An interactive control-room simulation and acoustic-planning tool

 

What It Is

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SiC Audio Room is a browser-based visualization and calculation tool for planning the acoustic layout of a music studio, control room, or mixing space. It renders a scaled, top-down and side-section view of a room and lets the user place monitors, a subwoofer, a desk, and a listening position, then overlays the acoustic behavior that layout would produce — modal resonances, early reflections, frequency response, and time alignment.

It is built as a single self-contained HTML application (no installation, no server, runs in any modern browser) and is designed as a working reference for studio design decisions — not as a substitute for on-site acoustic measurement (see note below).

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What It Does

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The tool combines several acoustic models into one interactive view:

• Room and layout modeling — defines room dimensions, monitor positions, desk placement, and listening position, and supports common stereo and immersive layouts (5.1, 7.1.4, and others) with automatic or manual speaker placement.

• Room mode analysis — calculates axial, tangential, and oblique resonant modes from room dimensions, flags dominant low-frequency modes, and visualizes their nodal lines and standing-wave profiles.

• Reflection mapping — computes first-reflection points on walls, ceiling, floor, and desk surfaces using image-source geometry, and shows speaker-boundary interference (SBIR) nulls.

• Sound pressure / propagation view — an animated visualization of how sound radiates from each speaker and how modal pressure builds up across the room at different frequencies.

• Frequency response estimate — plots an approximate low-frequency response curve at the listening position, factoring in room modes and speaker/room coupling.

• Delay and time-alignment calculations — computes the physical, distance-based delay between each speaker and the listening position, useful as a starting reference for bass management and system calibration.

• Treatment planning — lets the user place absorption, diffusion, and bass-trap elements on walls, ceiling, or floor and see their modeled effect.

• Export — generates a text summary of the room plan (dimensions, speaker angles/distances, modal data, delays, recommendations) and a printable floor-plan sheet.

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What It's For

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SiC Audio Room exists to make early-stage acoustic decisions visible and testable before any physical construction or equipment purchase takes place. Typical uses:

• Planning a new control room or studio layout from scratch (room shape, speaker positions, desk placement).

• Evaluating trade-offs between different monitor or subwoofer positions before installing them.

• Communicating an acoustic plan to a client, contractor, or studio owner with a shared visual reference.

• Building a documented rationale for treatment placement — where absorption or diffusion is needed, and why.

• Quick reference during setup: speaker angles, distances, and time-alignment values for calibration.

 

How It Works

 

The application runs entirely in the browser (client-side JavaScript) and combines standard room-acoustics formulas with a real-time 2D canvas renderer. No audio is actually played or measured — every result is a calculated prediction based on the geometry and parameters entered.

• Modal analysis — axial, tangential, and oblique room modes are derived from the classic rectangular-room eigenmode equation using the entered room dimensions; reverberation time (RT60) is estimated with the Sabine and Eyring formulas.

• Reflection geometry — first-reflection points are found using the mirror-image (image-source) method against each boundary surface, then adjusted for any treatment placed at that point.

• Directivity and coverage — each modeled speaker uses a simplified directivity pattern based on its physical dimensions to estimate beam width and on-axis coverage at the listening position.

• Distance and delay — delays are computed from the straight-line distance between each speaker and the listening position, using the speed of sound, relative to the most distant speaker in the layout.

• Rendering — all of the above is drawn live on an HTML canvas as a scaled floor plan and section view, updating immediately as room dimensions, speaker positions, or treatment are changed.

Reference criteria used throughout the tool include the ITU-R BS.775 stereo listening triangle, ITU-R BS.2051 immersive listening windows, the 38% rule for subwoofer/listening placement, and generic SBIR and diffusion behavior. Speaker and subwoofer specifications used in calculations are

representative reference values by category, not measured data for specific real-world units.

 

NOTE

 

This tool is a design and planning aid, not a measurement instrument. All room mode frequencies, reflection points, response curves, delays, and RT60 values shown are theoretical estimates based on idealized room geometry and generic material/speaker reference data entered by the user. They do not account for real-world construction variance, furnishings, doors and windows, HVAC, wall assembly, or the actual acoustic properties of the physical room.

SiC Audio Room does not replace on-site acoustic measurement (e.g. impulse-response measurement with tools such as REW, in-room calibration systems such as GLM or Dirac, or a professional acoustic survey). Any layout, treatment plan, or calibration value produced by this tool should be verified by measurement in the actual room before being treated as final. Discrepancies between the model and the measured room are expected and normal.

This document and the tool it describes are provided as an internal working reference. No warranty, express or implied, is made as to the acoustic performance of any room designed with this tool, and the authors accept no liability for construction, equipment, or treatment decisions made solely on the basis of its output.