Smaart Alternatives?

P

Peter Kowalczyk

Freshman
Apr 12, 2013
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Truckee, CA
I am looking for a poor man's alternative to Smaart / Smaart DI for dual channel transfer function measurements.

I've been using the trial version of Faber Acoustical Electroacoustics Toolbox, and it seems to either be missing or obfuscating some important features - specifically, delay compensation and simultaneous magnitude, phase, and (dare I dream) coherence. Has anyone else used this tool with success for loudspeaker measurements?

The studio six digital 'Audiotools' suite looks cool, but it's iOS only; looking for something to run on a macbook.

Smaart DI looks great, but my budget for new sound tools and toys is spent. Are there any less expensive alternatives worth bothering with, or should I just wait and save?
 
Re: Smaart Alternatives?

REW - Room EQ Wizard Room Acoustics Software It's a Java application and may require the installation of helper applications or drivers on your Mac.

If you can borrow or inherit a Windows machine when someone moves to a tablet or upgraded lappy, get it just for the stuff that's not available for your Mac or cannot run successfully under a virtual machine. Yes, you have to give Windows a playground, but at least you assure yourself it's in a *nice* playground.
 
Re: Smaart Alternatives?

Tim - thanks, I'll check out REW. Anything particular you're suggesting I get a windows box for, or just in general? I'm not sure I'm following about giving windows a 'playground'...

Bennet - That's the impression I've gotten from surveying the playing field. Don't get me wrong, ~600 for a dual channel analyzer (Smaart DI list) is a steal, just not in my budget at the moment. Our band has stepped out of the dark ages to a digital console, and with EQ now available on all my outputs, I'd like to spend some time tuning our PA - Sub/Top crossover and phase alignment, monitor EQ, etc. Perhaps I'm getting ahead of myself and should just high-pass the tops, ring out the wedges empirically, and call it a day. Still, I'd rather get the tools to do the job correctly if I can.
 
Re: Smaart Alternatives?

As Bennett said, it would be useful to know what problem you're trying to solve, but you may want to have a look at ARTA in any case. A personal use license is only ~$120.

ARTA Home

ARTA is not equivalent to Smaart but is a very nice set of tools and allows you to make many of the same kinds of measurements. I use them both and the results compare well.

No doubt Smaart is easier to use in a portable live sound setting where you're trying to verify system health and time align subs under time pressure. Because of the "live" transfer function display, Smaart is great for experimenting and getting a feel for the effect of changes in the measurement environment.

I see ARTA as more of a precision lab tool. You explicitly set the window on the impulse response before calculating the frequency response, for example, so you know exactly what you're getting.

If your goal is to learn your way around discrete Fourier transform (DFT) based measurements, ARTA is an excellent, low cost start. The documentation is a labor of love and a great learning tool, too, IMO.

--Frank
 
Re: Smaart Alternatives?

Thanks Frank; I'll look into ARTA as well.

I wouldn't say there's a particular 'problem' I'm trying to solve. I'd simply like to measure our system's response in controlled conditions and create an EQ preset in the mixer based on something more precise than my ears. Since we generally mix ourselves from stage, and setup is often space- and time-constrained, I don't expect to do much in-situ at present.

While I've certainly still got a lot to learn, dual-channel FFT measurements aren't completely new to me. I took Bob McCarthy's SIM class a few years ago, and have some of experience driving SIM3, though mostly in a controlled 'lab'-like environment. I'm trying to talk myself out of the notion of attempting to 'roll-my-own' dual FFT in Matlab - it's supposedly capable of real-time analysis, though I haven't explored that capability yet. I'm sure in the time/money balance, it would end up being far more costly than just buying Smaart, but it could be an interesting project...

Thanks for your recommendations. The rig is over at our practice space; I'll have a chance to dig in again tonight.
 
Re: Smaart Alternatives?

Peter, if you were considering coding this up yourself in Matlab you'll do fine with ARTA. Another plus is that ARTA makes it pretty easy to export data. So if you want to analyze or display things your way you can. And the swept sine (chirp) test signal will make your neighbors think that extraterrestrials are landing. At least mine did. -F
 
Re: Smaart Alternatives?

Peter Kowalczyk said:
I am looking for a poor man's alternative to Smaart / Smaart DI for dual channel transfer function measurements.

I've been using the trial version of Faber Acoustical Electroacoustics Toolbox, and it seems to either be missing or obfuscating some important features - specifically, delay compensation and simultaneous magnitude, phase, and (dare I dream) coherence. Has anyone else used this tool with success for loudspeaker measurements?

The studio six digital 'Audiotools' suite looks cool, but it's iOS only; looking for something to run on a macbook.

Smaart DI looks great, but my budget for new sound tools and toys is spent. Are there any less expensive alternatives worth bothering with, or should I just wait and save?
Click to expand...

I've used Holm Impulse successfully for this type of application. Not realtime, but quite nice for the price. Windows only.
 
Re: Smaart Alternatives?

Peter Kowalczyk said:
Tim - thanks, I'll check out REW. Anything particular you're suggesting I get a windows box for, or just in general? I'm not sure I'm following about giving windows a 'playground'...
Click to expand...

The playground is your Mac hardware, running Windows under a virtual machine. ;)

The point is that you have a lot more choices for free/cheap/demo software under Windows.
 
Re: Smaart Alternatives?

Systune looks great, but is nearly as much as Smaart. When the budget's primed for new sound purchases, I'll probably go the Smaart route.

I DO need to get boot camp running...
 
Re: Smaart Alternatives?

Peter Kowalczyk said:
Systune looks great, but is nearly as much as Smaart. When the budget's primed for new sound purchases, I'll probably go the Smaart route.

I DO need to get boot camp running...
Click to expand...

Peter,

I've got ARTA, Systune, Sound Easy, and SMAART.

I primarily use Smaart out on site, and ARTA if I'm measuring in a controlled environment on a speaker project.

They all do related things, but for speed and simplicity in the feel, SMAART's pretty hard to beat.
 
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