my dad did DJ magic mikes set up and im trying to figure it out too

Most of the performance in any engineered assembly will be design driven. Simply by buying a commodity loudspeaker, you're paying for a lot of design work.

Hey Deepak. Fancy seeing you here 👋

@@Elliott-Designs Hi Elliott, Nice to see you again. How are you?

@@EngineeringEssentials I'm good thanks. This video from hexibase has inspired me to go and learn some of the open source software he's shown. I already do acoustic simulations, etc like the ones shown. But if I learn this free stuff then I might actually be able to make tutorials on it, unlike the research/education stuff I currently use like ansys and comsol. How are you?

AI would probably do all the technical work for us instantly. Then all you'd have to do is print the enclosure. Future is looking good

​​@@lxrdvader2021 I didn't even think of that But I'm sure Pete could out perform a AI box But I'll take the AI help

@@johnj2496 gonna have to agree with you, he's built different

Exactly, This is all very impressive and absolutely worth it for some people. But with a few weeks of research and practice you can use WinISD to figure out your enclosures' specs and design the box with SketchUp or even just on paper and your enclosure will still perform 98% as good.

I have a friend that did that in an audi a4 combi with a FI IB3 18 and it sounds amazing, he peaks at 15 Hz 😁

I don’t think I’ll ever make it to his level. We can try though.

Although if you’re doing half of this and you’re in the car audio space, you’re doing better than 90% of the people out there

Many years, a keen interest in the subject and the job which allows you to get to this stage.

You’re certainly on your way, man! I follow your channel as well.

Unfortunately, I think he wrote his own software, so a tutorial may not give you the skills you need to catch up. Guy is on another level. LoL

The video is a bare-bones visual representation (for the viewers, unused by him). It gives Layman's explanation with crayons compared to what he's really looking at when modeling. He mentions it quickly, but 99.x% of watchers won't catch it.

@@stevemilton3499 Pretty sure he's modifying a basic parametric model in openscad, 0:51 "all my models". He just mentioned opening the file in a 3D viewer for us to see, but it's not strictly necessary. So he's working off a realllly basic estimation that's probably nowhere near real world. There has to be a better way, maybe using something like a bunch of data collected with 'REW' in conjunction with the basic model, or even better a 3D scan or actual model from OEM

He can recommend from drivers he's modeled very recently, but that's just based on memory. His driver database is vast & runs over a decade and a half of models, versions, revisions etc and it takes man hours that can't be quoted on demand when you request a design. So, it's highly unlikely that you can get him to make a recommendation on drivers, it's much easier & responsible to let you dig your own foxhole & he just optimize it.

@@stevemilton3499 he must have a shortlist of what he knows works well in certain applications. Going by that would if you don't have specific preferences for a driver make life easier for everyone involved i'd imagine.

@Baron von Limbourgh if it were me, I'd liken that to "giving financial advice" or "endorsing an exact S/N product". This, because the customer will want to hold the engineer responsible for the failure of a product, specifically after the McDonald's tech dept guy points the finger away from his company.

His employer hired him because of his skill set. Pete has had multiple business from his design work. Since before 2005 for sure

Manufacturers use a one-size-fits-all approach and many are absolutely clueless how to do this kind of work TBH.

Also looking forward to this!

Me too

He records a Q&A on his Patreon but it's always so few questions that it only happens quarterly 😐

I can't expect a reply to this given the age but nothing ventured... I've watched this more than a few times now and there's one tool in the chain I've yet to identify. At about the 4:00 mark there's a graphic that I think is showing SPL (or energy) at various locations in the vehicle. There was a brief mention of "acoustic Abaqus", which I assume is some acoustic tailored version of the FEA software package. Yet it was not listed in the tools used. ReW was listed but though I've not used its Room Simulator, I don't think it produces this level of data. I'll assume, though not really needed, the graphics depicting the data was done via Blender. So how was the data depicted above generated ? I'm curious because although my engineering background is in radar, much of the concepts and principles apply across the fields. (No pun intended) Fantastic video, as always. Much appreciated!!

​@@brianmack6285do you know what software is shown at 7:09? I recognise the FreeCAD window but I'm unsure what he's using for actually simulating the enclosure in an environment?

​@@sandwich.entity3810My guess, from others comments, is that it's a plot in a spreadsheet (LibreOffice). It seems that "HexiB" wrote his auto interior modeling as a huge set of spreadsheet calcs some time ago and is still using this. I'd really like to know what approach he took and just how deep the simulation goes in trying to include all the real world effects. Room EQ Wizard has a room simulator, that I've never used, that does some simplistic modeling. I don't know how well either does in modeling and if they've ever been really validated. Obviously not every crook and valley is included and the acoustic properties of the various surfaces is at best 1'st order guess. Perhaps that's a good idea for another informative video, just how well does what was presented resemble the real world and what's important, and not, to make it good enough.

Im also interested to better understand this aspect of his design process

Yes and no. There are different problems at the same time when mixing music. Yes, you could compensate in the production or mixing stage of your music BUT: the lower the note the bigger the wave and less space in the mix. So when compensating for equal loudness you'd have to limit different notes differently or you overdrive very low notes, so you only do this in a very rough way eg. octave jumps

I agree using the Equal loudness contour diagrams in this way does seem odd. I've only ever used it for comparing differences at two different volumes and compensating for that so that the content sounds the same at a volume louder or quieter than the reference. I can't quite see why he would try to trace the contour in this way. I'd like to hear his thoughts on this.

