Help

Overview

Traditional didgeridoo building methods often involve a lot of trial and error. Builders usually have a general idea of the sound they want to achieve, but the exact tuning and resonant frequencies only become clear once the instrument is finished. In other words, the precise acoustic outcome is largely a matter of luck.

Didgelab changes that. It’s a tool designed to create didgeridoos based on your specific sonic goals. You provide the desired acoustic properties, and Didgelab runs an optimization process to generate a didgeridoo shape—a kind of blueprint for building the instrument. This shape defines the inner geometry of the didgeridoo.

By following this shape when building your didgeridoo, you can predict the resulting sound from the very start of your project, turning the process from guesswork into precision.

Getting started

This guide will help you create your first didgeridoo shape with Didgelab.

1. Create an Account
   Start by creating a user account on the Didgelab website.
2. Choose Your Plan
   You can try the service for free for 3 days or purchase the premium version for 20 Euro per month.
3. Log In
   Once your account is set up, log in with your new user credentials.
4. Start a New Optimization
   Open Didgelab and select "Create new optimization.”
5. Set the Didgeridoo Parameters
   • Name: Enter "Simple D-D-A” as the name of your didgeridoo.
   • Tuning: Press "Add new target” twice and set the resonant frequencies to D2, D3, and A3. This will create a didgeridoo with toots D, D, and A.
   • Optimization Duration: Set "How long do you want to optimize?” to medium.
6. Save and Start
   Press "Save and start” to begin the optimization process.

Optimization settings

Target Sound

You can define the resonant frequencies of your didgeridoo, with each frequency characterized by three parameters: frequency (in Hz), impedance (which reflects how prominent or loud the frequency is), and strong>weight . The weight indicates the importance of each frequency in the optimization process. When multiple optimization targets are present, higher weights prioritize those frequencies more strongly.

Optimization setup

1. Start from scratch: Begins a completely new optimization process.
2. Start from optimization: Continues and refines a previously completed optimization. Use this option if you want to further improve an existing result.

Optimize from scratch

When starting the optimization from scratch, you can define several properties of the didgeridoo’s shape. Example preview shapes are available to give you an idea of the types of forms the optimization process can generate.

How long do you want to optimize

Monitoring the optimization

The optimization has four stages:

1. Not started
2. Starting
3. Running
4. Completed

Optimization target

Deviation from target

1. Total is the sum of all deviations
2. Tuning loss is the deviation from the tuning table.
3. Scale loss is the deviation from the target scale.

The optimization visualizes the deviation from the target using a chart similar to the one shown below. This chart represents the deviation of the best-performing didgeridoo shape over time. In this example, the optimization runs for 200 generations and targets both individual resonant frequencies and a musical scale.

The chart reveals two key insights:

• Plateauing Performance: After approximately 95 generations, the optimization shows only marginal improvement. This suggests that it has likely reached an optimal state, and continuing it further would yield little to no additional benefit.
• Balanced Losses: The tuning loss and scale loss are relatively close in value. When one loss is significantly higher than the other, the optimization tends to focus on minimizing the higher one, neglecting the lower. In such cases, adjusting the weights is necessary. In this example, the weights are well balanced.

Results

This section displays ten didgeridoo shapes generated by the optimization. Only one didgeridoo is shown at a time. You can navigate through them using the “Last didge” and “Next didge” buttons.

For each didgeridoo, the following information is presented:

1. Deviation from target
   Displays how far this didgeridoo deviates from the target function. The list is sorted by deviation, with the best-performing didgeridoo (i.e., the one with the lowest deviation) shown first.
2. Didgeridoo Shape
   Shows the detailed shape measurements of the didgeridoo. These measurements are listed as a series of numerical values representing the dimensions. You can learn more about this format from Didgitaldoo: Explaining the Didgelab Shape Format. A visual representation of the shape is also included.
3. Tuning Table
   Lists all the resonant frequencies of the didgeridoo. For each frequency, it indicates how close it is to the intended musical note, measured in cents.
4. Impedance Spectrum
   Shows a chart of the impedance spectrum, which gives insight into the acoustic properties of the instrument. For a deeper explanation, see Didgitaldoo: How to Read the Outputs of Didgelab.

How to build a didgeridoo?