#1 Spectrum sound check mode One of the first steps in the Audio Analyzer Verification Checklist is to verify that Smaart is receiving all inputs. You can do this very quickly by pressing play on all inputs and then pressing the 0 (zero) key. #2 Align all visible traces Shift-click on any magnitude trace to align all visible traces at that frequency. #3 Clear All dB Offsets Now that you've made a mess by offsetting all your traces, Kondo your screen by clearing all offsets on … [Read more...]
How to flatten the phase for easier main+sub alignment
Which is easier to read? This? Or this? Proper phase alignment in the field is hard. It's one thing to measure in the near field when you can get a nice clean trace, but once you get into the far field and add reflections it gets a lot harder. One thing you can do to make the whole alignment process easier on yourself is to flatten the phase trace around the area of interest. To do this, add more delay to the delay finder. A standard main+sub phase alignment goes like … [Read more...]
How to practice reading phase traces when you don’t have a PA
The hardest thing about learning to read the phase graph on an audio analyzer like Smaart is finding a PA to practice with. In the world of my dreams I would have a giant warehouse with every speaker model on earth and endless time to practice tuning different configurations. In the field, we have the opposite. We have one or two speaker models to work with and little to no time to complete our tuning. So how can we practice learning to read phase traces when we don't have the time and … [Read more...]
Smaart®: Tracking peak frequency without the mouse cursor
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! 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 … [Read more...]
What do all of those squiggly lines mean? (a short intro to the graphs in Smaart®)
If you find yourself asking questions like, "What information are those graphs depicting?" and "What does that measurement tell me?" then I have a list of resources for you. Go through each one of them, then come back and tell me what questions you have left. Read the Magnitude Response, Phase Response, and Coherence sections (Pg 113-125) of the Smaart Users Manual.Watch Understanding Phase - Part 1.If you are a student of Pro Audio Workshop: Seeing Sound, watch Lesson 1.8 – Amplitude and … [Read more...]