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Get Smaart?

kymtnmusickymtnmusic Posts: 2
edited March 2008 in PA General Discussion
Greetings, all.

I am trying to determine whether or not Smaart would be a good purchase out of my limited seasonal budget for a Lort-D regional theatre company.

I run my A&H 2200GL console outs through a DRPA and into QSC 1200 amps and EV Sx500 cabinets and EV Eliminator sub. The mains usually hang on proscenium pipes L/R and the sub typically sits offstage L or R. Other speakers are used on a show by show basis.

I run the DRPA AutoEQ before tech rehearsals begin for every production (6 per season). In the spring we had a guest sound designer who out of curiosity ran a demo of Spectre on his Mac and it worked well. I'm stuck with Windows.

My questions are: Smaart does not support the DRPA , correct? Is Smaart too much muscle for my modest system (Pirelli tires for my Geo Metro)? Any recommendations for other analysis software?

I will appreciate your opinions greatly. Thank you for your time.

Comments

  • GadgetGadget Posts: 4,915
    Hi,

    Problem is there is such a steep learning curve associated with SMAART... and it doesn't work with the DRPA but even if you had the 260 you would be hard pressed to understand that data that is provided by the SMAART program. Yes it's a great program for system tuning but most people who use to advantage have attended a few seminars and used the system for a few years before they feel comfortable with the data that the program provides.

    Perhaps Mikey will chime in here he is a user and one SMAART guy :) there are other easier measurement platforms but most carry a steep price if not a steep learning curve.
    gadget
  • Fanman20Fanman20 Posts: 223
    All is quiet on the posting front so I have been doing some reading on an old post and it has raised a few questions.

    Question 1
    Have you guys played with smaart to evaluate DRPA or DR260 and compared results before and after auto eq?? How close was it?? (A-B test)

    Question 2
    Have you used smaart to evaluate and therfore able to further tweak the DR GEQ to get a better sound?? Changed cross over points??

    Question 3
    What is the value in going down the smaart road, compared with DRPA or DR260.
    Is Smaart too much muscle for my modest system (Pirelli tires for my Geo Metro)?
    Is the effort worth the expense/ learning curve to achieve a bit better sound or a lot better sound. Remembering that I use a small system.

    My thoughts are
    DRPA = Good
    DR 260 = Lots lots better
    Smaart - Much more better (but not worth the expence / training for the sound inprovement you achieve with a small system).

    (Tried to download a 30 day trial version but won’t load.)

    Mark
  • GadgetGadget Posts: 4,915
    Ok, questions questions questions, Lets get busy...

    1. Mike Kovach and I did a \"white paper\" where he compared the Driverack auto EQ plot with one generated by the SMAART platform...That link is in the 'Start here' post. The jist of it is that within the scope of the accuracy of the 28 band GEQ based RTA the Driverack did pretty well.

    2. Yes, it's much more accurate than the Driverack. The difference between the DRPA and 260 is not measurable with any accuracy.

    3. The value is that SMAART is actually a measurement platform that CAN give you the tools to PROPERLY tune your system. The drawback is the cost and STEEP learning curve... it could take years, or multiple training sessions to learn to evaluate the information provided to make it useful in tuning yor system.

    Well... I think if you wanted to get into SMAART you would want to do something with it.. like hire out to tune systems and make the cost and effort worth while... For simply tuning one system and nothing else it might be fun but LOADS of work. Only you can decide if it's the right thing to do...

    G..day
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