Using I-Simpa for acoustic treatment of music studio

[Bautastein]

Hi

I'm on a mac, so using I-Simpa would require some investments on my side, either installing Windows on a separate boot partition, using Parallels Desktop (costs money), or if I'm lucky it might work on VirtualBox.

Therefore, I'm asking the forum to check if you think the software is usable for my purpose.

I make music in a home studio, and need acoustic room treatment because standing waves cause big peaks and dips in frequency response, mainly in the low end. Also, reverberation in the room causes time smearing which can make the sound less focused.

Treatment will consist mainly of placing big blocks of rockwool at strategically chosen locations. This costs a lot of time, efforts and money, therefore it would be good to eliminate as much guesswork and trial-and-error as possible.

So, maybe it would be possible to use I-Simpa to simulate effects of various solutions? Then I could compare FR-curves and other data to see where my money and efforts would be best spent.

The room has a complex shape, and there is furniture in the room. I have little experience in acoustics but am a fast learner. My computer and technical skills are very good, and I have some training in 3D-modeling.

Also, any experience in running the software on a mac (through virtualization, Boot Camp etc.) is appreciated.

[Nicolas Nico]

Hi,

Thanks for your interest in I-Simpa.

We have some feedback of I-Simpa on MacOS however we don't have a binary package for it yet.

https://github.com/Ifsttar/I-Simpa/issues/21

VirtualBox have been successfully used with I-Simpa.

In your project, the greatest difficulty will be to find the appropriate material properties. Furthermore, Spps computation core does not take account of acoustic resonance (Room modes)

Best regards,

Nicolas Fortin

[UMRAE Official]

Yes, I-Simpa can be used for this purpose.

Make a simple 3D geometry as closed as possible than your room (but without small objects).

Take a look of the English doc (not complete): https://i-simpa-wiki.readthedocs.io/en/latest/

particularly this page : https://i-simpa-wiki.readthedocs.io/en/latest/import_file_recommandations.html

Best.

[Bautastein]

Thank you.

Absorption coefficients at various frequencies will be readily available in datasheets from vendors of acoustic treatment product, if that's what you're referring to by "material properties".

Room modes are very important. I would assume the simulation model, even if it didn't explicitly take the room modes into account, would get results that were consistent with room modes being present?

[UMRAE Official]

Yes, you can use datasheets from vendors to fill the "material properties".

However, the SPPS calculation does not take into account room modes, which can have an effect below 100Hz.

Best.

[Bautastein]

Thanks for your help.

It's precisely the frequency range where room modes become more dominant I'm interested in.

Therefore I'll choose not to spend the time & effort to simulate this, and instead go for direct measurements and trial-and-error to find the optimal solution.

Still I'm grateful for your help, and your terrific project!

Per

[Logdec]

Just to understand correct.

If I would model a room with open doors in each end.
The sound source come from outside the room, enter the room and leave the room after the second door.

I would record the sound in dB at 500-1000-2000Hz
Microphones are located outside the room, inside the room and after the second door.

The target is to find the ideal room configuration e.g length, width and height. In theory an adverse room design could result in higher dB within the room.

Would it be possible to use the software for this type of analysis?

[UMRAE Official]

Thank you for using I-Simpa.

"The target is to find the ideal room configuration". Could you precise the noise indicator/objective you consider to find the ideal room configuration ?

Best.