Fast IR: Capturing Room Data Before the Audience Arrives
Impulse Response (IR) measurements are often avoided during setup because they are assumed to be time-consuming, particularly in rooms with long decay times. While traditional noise-based methods do require long analysis windows, Smaart v9 provides a faster and more robust alternative.
The Pink Sweep Advantage
Rather than using steady-state Pink Noise, use Pink Sweep as the stimulus in IR mode. Pink Sweep is a logarithmic sine sweep that delivers a significantly higher signal-to-noise ratio than noise excitation.
Because the system response is extracted through deconvolution, the measurement is far less sensitive to background noise. In practice, this allows reliable IR capture even while house music is playing or crew noise is present—conditions that would normally invalidate a noise-based measurement.
Practical Workflow
- Set the IR length (FFT size) to match the expected decay of the room(typically 1.4–2.7 seconds for most venues)
- Select Pink Sweep and set Averages = 0
- Press Play and capture the IR in a single pass
Result
Each measurement takes only a few seconds. You can reposition the microphone, trigger the sweep, and store a valid IR in under ten seconds per location. This makes multi-position room analysis practical during load-in, rather than something postponed until the room is empty.
Smaart is excellent on its own, but most users find they get much more out of it after some structured training. That’s where our seminars come in. At TZ Audio we run practical seminars, both online and in-venue. We offer seminar-only or full “all you need packages” including software & hardware. It’s simply the fastest way to become comfortable and confident with the measuring a sound system.
If you’re in Norway, Sweden, Denmark or Iceland – or elsewhere – we offer is online seminars and traveling to Norway is a valid option too of course. We’re here if you have any questions about the software or upcoming seminars.
Thanks for reading!