About ART Coach.
ART Coach is an independent planning app for Dirac Live® Active Room Treatment (ART). It turns your speaker layout, speaker limits, and listening goals into speaker groups, support settings, and a target curve file that you review and enter yourself.
Product facts
- Name
- ART Coach: Calibration Planner on the App Store; shown as ART Coach on your device
- What it is
- An independent planning app for Active Room Treatment calibration. It is not Dirac software and does not perform correction.
- Who it is for
- Home theater and stereo owners, enthusiasts, and calibrators who use, or plan to use, Active Room Treatment in Dirac Live. It suits a first ART calibration and repeat sessions.
- Works with
- Dirac Live® with Active Room Treatment (ART), on a compatible processor or receiver. Dirac Live, ART, and Bass Control licenses are sold separately by Dirac.
- Runs on
- iPhone: iOS 18 or later
- iPad: iPadOS 18 or later
- Mac: macOS 15 or later
- Current version
- 1.0.8. Release notes
- Price
- Free to download, including the complete planning workflow. Pro is an optional one-time purchase ($7.99 in the US App Store), not a subscription.
- Developer
- Jose Velez, independent developer. Contact and support
- Download
- ART Coach on the App Store
What goes in and what comes out
You enter:
- Speaker layout, from stereo through 9.4.6, with up to four subwoofers
- Each speaker's low-frequency limit (-3 dB point) and placement
- Number of seats and how to prioritize them
- A listening intent for movies or music, with optional emphasis
- Optional room notes in the Listening Geometry notebook
ART Coach produces:
- Speaker groups and the support relationships between them
- Fsiso, Support Level, F-support Low, and F-support High for each relationship
- A target curve: one House Curve for every target-bearing group, or a bass-only Keep Speaker Voicing curve
- A .targetcurve file for import into your calibration software
- A Setup Sheet and a Technical Reference as PDF, text, or clipboard text
What it does not do
- Measure your room's acoustic response or play test signals
- Create correction filters or calibrate your system
- Connect to, control, or change Dirac Live or your processor
- Guarantee a result; its values are planning suggestions to compare with Dirac Live's defaults and your measurements
Its microphone tools, Room Noise Check and Background Noise Monitor, check background noise before you measure. Readings are relative input levels, not calibrated sound pressure level, and audio is never recorded or stored.
How ART Coach builds a plan
ART Coach applies fixed planning rules to the details you enter: layout, speaker capability and placement, seats, listening intent, emphasis, and grouping choices. The same inputs produce the same plan, and when the rules change, saved plans are recalculated and the release notes say so.
The target approach and listening profile shape the target curve; they do not change grouping or support settings. The Sound Strategy changes how groups cooperate, not the curve’s tonal balance. Listening Geometry notes are kept with the plan for reference and do not change recommendations.
Some starting values are deliberately cautious. A speaker marked as close to the main listening position mainly receives a lower F-support High, and a subwoofer behind the main seat can also start with a lower Fsiso, to reduce the risk of a supporter drawing attention to itself. The center channel supports the front left and right only when its entered capability allows, and the in-app Guide suggests leaving it as a supported channel when its real extension is doubtful. These choices protect headroom and localization; they do not prove that a wider range cannot work.
ART Coach’s Fsiso and Support Level values are planning suggestions, not measured requirements. Dirac Live’s own defaults are 150 Hz and -18 dB. Compare both with your measurements, keep the original plan as a reference, and test wider settings one relationship at a time.
When ART Coach helps, and when you need something else
| You want to | Use |
|---|---|
| Deciding groups, support relationships, and starting values before a session | ART Coach, or the planning guide |
| Learning what Fsiso, Support Level, and F-support mean | The ART terms guide, or the app's built-in Guide |
| Documenting a setup and repeating a calibration consistently | ART Coach exports; Pro saves and compares plans |
| Measuring the room and calculating correction filters | Dirac Live and a measurement microphone |
| Licensing, compatible processors, and software problems | Dirac's documentation and support |
| Processor setup, speaker distances, levels, and crossovers | Your processor's manual and manufacturer |
| A speaker's real capability or safe output | The speaker manufacturer's specifications |
The planning guide covers the same decisions without the app.
Independence
ART Coach is independent and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Dirac Research AB. Dirac® and Dirac Live® are registered trademarks of Dirac Research AB. The Dirac names are used only to identify the software ART Coach plans settings for. ART Coach does not use Dirac’s logos or screens, and its exports are entered by hand or imported as a target curve file.
Privacy
Planning runs on your device. The app has no advertising SDKs, no third-party analytics, and no cross-app tracking. Optional iCloud Sync uses your private iCloud account. This website uses no advertising cookies or third-party analytics. Details are in the Privacy Policy.
Corrections and questions
If something on this site looks inconsistent with the current app, email support@artcoachapp.com with the page, the app version, and the relevant export.