Danley Sound Labs has announced new loudspeaker and subwoofer installation design software. Available for free download, the Danley Direct platform models the direct sound path from user-defined designs involving Danley products in three-dimensional spaces (which can be imported or modelled via SketchUp). It runs on Mac or PC platforms.
Co-designed by acoustician Doug Jones and Sebastian Rivas Godoy, Danley Direct follows the company’s DDT, which was one of the only loudspeaker modelling programs to include subwoofer (<100Hz) output.
‘When we were asked by Danley President Mike Hedden to update DDT, Sebastian and I realised that it had fully matured,’ Jones says. ‘It would become unwieldy if we tried to build more capability on top of its existing structure. So we decided to start from scratch. We recognised that our new software had to be fast, and it had to let the user create his or her own work environment. It needed a powerful graphics engine that could keep pace with a quick-thinking designer.’
The software supports multiple-window operation, and rendered objects can be rotated and otherwise manipulated without requiring re-rendering. ‘No other loudspeaker modelling software can do this,’ Hedden says.
Using the ubiquitous SketchUp as its drawing environment, it’s easy to create spaces either from scratch or by importing the numerous file types that SketchUp accepts (.dxf, AutoCAD). Danley Direct can import Danley DDT files, and, like DDT, Direct training will count toward CTS continuing education credits.
Danley Direct’s mathematics and the product data that feed into it are essential to its operation: ‘Danley has always supported third-party independent measurements,’ Jones says. ‘The model you build in Danley Direct will be as close to the reality of the subsequent installation as any reasonable person could expect. This software is not designed to sell Danley products; it is designed to properly model them so that our users will have successful projects. And that is what will sell Danley products.’
More: www.danleysoundlabs.com
