Sound Product Of The Year, Software: Rational Acoustics Smaart v7

Shannon Slaton reviewed Rational Acoustics Smaart v7 on our website, calling it "pretty damned smart." This straightforward and widely used software solution for realtime sound system measurement, analysis, and optimization has been around a while, but it has been completely rewritten.

It can access modern multi-channel input devices and operate natively in both Windows and Mac Operating Systems (32- and 64-bit versions). It can run as many multiple simultaneous single-channel (spectrum) and dual-channel (transfer function) measurement engines as your system will allow. "Smaart has been an important staple for the art form for the last 12 years, and every new version just makes the software better," said Slaton in his review. A judge on our panel adds, "Smaart v7 is the kind of tool that every sound person should own."