevant parameters, such as line length, number of drivers, TS parameters, etc.

Right now I would really like to model some drivers that I own in various enclosure types to see what would work best, I can do sealed, vented and bandpass using WinISD Pro Alpha, but it would be nice to see how they would work in a TL/TQWT. I have Akabak, and have played with it a bit using some scripts from the "Collaborative Tapped Horn" Subwoofer thread, but I don't have enough of a grasp of the tool to change the scripts to model a 4 driver TQWT.

Any ideas on the best way to set up a library of Akabak scripts? Would the WIKI section of this site work for this?

Paul

[LaMa]

I do think the manual is of great help, however, some background knowledge is necessary. This prgoram isn't aimed at the casual user, so IMHO we cannot complain about it's complexity.

Also while it's a great idea to divide everything in 1D acoustical components (gyrators, waveguides etc.) their parameters have to be fine tuned with real world measurements. Atleast when very complex acoustical structures are modelled. After this phase a sensitivity analysis can be performed to sort out the last optimizations. I assume that for product development this is not a problem as design (or engineering in general) is an iterative process.

For DIY asking or hoping for plug and play, straight forward predictions without iteration or considering modelling uncertainties this could be a bit disappointing.

IMHO a WIKI full of scripts doesn't help very much. Yes it gets you started, but the manual has really a lot of similar examples. The real design difficulties aren't solved with a site full of scripts.

[aceinc]

LaMa,

I disagree. I believe that well documented Scripts that work in real world scenarios when used in conjuction with the manual would help the casual user greatly.

I, and I believe I am not the only one, do not have the time to spend to become proficient in a tool as complex as this by reading the 285 page manual. I do have a bit of experience learning software and computer languages. One way that I find that helps me get started is by looking at what other people have done. I use the manual as a reference, but I teach myself by looking at how others have done things similar to what I want to do. I will grant you that this methodology does not allow me to become an expert, but it does allow me to "get 'er done."

You will notice that I did not complain about the tool, as I understand that flexible software requires a complex interface. If you do not want to use a library if it is built, that would be your decision, but weekend warriors such as myself would find it rather useful.

Paul.

[CeramicMan]

Hi pinkmouse,

I had a quick look at it yesterday, but I didn't really attempt anything on it yet. I've been wanting to get into speaker correction, FIR filters and a couple of other things like that lately, so I'm keeping an eye for some software I could use for that.

Have you checked out Scilab? It's an open source MATLAB clone, and there should also be some Simulink clones out there too.

[rcavictim]

In the past week I have hauled from the shop and carried 5,000 lbs of lead acid batteries down the stairs into my house basement, by myself.

I could use an AK MY BACK ! stimulator.