QUICK- START FOR DDT3D Welcome to the Danley Design Tool 3D program. Introduction DDT3D is a very powerful tool that lets the user visualize how sound propagates from loudspeakers, including subwoofers, and interacts with sound from other speakers and with the room. This Quick- start is just that, a quick overview hitting the main features. Please consult the DDT3D Manual for more information. Installation DDT3D comes as a self- installing program. Simply click on the icon and it will install. The program requires less than 20 mb of hard drive space. Getting Started When you Hirst launch the program you will notice that there are 3 parts to the display. On the left, at the top of the screen there is the Sound Field window. This is where the 3D coverage maps are displayed. You can choose the frequency and the resolution of the display. Below the Sound Field window, is the Frequency Response window where the frequency response of the system is displayed. The Frequency Response window becomes active when one or more microphones are placed in the sound Hield. The response of up to 10 microphone positions can be displayed at once. DDT 3D Quickstart Page 1
DDT3D Screen On the right, there are a number of drop- down tabs allowing the user to design the system to model. We call this part the Parameters Window. IMPORTANT! DDT 3D will only map coverage on an Audience Plane DDT 3D Quickstart Page 2
The Frequency Response Window To see the frequency response at any location, or in up to 10 locations, place microphones in the Sound Field. The response will immediately appear in the Frequency Response Window. Move your curser over a response curve. The frequency will appear in the grey box, and the amplitude will appear in the colored box corresponding to the curve. THE PARAMETERS WINDOW Subs Tab Selecting the Subs lets the user place and adjust the parameters of up to 20 subwoofers, by means of Hive sub- tabs. The button with the number in it will turn the sub red for easy identihication The check box turns the sub on or off. Off removes the image from the screen This is a mute button, the image of the sub stays on the screen, but the output is muted. Icon turns red when Mute is active Polarity toggle. Flips the polarity of the sub. Icon turns red when polarity is Hlipped DDT 3D Quickstart Page 3
Grouping Functions The Group pull down box lets you choose which group of subs you wish to modify. DDT3D supports up to 6 groups. Next to the Group pull down box are controls for activating or de- activating the entire group, ( a de- activated group will disappear from the sound Hield window) muting the group or Hlipping the polarity of the entire group. Below the pull down box is a space for entering a group label. You can also change the position of a group in the X,Y Z coordinate system, rotate the group around each of the axes, change the gain and the delay to of the group. The MASTER SUBS lets you change the gain and delay to all subs regardless of the grouping of the subs. ConHiguration Memory lets you save 3 different conhigurations of subwoofers for easy comparison. Once a conhiguration is saved in memory it can be instantly recalled. DDT 3D Quickstart Page 4
Location The SUBS/Location tab allows the user to place subwoofers anywhere in the 3D space using an X, Y and Z coordinate system. Danley TH118 subwoofer at 0,0,0 showing the X, Y, Z coordinate system Processing Rotation Z - setting rotation Z to 0 will point the sub directly along the Y axis. Inclination X - Inclination is really rotation around the X axis. A negative number will tilt the subwoofer towards the Hloor. Rotation Y - Rotation around the the Y axis. Used when you want to lay a subwoofer on its side. A positive number rotates the sub clockwise from the subwoofers perspective. The processing tab allows the user to set the gain, the delay of the subwoofer. The sub can also be assigned to one of 6 groups. Model The Model tab allows the user to select the model of subwoofer to be modeled. DDT3D includes 3 of the Danley subwoofers, the TH812, the DBH 218LC, and the TH118. In addition, we have included an idealized true omni subwoofer. DDT 3D Quickstart Page 5
Crossover The crossover tab can be used to set the low pass crossover for the subwoofer. The check box turns the crossover on and off. There a two ways that a crossover can be set for a sub. The Global crossover is adjusted under the Options tab. Use the Global crossover if all the crossovers in the system are likely to be identical. The settings of the Global crossover are shown greyed out if the Global crossover is chosen. The crossover can also be set to Local. The local crossover affects only the selected sub. Selecting the Local option activates the Frequency, Type and slope windows. The frequency can be set to any value from 20 to 500 Hz. DDT3D supports 3 types of Hilters, Bessel, Butterworth and Linkwitz- Riley, in 4 slopes 6, 12, 18 and 24 db per octave. Actions The Actions tab allows the user to mirror any one of the subs around either the y or x axis. When a sub is mirrored, an identical sub is placed on the screen as a mirror image of the original. It can be assigned to any unused sub number. The total number of subwoofers cannot exceed 20 DDT3D provides 