Smaart Measurement Technology™
Rational Acoustics' highly regarded Smaart Measurement Technology™ is now available in PreSonus’ UC Surface remote-control/editor/librarian software for StudioLive AI-series and StudioLive RM-series mixers.
Working with Rational Acoustics, PreSonus has streamlined Smaart’s powerful Response™ and Locator™ modules to make it easy to view your PA system’s frequency response. Now you have all the information necessary to adjust your sound system using the parametric EQs that are available on the Fat Channel in StudioLive-series mixers. Additionally, Smaart’s Spectra’s™ RTA and Spectrograph can be viewed on top of each output’s graphic EQ so you can analyze your mix or quickly ring out your floor monitors.
Although much simpler and easier to use than the full version of Smaart, UC Surface's Smaart implementation is very much the real thing, built with the same technology that is trusted by acousticians and live-sound engineers the world over.
The room is not always your friend. Deal with it.
In many live environments, the room has not been designed to maximize the listening experience. Sure, you might mix a show in a concert hall with awesome acoustics, but more often, you’re making do in a basement club with a low ceiling and brick walls or in an old warehouse or barn—or perhaps you’re fighting the nightmare acoustics of a sports arena.
In general, the size, construction, and reflectivity of a room are primary factors that significantly affect a sound system’s performance.
Read more about how the room’s physical features affect system performance.
The good news is that you can measure what a room does to a sound system, and you can optimize the system to improve its output in that venue. That’s not to say you can make your system sound as good in Madison Square Garden as it would in the superb acoustics of Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw; but you can make it sound a lot better with the right tools, good ears, and some experience.
System optimization and alignment are the processes of minimizing the room’s effect on your speaker’s ability to reproduce sound. System alignment creates the best possible environment for your mix—even if the room isn’t the best possible environment for listening to music. This offers several benefits.
Read more about the benefits of system optimization and alignment.
Smaart Measurement Technology and the StudioLive AI or RM mixer provide the crucial tools that can help you solve these issues. With Smaart, you can really put StudioLive's graphic and parametric EQs to work improving the sound of your P.A.
Precisely identify nasty feedback frequencies. Get your loudspeakers to play nicer with the room they're in — all without having a degree in acoustical engineering. UC Surface's Smaart implementation is accessible and intuitive, so that inexperienced users can make basic adjustments to the system, and experienced users can adjust the system quickly and precisely.
See the spectral content of your mix in real time. Then do something about it.
When you click on the Graphic Equalizer tab in UC Surface, Smaart Spectra’s Spectrograph and real-time analyzer algorithms go to work, showing you the spectral content of whatever is routed though a particular graphic EQ.
The Smaart Spectra Spectrograph shows level versus frequency versus time. It graphs a continuous series of spectrum measurements with frequency on one axis, time on another, and level indicated by colors. The display lets your view five seconds of spectral information so you can view long term trends in your mix, like feedback building up in an aux mix.
Activate the Spectra RTA (real-time analyzer) to view what you are hearing. Can’t tell if your mix has too much low end or your room is boomy? Use the RTA to see where your mix has gone awry and clean it up!
We’re off to see the wizards!
Using three Smaart System Check Wizards and a pink-noise generator built into UC Surface, StudioLive AI-series and RM-series mixer users can easily view the frequency-response trace of a venue, calculate and set delay-system timing, and verify output connectivity. (Note that the Wizards are not available for the StudioLive 16.0.2 due to its different architecture.)
The StudioLive AI Software Library User Manual provides detailed instructions and tips for getting the best results from the three wizards.
To use these tools, you need to connect a measurement microphone to the StudioLive mixer’s Talkback input.
Smaart Room Analysis Wizard
The Smaart Room Analysis (SRA) Wizard is an automated process that guides you through the steps of acquiring a frequency-response trace and then overlays the resulting trace on the UC Surface display for a StudioLive AI or StudioLive RM mixer's Fat Channel parametric EQ. You can then adjust the parametric EQ to get rid of unwanted anomalies in the room.
Smaart Output Check Wizard
The Smaart Output Check (SOC) Wizard verifies that your StudioLive AI-series mixer’s system outputs are routed correctly and are passing signal. It’s a simple tool, compared to the other wizards, but it can save you a lot of headaches!
Smaart System Delay Wizard
The Smaart System Delay (SSD) Wizard calculates and sets the correct amount of delay time between two full-range speaker systems, using the StudioLive AI or RM mixer subgroup-output delays. This helps you to time-align the outputs of secondary (generally, side and rear) speaker systems with the output of the main front speakers in a front-of-house P.A. system.