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Smaart: Tracking peak frequency without the mouse cursor

By Nathan Lively

You’ve probably run into this problem in Smaart: you are using the RTA graph to find peaks in the response, but as soon as you move your mouse out of the window, the cursor readout disappears!

sound-design-live-smaart-tracking-peak-frequency-without-mouse-cursor

This makes sense, though, right? You want the cursor to show information about whatever graph is in focus.

But what if you need the graph to keep tracking peaks while you work in a different window? Maybe you are updating the EQ in X32-edit or adjusting the signal generator output.

As far as I can tell, there is no way to change this functionality in Smaart, but here’s a workaround:

  1. Set your RTA display settings to Track Peak.
  2. Make your RTA graph as big as possible by closing the data bar and control bar. Now, even when you move your cursor out of the graph you have plenty of resolution to estimate the frequency the the x-axis labels.

Here are some other ideas that will help:

Open a simultaneous Spectrograph set to the slowest speed. If you ever miss a peak you can click in the graph and use the up/down arrow keys to go back in time.

Enabling a long Peak Hold will help accomplish the same thing.

Finally, if you want to micro-manage, you can even zoom in and use a tool like ScreenBrush to insert more labels for quick identification.

Have you figured out a better way to continue tracking frequency peaks in Smaart while the mouse handles other business? Let me know in the comments below.

Loved this post? Join Sound Design Live and try these:
  1. Smaart is just a tool. You are the analyzer.
  2. What do all of those squiggly lines mean? (a short intro to the graphs in Smaart)
  3. How to build your own audio analyzer (like Smaart) for FREE

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