Best Practices

Professional audio recording — especially with multiple channels, multiple devices, and complex input/output routing — requires care and understanding.

Operating a professional multi-channel recording system is more like operating a studio camera: it requires technical awareness, deliberate workflow, and practice.

RUBAT Studio is designed for real‑time multi‑channel recording with optional live monitoring (passthrough or heterodyne) and retrospective capture via a ring buffer. Multi‑device audio routing is powerful, but it can also be unforgiving—these notes help you avoid the most common pitfalls and get clean, reliable recordings.

With practice, the system becomes intuitive — and once your data collection runs smoothly, the learning curve becomes genuinely enjoyable.

Quick start workflow

  1. Select an input device (top left, ▶ IN).
  2. (Optional) Select an output device (▶ OUT). If you choose (none), monitoring is disabled (recommended for first tests).
  3. Click ↺ Refresh to probe the selected devices and populate channel lists.
  4. In Channel Selection, choose the input channels you want to record.
  5. Set your recording mode (Tap / Continuous / Auto) and your destination folder.
  6. Press ▶ START.
  7. Use ⏺ RECORD according to your mode.

Keyboard shortcuts

Selecting devices & understanding channels

Input vs output devices

Many audio interfaces expose multiple logical outputs (e.g., 1–8) plus a headphone bus that mirrors some mix. In RUBAT, the Output Channels selection controls what RUBAT writes to the device—your interface may still route that internally depending on its driver/mixer.

Device not appearing?

If your interface does not show up in a dropdown:

Refresh vs probe

RUBAT separates listing from opening:

Once you press START, device selection controls are locked for the run (this avoids mid‑run PortAudio/CoreAudio instability).

Monitoring modes (optional output)

Monitoring is optional.

⚠ Safety

If microphones and speakers share the same space, acoustic feedback can ramp up instantly.
• Start with Output mode = Off
• Prefer headphones
• Raise Monitor gain slowly

Monitoring routing: Mix vs Mon L / Mon R

Output channel selection (L/R gating)

RUBAT treats output channels as:

If you select only odd channels, monitoring is left‑only; only even channels gives right‑only; selecting both produces stereo.

Sample rate, bit depth, and frame size

Sample rate

Bit depth

RUBAT defaults to 32‑bit where available.

Frame size (buffer)

Frame size is a key stability/latency knob:

If you see dropouts, increase frame size (e.g., 4096 → 8192) before changing anything else.

Visuals and performance

Live waveform + spectrogram cost CPU/GPU.

Avoiding dropouts (most important)

The status line under START reports:

💡 Pro Tip

If you see dropouts, increase frame size first (e.g., 4096 → 8192) before changing other settings.

Dropouts usually mean the audio configuration is not stable.

Common causes

What to do

  1. Set Output device = (none) for a clean input‑only test.
  2. Increase Frame size.
  3. Disable Visuals.
  4. Match input/output sample rates where possible.

Recording modes

Tap (retrospective clip)

You may tap into the ring buffer and write out a clip consisting of:

Use Tap when you want short, precisely captured events.

Continuous

Continuous writes a file until you stop it.

⚠ Caution

Multi-channel high-rate recording generates large files quickly. Monitor disk space.

✓ Alternative strategy

Use a longer Post window with larger ring buffer in TAP mode instead of full continuous recording.

Auto (threshold‑triggered Tap)

Auto arms a simple event detector on the waveform channel.

Calibration (Pa/u) matters

Auto mode is especially useful for field deployments (e.g., bat activity monitoring) where unattended operation is needed.

💡 Pro Tip

If recording short chirps that clearly cross threshold and are separated by at least one buffer frame, Auto mode can significantly reduce manual effort.

Ensuring WAV file integrity

Before an important session:

If dropouts remain at zero (or very low), WAV files are typically clean.

Good lab habits

File Suffix Feature

Use file suffixes to append metadata (animal ID, experiment name, user, array configuration).

This is especially useful in shared lab environments where multiple projects use the same terminal.

🛠 Troubleshooting

If you see the drop counter increasing, monitoring glitches, or PortAudio errors, your system is likely operating near its stability limit. Work through the following steps in order:
1. Set Output device = (none)
This isolates input recording and removes monitoring + resampling load. If dropouts disappear, the issue is in the monitoring path.
2. Increase Frame size
Larger buffers give the CPU and driver more time to process audio. This is the most effective first fix.
3. Disable Visuals
Spectrogram rendering can consume GPU/CPU resources, especially at high sample rates.
4. Match input/output sample rates
Resampling adds processing overhead. Keeping both devices at the same sample rate reduces load.
5. Stop → Refresh → Restart
If PortAudio or driver errors appear, fully stop the stream, refresh devices, and start again. Avoid repeatedly opening/closing writers mid‑run.

Final Checklist Before Recording

If yes — you are ready to record with confidence.