Waves TRACT System Calibration Plugin Overview
Also available bundled with Smaart Di v2 Turn any sound system into a well-balanced foundation for your mixes, quickly and easily. The TRACT plugin integrates with Smaart®, the industry-standard audio analysis software from Rational Acoustics, to auto-correct EQ issues and time-align any sound system. Just as a painter needs a clean canvas to begin painting, mixers need a well-balanced sound system for mixing. Since every sound system is different and behaves differently in each environment, we need to calibrate the system to smooth out its performance; in a live setting, this is known as tuning the PA. If not tuned, the system’s frequency response will behave erratically: music may sound different than we’re used to, and our mixing adjustments will not respond as we expect. Worse, if a system is not time-aligned, there may be phase cancellation affecting valuable low-frequency impact. In many cases, access to the system processors is limited and there’s limited time before sound check. At these times especially, TRACT will save the day. TRACT calculates a corrective FIR EQ curve and time alignment corrections using data from Smaart v8 or Di v2. Quickly take and merge up to 8 measurement snapshots of your system, and select a reference as the basis for your EQ corrections. Four common reference curves are included, or create and save your own reference presets. Once the FIR EQ is calculated, you can manipulate it by changing the reference curve, limiting its frequency and amplitude ranges, or by supplementing it with up to 8 bands of IIR EQ filters. IIR filter shapes include: Bell, Low/High Shelves, Flat-Tops, Butterworth and Linkwitz-Riley curves, a Tilt EQ with a variable frequency pivot point, and an All-Pass filter. The plugin includes a minimal-phase FIR component, which works at very low latency and with low phase distortion, as well as a linear-phase FIR component. You can use it in a live setting with any mixing console (via Waves MultiRack), with the eMotion LV1 mixer, or you can use it within any major DAW. With TRACT and Smaart, you can quickly and easily get any sound system to perform its very best, providing a well-balanced foundation – a clean canvas – for happy, accurate mixing.
