Software for design/simulation of audio projects.

[Severino]

Hi.
I've been out of the game for years on design and simulation of analog audio designs.
I've used along the years several simulation software, and always under windows, I have now ubuntu but have a HDD only for winXP.
I have several programs:
Electronics workbench 2000.
Altium.
Orcad 10.5.
Protel99.

Some others I have, but not installed.
Which one do you use for audio design? I guess in 2013 there have to be some standard program o at least reviews from users on this forum fo which is better suited for guitar amps using tubes, transformers, op-amps, discrete semiconductors, etc.

Not interested on PCB design yet, only simulation and schematics design.

Thanks in advance.

[Dave H]

I use LTspice. You can download it free from Linear Technology here - LTspice download

If you want to try it I'll send you a complete valve amplifier circuit with valve models.

[Steve Conner]

+1 on LTSpice It's a Windows program, but it's supposed to run happily on Linux under Wine.

[Severino]

Libraries?

+1 on LTSpice It's a Windows program, but it's supposed to run happily on Linux under Wine.

I installed wine and the program works fine, I've had a hard time with libraries, I will, however Install it on windows and give it another try.
I guess that there has to be compatible libraries from another software o an Import utility.
FAQ or similars are welcome, the infomation on the web right until now is scarce. Any ideas? Links?

Thanks.

[Steve Conner]

Someone just offered you a complete ready-to-run tube circuit to play with, what more do you want? The LTSpice online help is good, and Bob Cordell's book "Designing Audio Power Amplifiers" has a whole chapter on LTSpice for audio.

Spice models are text files, they should work with any version of Spice. However, the schematic editor is not part of Spice, so the different programs all use different file formats for symbols. When using a third party model, you typically have to hook it up to a LTSpice schematic symbol yourself.

[Dave H]

Steve, Severino PMd me. He should have the files now.

[Severino]

I was having a bad day.

Someone just offered you a complete ready-to-run tube circuit to play with, what more do you want? The LTSpice online help is good, and Bob Cordell's book "Designing Audio Power Amplifiers" has a whole chapter on LTSpice for audio.

Spice models are text files, they should work with any version of Spice. However, the schematic editor is not part of Spice, so the different programs all use different file formats for symbols. When using a third party model, you typically have to hook it up to a LTSpice schematic symbol yourself.

I'm sorry. I was sleep-deprived. And I've got that book! It's a very good one. I will read that chapter. I guess I expected it to be plug-and-play. I installed it on WinXP and no difference, this time I read the "Help" on the program and indeed the spice models had to be created from the datasheet, wich is hard at first but offers, well, everything! Everything can be reduced to an electronic model and it can include all the details, parasitic values and so on. Really nice.

Thanks again.

[Dave H]

I guess I expected it to be plug-and-play. I installed it on WinXP and no difference, this time I read the "Help" on the program and indeed the spice models had to be created from the datasheet

Don't reinvent the wheel. There are a lot of tube spice models out there. Try - here

The files I sent should have been plug and play. Didn't they work? I've just tested them in WinXP with the latest version of LTSpice and they worked fine.

[Steve Conner]

If you have some non-standard libraries/models/schematic symbols in your lib/sym folders, and you forgot to include them with the stuff you sent, it won't work.

[Dave H]

If you have some non-standard libraries/models/schematic symbols in your lib/sym folders, and you forgot to include them with the stuff you sent, it won't work.

It only uses the triode and tetrode symbols from the LTC Misc library. As long as the valve model .inc text files are in the same directory as the LTC schematic (which is how I sent it) it should work. I've also tried the files I sent on a new installation of LTSpice on a 'virgin' computer and it works fine.