TrooTrace?

[Iain Graham]

I'm needing analyser software to add to my rig, and wondering if Trootrace is recommended by anyone instead of Smaart?

I do both live and recording work, and already have an MB Pro and an mBox, and would also like an easy way to get a good analyser on my HD rig, so Trootrace seems a little too good to be true.

But is it any good?

[dstagl]

I've played with TrooTrace a bit. There can definitely be some advantages to having an analyzer that feels built into the console. However, I personally prefer to still have Smaart running on a separate display that I can see anytime without having to find the plugin on the Venue. Also, part of my Smaart preference is that I have more experience with Smaart. I would check if there's a demo you can try out.

Dave

[Nicolas Lowman]

This brings up a good point. I have gone through the manual. I even spent an afternoon playing with it and I have not seen any real advantage to using it over Smaart. I am a lot more comfortable with Smaart 6 and it is more comfortable for me. I would be very interested to see how other people are using it. If anybody has found a reason that they cannot live without it I would love to hear about that as well. I think it probably has some good potential and I just haven't had the time to figure out a way it can help me. It is just easier to boot smaart 6 and use that because it is more familiar.

[musicman476]

Nicolas,

I'm with you...I would prefer to use Smaart, but since I don't have $800 to shell out for it, TooTrace does okay. It's a bit buggy at times, but it does the job. I usually use it one of two ways. Somewhat infrequently, I insert it on a specific input channel to use the RTA. More often, I have a measurement mic patched into an empty input channel and use TT for live room RTA & Spectrograph. I wish it had a freeze function like Smaart, (else, I haven't found it yet) but other than that, TooTrace does the primary things I would want from Smaart in a live mixing situation.

[dstagl]

The only thing I've used it for is some stuff that Scovill showed us at his FOH class. I've used it to check phase for assistance in time alignment stuff. It's sort of hard for me to explain why and how--much easier to just demonstrate--but at any rate it is a rare usage.

I do typically have it sitting in a plugin slot deactivated just in case a need arises, though.

Dave