Hi.
I'm not sure if this question has already been addressed, but I couldn't find a solution after searching for a while. I'm new to DIY audio.
I have an 800sf room with a vaulted ceiling and a WAF requirement for speakers to go in the room corners. I'm seeing a variety of corner horns, line arrays, etc. that might work. I thought it would be fun/interesting to develop a 3D model of the space and then model a variety of DIY speaker types and locations. I'm not sure what's out there for someone like me. It doesn't have to be free, but I can't commit to pay high prices for professional software.
Thanks for pointing me in the right direction!
Aaron
I'm not sure if this question has already been addressed, but I couldn't find a solution after searching for a while. I'm new to DIY audio.
I have an 800sf room with a vaulted ceiling and a WAF requirement for speakers to go in the room corners. I'm seeing a variety of corner horns, line arrays, etc. that might work. I thought it would be fun/interesting to develop a 3D model of the space and then model a variety of DIY speaker types and locations. I'm not sure what's out there for someone like me. It doesn't have to be free, but I can't commit to pay high prices for professional software.
Thanks for pointing me in the right direction!
Aaron
Room simulation software used by industry typically costs a few thousand and even then may not handle both the low frequency and high frequency well. We generally need different simulation approaches for low and high frequencies but commercial companies have a tendency to keep refining an adopted approach. It is something to be aware of depending on the purpose of the simulations. For example, sorting out subwoofer locations requires accurate low frequencies with no requirement for accurate high frequencies. So you wouldn't use ray tracing software for this but instead CFD/CAA/FEM/BEM software or room simulation software that includes one of these approaches as well as ray tracing or equivalent for high frequencies.
In order to perform a room simulation you will need to determine the value of various empirical coefficients to describe the reflection and absorption of sound by the floor, walls, ceiling, windows, carpet, curtains, furniture, and everything else in the room. These may take different forms depending on the models being used but the values will almost certainly vary significantly with frequency and so will be curves not single values. Preparing this takes quite a lot of time and to do it reasonably efficiently requires experience in knowing where to find the values and which are important to get reasonably close and which are not. It also pretty much dictates taking some measurements to check the assumed values are reasonably close.
In order to perform a room simulation you will need to determine the value of various empirical coefficients to describe the reflection and absorption of sound by the floor, walls, ceiling, windows, carpet, curtains, furniture, and everything else in the room. These may take different forms depending on the models being used but the values will almost certainly vary significantly with frequency and so will be curves not single values. Preparing this takes quite a lot of time and to do it reasonably efficiently requires experience in knowing where to find the values and which are important to get reasonably close and which are not. It also pretty much dictates taking some measurements to check the assumed values are reasonably close.
I can see your points. This kind of thing seems best left to professionals until such a time that an invention comes along that does it automatically.
I have the CARA software that I found to be pretty good. It runs on Windows tho I have not tried it on Win10. Alas it has been discontinued, but perhaps there are old copes for sale.
CARA would allow you to build a room and furnish it, build speakers or use some in the library, then show you how the sound will react in that room with those speakers. It also has an automated speaker placement tool.
EDIT: I thought it had been discontinued, but maybe not.
Rhintek Incorporated - CARA 2.1/2.2 PLUS - Room Acoustic Software
CARA would allow you to build a room and furnish it, build speakers or use some in the library, then show you how the sound will react in that room with those speakers. It also has an automated speaker placement tool.
EDIT: I thought it had been discontinued, but maybe not.
Rhintek Incorporated - CARA 2.1/2.2 PLUS - Room Acoustic Software