Used software was linked in the videos description, but I am interested in the live updates as well.

1) This is really interesting to me too... I'm pretty sure he's taken advantage of OpenSource CAD editors so he can easily write and run a script (possibly written in Python) from whatever operating system he's using (in this case, Windows). The script periodically extracts data from the CAD file and parses it into another text file, which the Sheets editor can then read in real time. This can be achieved using plugins or macros. Afterward, it calculates and prints data and frequency responde charts using macros within the same spreadsheet file.

The fun part is putting everything together to calculate a response curve, and then it morphs over time, when even a single tone builds in amplitude as the multiple dissipating waves bounce throughout the cabin. See that on a XYZ ∆P graph, real time....that is some cool ish. That's what he wrote over a decade ago. I can imagine what he's modified it to today.

​​@@stevemilton3499Hi, I've seen a few of your comments and you seem to have some insight into his design process... Do you know what software is shown at 7:09 (and throughout the video)? I recognise the FreeCAD window but I'm unsure what he's using for actually simulating the enclosure in an environment? Or is it all done via spreadsheet calculations? If so I'm still curious what software he's using to select inputs/outputs ect, and how that would interact with the spreadsheets and 3D model in real time? Any insights you have would be amazing! I'm not looking to have a workflow as well interlinked and optimised as his, but the ability to model the specifics of an enclosure within an environment would be great. Most of the tools I've been using so far just take overall sizes (e.g. volume or port area ect) not exact enclosure dimensions/layouts, and none of them will interact with an environment! I have 3D modelling experience so being able to put it to use and more realistically simulate enclosures would be interesting. Thank you

Haven't watched that far, but have you checked the video description? It says all used software is free or open source and has a list of used programs with links.

@@raw_000 None of the programs there seem to be capable of those acoustic simulations by themselves. There are programs that are open source and free that can be used for simulation though. Including one that can be integrated into FreeCAD.

openscad

exactly what I was looking for more information on.

I think he has actually written everything in Libre office calc. It is just a spreadsheet with things color coded to make it look like a GUI, with buttons have macros assigned to them. I think the simulation is being done numerically in the spreadsheet, which is certainly possible although the math behind there must be crazy. It's also possible that the macros are launching something else to perform the simulation.

He shows about 10% of useful software. The rest is just visualizations made specifically for the viewer; he doesn't use visual things like you see there. It's 90% cartoon for the layman. The information is in the dialog, though. Listen again with your eyes shut.

Ah fair one, I'm no computer expert. I did like the 3d modes study software. It does run on a number of heavy assumptions pertaining to the damping factor of the surfaces though. Xx

Do you use a combination of the air flow analysis of free CAD and excel spread sheets? I'm curious what the program is that's open on the same monitor as free CAD

People don't like to see actual single pressure wave traces.

@@stevemilton3499 Hi, sorry, what are you referring to in this instance? The visualisations of areas of positive and negative pressure for a given frequency?

This is why you have no option as to which alignment you get when using his services. You request a specific performance & then list the limitations, and as you can see, he then goes to Mars to find the best possible set of physical characteristics to achieve your goal.

This video is a bit weird in that the client wanted only up to 60hz and already had a driver/speaker. Ported designes are good getting more efficiency way down in those low frequencies where a ton of power is needed exponentially as you get lower. Usually crossover in a car sub will be higher than 60hz, depending on the car/situation (and as you noted, the playback content) ported design will struggle to provide tight bass when crossover is set to a more usual 100-150Hz, as most car 6x9 and door speakers still struggling down there. So barring some other low-mid solution, this client must have a big hole between 60 and wherever the other speakers come into their own. Maybe this is just for some competition thing

Probably should have stated your concerns about this and let him do the work. I am pretty sure he would have recomended the best possible option for your specific situation, no matter what it would have been. Like you see here, there is a lot more to it then the general simple rules people like to use/talk about. They probably hold true in most cases when you or me design a box ourselves. But probably less so when you are able to model basicly anything to perfection.

@@baronvonlimbourgh1716 The thing is, his perfection is only as good as model of the cabin he's basing everything on, and it's far from perfect. _Garbage in, garbage out_ Maybe down below 60hz it's fine as the waves are huge and rudimentary model works, but things get tricky as you get into the region between sub bass and mids You can engineer to the nth degree of perfection, but you also need to see the big picture, ask the right questions etc. Client may look at marketing for their 6x9s and tell you 60-80hz is a good crossover point, big picture outlook and experience will tell you that's not realistic. When client turns around and complains about loose muddy base, blaming client because they specified 60hz maybe technically correct, but still a design failure nonetheless

@@Username-qx9gk if that's the case, that would have been the exact advice he would have given him, wouldn't he? The OP is now questioning his decision. Would he have stated his concerns he either would have recieved a better sounding system or he would have had his experiences confirmed and would be confident what he has recieved now actually also is the best solution for his application. Pretty straight forward.