AcoustiTrack · for iPad

AcoustiTrack Mobile

Line up your speakers from the listening position.

In development · beta by invitation

AcoustiTrack Mobile is an iPad app that measures with AcoustiTrack's engine. Choose the reference, usually the main tops, and add the speakers you want to line up to it: sub, side fills, front fill, delays. It plays a test signal into your system, takes five readings of each speaker in turn, and gives one line per speaker: the delay to set, in milliseconds and metres, and the polarity.

Ask to join the beta AcoustiTrack →

AcoustiTrack Mobile measuring on an iPad: the routing panel names Scarlett 4i4 for input and output, coherence 0.99 good; the Tops are playing with two of five readings taken, the Sub muted, and the line from the Tops to the microphone where the audience will be. Below, "Measuring Tops… 13 of 32 - hold still", the room check, and the spectrum. — Five readings. Each one checked.

What you connect

USB-C audio interface

A class-compliant USB-C audio interface with a measurement microphone.

USB measurement microphone

A USB measurement microphone with a headphone output.

The test signal goes into your console or processor; the microphone stands where the audience will be.

How a run goes

AcoustiTrack Mobile before a run: at the top the routing panel reads Input Scarlett 4i4, In 1 and Output Scarlett 4i4, Out 1-2, with the mic level, coherence 0.99 good and the system latency, 20.5 ms; the delay has been found and the app asks to mute every speaker but Tops, then press Start. — Always shows what it hears and plays.

Connect

Most bad measurements start with the set-up: the wrong input, the test signal going somewhere else, a level too low to read.

AcoustiTrack Mobile names the input and output it is using, shows the mic level against its green band with the gain advice beside it, and finds the delay through your system before the first reading.

Then it tells you the next step: mute every speaker but the reference, and press Start.

Measuring

Lining up a sub with the tops by ear means guessing, and every guess changes what the next one sounds like. AcoustiTrack Mobile measures it instead, from where the audience will stand.

At the top, the routing — what the app listens on and what it plays to — beside the status: the mic level, the quality of the measurement as coherence, and the latency of the whole system. Below, the speakers you are lining up: the one playing is lit, with its line to the microphone, and each reading fills a dot until there are five.

The room check reads how much the room rings and says how closely the readings will agree, so you know what to expect before the answer arrives.

AcoustiTrack Mobile between speakers: Tops done with five of five readings and muted, Sub next. The output is off; the app asks you to mute Tops and unmute Sub, then press Continue, which turns the output on again. — It waits while you switch.

Switch

Each speaker is measured on its own, from the same microphone position, so the readings can be compared.

When a speaker has its five readings, the app turns the output off and says which speaker to mute and which to unmute. The drawing shows which are done and which is next.

Continue turns the output on again, and the next speaker's readings begin.

The answer

When every speaker is measured, the answer is one line: for the sub, which side to delay and by how much, in milliseconds and metres; for every other speaker, its delay and its polarity.

Underneath: how sure the answer is, the band where the sub and tops overlap — where their timing matters — and both speakers' spectra outlined over each other, with the frequency where they cross. When the overlap is narrow, it also names the setting that would look almost as good but put the sub a whole cycle early or late, so it is not the one you pick.

Share the result sends the routing, the readings and the answer as text — to the crew, or to your notes for the next show.

With AcoustiTrack on the Mac. AcoustiTrack is the measurement app for the Mac. AcoustiTrack Mobile does one job, lining up speakers, on an iPad. Each works without the other.

Who it is for