15 presets of subwoofer conhigurations. Choosing a preset will create an array of subs at 0,0,0, and assign them to the Hirst unused group number. At the end of the list of presets is an option to reset all the subs to 0. Speakers Tab Selecting the Speakers tab will display 3 sub menus or tabs, with the Location tab showing. DDT3D allows the placement of up to 10 full- range speakers in the Sound Field window. It behaves exactly like the Subs tab. Laser Info DDT3D allows the user to turn on a virtual laser which shows where a loudspeakers on axis point intersects with an audience. The laser can be activated under the OPTIONS tab. The point of intersection is shown under the Laser Info sub- tab. These aim data are also included in the Report. A Danley SH60 at location 0,0 +20, rotation Z of +35, aimed at a Inclination of - 22 DDT 3D Quickstart Page 6
Crossover The crossover tab can be used to set the high pass crossover for the loudspeaker. The check box turns the crossover on and off. There a two ways that a crossover can be set for a speaker. The Global crossover is adjusted under the Options tab. Use the Global crossover if all the crossovers in the system are likely to be identical. The settings of the Global crossover are shown greyed out if the Global crossover is chosen. The crossover can also be set to Local. The local crossover affects only the selected speaker. Selecting the Local option activates the Frequency, Type and slope windows. The frequency can be set to any value from 20 to 500 Hz. DDT3D supports 3 types of Hilters, Bessel, Butterworth and Linkwitz- Riley, in 4 slopes 6, 12, 18 and 24 db per octave. Microphones Tab DDT3D allows for up to 10 virtual microphones to be placed in the Sound Field window. DDT 3D Quickstart Page 7
The check box to the left of the colored box turns on a virtual microphone. As soon as a microphone is activated, a frequency response will appear in the frequency response window. The microphone may be placed anywhere in the Hield using the X,Y,Z coordinate system. The default Z or height is 5.58 feet or 1.7 meters. This tool will place anyone of the microphones automatically on axis with any active loudspeaker at what ever distance you choose. In addition you can have DDT3D place a semi- circle of seven microphones around any active speaker or place it anywhere on the Hield. This is a very useful tool for examining the polar response of a speaker or cluster of speakers. It can be toggled on and off. If microphones are set out in the Hield the semi- circle command will temporarily override the existing mics. Turning off the semi- circle will re- activate the original microphones. Shown here is a semi- circle of microphones placed around a SM 60 and the resulting seven response curves shown in the frequency response window. SPL The SPL sub- tab will open a window which will display the sound pressure levels at each microphone utilizing, A and C weighting as well as the unweighted ( Hlat) sound pressure level. Note, you can also see the SPL info displayed in a small DDT 3D Quickstart Page 8
box next to each active microphone but clicking on the A C or F buttons in the menu bar above the Sound Field window. Audience Tab In DDT 3D the audience is a very important tool as DDT3D will only map loudspeaker coverage on to an audience plane. It is certainly possible to build room out of audience planes as they can be any size and orientation. DDT3D comes with a selection of audience presets available in the Audience Presets pull down menu. All the presets are editable. The X,Y,Z location boxes set the location of the origin of the default audience plane. You can then copy a audience plane and copy it to a new number. Drawing Tab The Draw tab gives access to a number of drawing tools which let the user create complex rooms in the Sound Field window. IMPORTANT! The lines drawn with the tools under the Draw tab, have no acoustic properties. The sound goes right through them. Only the Audience planes have acoustic properties. DDT3D allows for freehand drawing or drawing using the X,Y,Z coordinate method. See the tutorial in the full manual for a detailed demonstration on how to draw with the X,Y Z coordinate system. 2D Views Tab The 2D Views tab lets you look at the 3D model from each of the 2 dimensional views, the top, side and front. At the bottom of each view window there are a pair of boxes labeled according to the view. The top view will have boxes labeled Y,X, the side view Y,Z and the front view X,Y. In each case the left hand pair of boxes shows the location of the mouse dynamically as you move the mouse over the window. When you click the mouse button at a location, the 2D coordinates are captured and shown in the pair of boxes on the right. You can then send those coordinates to any active loudspeaker or microphone or make that location the origin of the semi- circle of microphones. Memory Tab There are 3 memories which can store and retrieve coverage and response curves for easy comparison. When you have a coverage map and a response you wish to save, click one of the 3 memory buttons above the sound Hield window. Then by selecting the Memory tab you will be able to compare the curves saved in memory. DDT 3D Quickstart Page 9