What's New in Smaart

Smaart 9.6 - Released August 13, 2025

Key Features:

• Docked SPL meter grid
• SPL Compensation
• Text Entry for Start and Stop Viewing widgets
• SPL Checksum
• Newly re-organized right-click menus featuring new "Copy", "Paste", and "Save As" functions
  

Full release notes available here:

• Suite Release Notes
• RT Release Notes
• LE Release Notes
• SPL Release Notes 

Release Overview

Smaart version 9.6 is now available and includes updated functionality across the Smaart platform, with significant improvements to Smaart’s SPL module.

Smaart's Data Bar can now be converted to a stack of docked SPL meters. Starting with a minimum of 4, additional meters can be added as screen real-estate allows. Smaart’s SPL mode now features an SPL compensation function. This allows you to monitor the representative level at a location other than where the microphone is placed.

Other SPL specific updates include a re-designed calibration dialog and progress bar, text entry for SPL log-viewing widgets, and a new Checksum mechanism to verify the integrity of log data. 

Platform-wide, we’ve added new data bar right-click menus, complete with "Copy" and "Paste" functions for smoother data management. Additionally, Real Time Mode’s Timer function has been revamped with an overlay and options specific to Spectrum and Transfer function measurement.

Docked SPL Meter Grid

In addition to the floating SPL meter grid, Smaart 9.6 adds a second meter grid option docked to the left side of the main graph area, regardless of mode or view. When selected, this SPL meter grid replaces the Data Bar. When active, it defaults to 4 vertically stacked meters, which can be expanded to 5 when space is available. Selecting the hamburger menu above the meter grid reveals a “Config” option, which allows you to configure each meter’s input, driver, and displayed name - just as you can with the floating meter grid. This menu also has an option to switch back to the Data Bar, if desired.

To view the docked SPL meter grid, you can either navigate to

View > Toggle Data/SPL Meter Bar or use the newly added [Alt/Opt] + [E] hotkey. You can change back to the Data Bar at any time by using these same options as well as via the hamburger menu, as mentioned above.

New Calibration Dialog

The Amplitude Calibration dialog now features a horizontal input meter in addition to an input level slider and phantom power for I/O devices that integrate with Smaart (Audient’s EVO series and Roland’s Octa-Capture). The new calibration dialog also displays the currently measured level as text. Additionally, you’re able to enter the calibrator level in the main menu, as opposed to in the Calibration Progress window that comes up. With this moved to the main dialog, calibration progress is now shown as a progress bar overlay that blurs the rest of the screen behind it.

SPL Compensation

The new “SPL Compensation” tab in the SPL Config dialog allows you to calibrate an SPL meter to a location other than its monitoring location, so you can now “measure” SPL from a virtually calculated point in space where you might not actually be able to place a mic during an event, such as the middle of a dance floor or in the middle of an audience standing space. To do this, Smaart compares the levels of a test signal at both this audience listening point and the point in space where the mic will actually be located during the event, creating an offset for live SPL data.

1. Place your mic in its virtual listening position (or otherwise remote location that would be inaccessible to be measured during a performance) and select your desired calibrated input using the drop down under "Step 1". This is the theoretical loudest location within the space you are measuring. The desired result is a readout that would represent the SPL at this location.
   
   
2. Excite your system using pink noise and click “Capture” under "Step 2".  This takes roughly 20 seconds. Generator controls are conveniently included here for this reason. You can turn the noise on/off as needed, but it is not done automatically. Pink noise is recommended at a suitable level above noise floor to represent the entire broadband energy that the system would be capable of reproducing during use.
   
   
3. Move your mic to its actual measurement location. Select your input again under “Step 3”. This is the location which will have the offset applied, representing the location in “Step 1”. You can either select the same calibrated input or a different one (when the same microphone is selected, Smaart assumes you have moved it). This Input will be mirrored as a new selectable “compensated” input.
   
   
4. Run pink noise through your system at the exact same level as before and click the second “Capture” button under "Step 4". When you press this button, 15 second LAeq and LCeq measurements are calculated and compared to the values previously calculated at the Loudest Location. The resulting offset for A and C weighting will appear in the text fields under “Step 4”.
   
   
   
   
5. Click "Add" to save these offsets as a compensated input. By default these are named after the original input followed by “(compensated)”, but you can rename them if desired. These inputs are display-only and won’t create data in any generated logs.
   
   
6. When selecting an input for an SPL meter or to set an alarm, your compensated input(s) are now available for selection, although they won’t generate data for a log.

Compensation is only applied to A- and C- weighted metrics, which will be the only metrics available in the metric drop down for a compensated input. If the LAeq and/or LCeq correction fields are set to 0, the metrics for that weighting are shown in red to indicate that a compensation offset has not been set.
 

SPL Checksum

SPL Mode now implements a Checksum in order to ensure the integrity of log data. Visible within the Log Info dialog, you’ll now see a new piece of information, “Checksum”, which will display “Pass” or “Fail” based on whether a log file has been edited outside of Smaart in any way. This only applies to logs created in 9.6 or later, as older logs will instead show a third message, “invalid”.

SPL Alarms Displayed on Individual Meters

If an SPL meter is set to a metric with an active alarm set, the alarm’s threshold will now be displayed on the meter itself. This applies to SPL meters on both the docked and floating meter grids, but not the read-only meter at the top of the Control Bar.

SPL Meter Colors Show in Webviewer

The SPL webviewer’s meters will each follow the color of its corresponding meter in Smaart.

Text Entry for Start and Stop Viewing Widgets

Viewing a specific stretch of time in an SPL log is now made more convenient by the addition of a text entry field to the "start" and "stop" viewing widgets. Simply double-check either widget and the text field will appear. You will then be able to enter a specific time stamp to set the widget’s location, using an hour/minute/second format separated by colons (ex: 14:22:53 for 2:22 pm and 53 seconds).

The Data Bar’s New “Copy”, “Paste”, and “Save As” 

Right-Click Functions

Some Right-Click menu functions have been organized into submenus to cut down on visual clutter and facilitate smoother Data Bar workflow.

For instance, the “Export To ASCII”, “Save As”, “Export as Weighting Curve”, and “Export as Target Curve” functions have all been categorized under the new “Save As” submenu. “Create DSP Channel from Selected” remains on the main right-click menu but now lies between divider lines to keep things organized. 

Similarly, “Copy To ASCII” has been moved to the “Copy” submenu alongside a new option: “Copy To .trf” (“Copy To .srf” in Spectrum view), which allows you to copy a trace to your clipboard and then paste them (using the new “Paste” option) within the data bar, mirroring the file management workflow you’d typically see within your operating system. (Note: typical [Ctrl/Cmd] + [C]/[V] hotkeys for copy/paste functions aren’t implemented in this build.)

Timer Menu GUI Improvements and New Overlay

“Find” and “Track” delay options have been changed from individual checkboxes to radio buttons, only one of which can be selected at a time. A third option, “Off”, is also added, which allows the timer to run without calculating or adjusting the delay. When the timer is started with either delay option selected alongside “Generator On”, the generator will now run for a moment before engaging the delay finder/tracker. This allows data to calculate before Smaart starts to calculate the delay.

Additionally, a new progress overlay will appear in the space above all plots when the Timer is running:

MTR (Measurement Time Reference) Average

This beta also introduces an averaged measurement time reference value (MTR Average) for Transfer Function average traces. This value is calculated by averaging the Measurement Time Reference (MTR) values of each contributing TF trace. While this doesn’t have much bearing on Smaart functionality per sé, the addition of MTR Average allows average traces to be summed in Smaart Data Modeler.