RUBAT Studio: A Unified Workbench for Multichannel Bioacoustic Data Acquisition

A bstract High-resolution ultrasonic recording is central to modern bioacoustics, behavioural ecology, and passive acoustic monitoring. Yet, implementing flexible, multichannel acquisition systems with real-time playback, monitoring and experimental control remains technically demanding. Existing solutions often require bespoke code development or expensive proprietary systems, limiting experimental accessibility and reproducibility. I present RUBAT Studio (v4.0), an integrated software platform for multichannel ultrasonic recording, real-time heterodyne monitoring for experimental control and data acquisition in laboratory and field environments. The system supports high sample rates, configurable channel routing, automated triggering, retrospective ring-buffer capture, calibration-aware visualisation, and modular signal-processing integration. Its architecture is designed for extensibility, enabling synchronised acquisition across multiple microphones and compatibility with custom hardware configurations. Field and laboratory testing with devices ranging from USB microphones to analogue microphones via professional audio interfaces confirmed stable multichannel acquisition at sampling rates up to 384 kHz over multi-hour sessions without crashes or artefacts. Real-time heterodyne monitoring, dual-channel live spectrograms, and calibrated sound-pressure-level display provided immediate acoustic and visual feedback throughout data collection. The platform enables complex experimental paradigms, including spatial localisation studies, closed-loop playback experiments, active-sensing investigations, and array-based behavioural assays, without requiring specialised knowledge of audio systems. By lowering the technical barrier to high-performance audio recording and experimental control, RUBAT Studio expands the methodological toolkit available to behavioural ecologists and bioacousticians. The platform facilitates rigorous, scalable and reproducible acoustic research designs, enabling experiments that were previously technically prohibitive and thereby advancing the study of animal communication, spatial hearing and active sensing.