System Design with MAPP 3D

Well, friends, it’s time to enter what will be, for many of you, a totally new dimension of audio engineering. We are diving deep into the start of what will be many articles on the field of system design and system tuning. We will explore topics on SPL maps, speaker placement, sub and main alignment, reading phase graphs, impulse response charts, and all sorts of wild, technically sophisticated details that go into what becomes full-time careers for a privileged few audio engineers.

Today, we will be looking at MAPP 3D. This is a 3D modeling software that does an incredible job at accurately describing almost every single detail of your venue. It can import CAD or Sketchup drawings from your building architect and allows you to pick any speaker which Meyer Sound produces. You can use their DSPs and signal processors to adjust and fine-tune each element. And then, if you have the Meyer products, you can import your settings directly from MAPP 3D into your equipment. While Martin has Display 3 and there is Ease Focus and probably a few other 3D audio modeling softwares, MAPP 3D is built by Meyer Sound and as such is naturally one of the leaders in the industry. It doesn't take long in the software to realize it is a gem and the fact that it is free is really astounding considering it's applications and the potential to charge customers a large amount for renderings from the software.

How it works 

MAPP 3D is the result of decades of research in system modeling. MAPP XT was Meyer Sound’s first modeling software for 2D. It has one benefit over MAPP 3D: it can model walls to show the impact of walls on an environment. Meyer goes through a painstakingly detailed and precise process of measuring their speakers in an anechoic chamber to know exactly how each frequency is produced at every angle and records the phase of the speakers. This data, which totals more than an incredible 8 GB of measurements, is then used to model how the speakers interact down to phase. Don’t be fooled by the free price tag; this software is the industry-leading standard for 3D modeling.

Why you should care

You’re an audio engineer, so you should care about achieving the best sound quality possible. MAPP 3D lets you test all types of speaker placement and arrangement. This allows real-world, accurate predictions of SPL levels, direction and spread of sound, and zones of interference. This is especially important when determining subwoofer placement. Many people place subwoofers in the wrong place with poor configuration, resulting in suboptimal results.

Because MAPP 3D is so dynamic, our article today will be in the form of a video tutorial. So grab your coffee, sit back, and begin to imagine all the ways in which you can put this software to work for you.