Realtime Unified BioAcoustic Tool

RUBAT Studio UI
Sounds and Senses Lab
Live audio-visual monitoring & high-fidelity multichannel recording
RUBAT Studio is a MATLAB-based recorder built for field bioacoustics — designed to capture high-sample-rate audio while giving you real-time heterodyne monitoring, responsive visualisation, and robust recording workflows.
Flexible workflows Realtime monitoring Tap / Continuous / Auto Multichannel audio streams Record ANY sound

What is it good for?

RUBAT Studio was designed to address the practical challenges of ultrasonic field recording, but its architecture makes it equally suitable for general multichannel audio projects.

For bioacoustics and fieldwork, it enables you to:

Beyond ultrasonic work, RUBAT can also function as a robust multichannel recorder for music, voice, and studio-style sessions:

In short, RUBAT combines research-grade reliability with studio flexibility — whether you’re documenting insect/bat/bird calls, or recording a multitrack performance indoors.

How to pronounce “RUBAT”
Say it like “Rue-BAT”. “Rue” rhymes with “blue” (like “roo”), then “bat”.
Phonetic: ROO-bat  ·  IPA: /ˈruː.bæt/

Key capabilities

Continuous monitoring
Bat calls are shifted into the audible range by multiplying the signal against a sine carrier whose phase accumulates continuously across frames — no clicks or discontinuities at frame boundaries. Dial the carrier frequency across the full spectrum up to the Nyquist limit. Switch freely between Off, Passthrough, and Heterodyne while the stream is live, without restarting.
True N-channel in → out routing
Each selected input channel is routed one-to-one to the matching physical output channel. A per-channel output mask gates which physical outputs carry audio; unselected outputs stay silent. Mix mode sums odd-indexed inputs to the left ear and even-indexed to the right, giving intuitive stereo headphone monitoring of a microphone array.
Ring buffer tap — capture what just happened
A continuously-written ring buffer keeps the last N seconds of audio in memory at all times. Pressing TAP trims out a clip that starts before you pressed the button — set the pre-trigger window independently from the post-trigger window. You are never racing against a passing interesting event; you already have it.
Auto mode — unattended threshold recording
Arm Auto and walk away. Each time signal energy in the pre-trigger window crosses the threshold, RUBAT fires a tap automatically. No classifier required — a lightweight energy check is sufficient and adds negligible CPU overhead to the audio loop.
Calibrated dB SPL waveform display
Supply a Pa-per-unit sensitivity calibration factor and the live waveform panel switches to dB SPL re 20 µPa — quantitative and comparable across sessions and microphone models. Without calibration the display falls back to a relative dBFS view, so the panel is always informative regardless of setup.
Dual greyscale spectrograms
Two independent spectrogram panes, each assignable to any selected input channel. Energy is mapped black → white on a dark background — maximum contrast for reading call structure in bright daylight or in the twilight. Set view via Y scaling in Hz at any time.
Robust device handling & logging
Input-Output channels count is querried and validated. Device and channel controls lock during streaming to prevent accidental re-probes. All events are written to a live log.
Three recording modes + keyboard shortcuts
✓ Tap — single pre+post clip from the ring buffer, triggered manually.
✓ Continuous — streams directly to a sequentially-numbered WAV file until you stop.
✓ Auto — arms Tap so the detector fires it for you unattended.

Workflow snapshot

  1. Select devices → choose input/output, sample rates, frame size.
  2. Probe by selecting a device (RUBAT logs attempts and capabilities).
  3. Choose channels (scrollable input/output grids).
  4. START streaming.
  5. Monitor in Heterodyne or Passthrough.
  6. Record using:
    • Tap (pre+post)
    • Continuous (stream to disk)
    • Auto (threshold-triggered tap)

Get started

⬇️ Download
Get the software package. As always, the application is free.
📦 Install
MATLAB Runtime / packaged app install, and setup.
🚀 Quickstart Guide
Set up the tool and get to your first recording and start collecting data!
💡 Tips & Best Practices
Practical guide to avoiding common mistakes and becoming a bioacoustic field champ!

Open science

RUBAT Studio is developed with an open-science mindset:

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