How Smart678 came to be

In 2009, I didn’t know anything about the dance world.

Then a tap teacher/choreographer gave me a front-row seat to dance studio life. The choreography, the costumes, the hair, the makeup. The friendships. The dramas. Rehearsing the same eight counts over and over to get them clean and stage-ready. The competitions - multiple Regionals that go all weekend for 18 hours each day, and week-long Nationals. The recitals, including multiple shows per day. And the search for the perfect music for next season’s routines. I had no idea how much time, work, and investment went into every routine, and I was floored.

One day I asked a simple question: where does your studio get its music made? I assumed it came from a big-city recording studio, because every detail of these routines was that polished.

She told me she did it herself.

And she was good at it. Better than most. But the more I listened to the music used in recital and competition routines, the more I realized that for a large number of routines, the music did not live up to the work and detail that was going into the visual aspects. I learned that most dance teachers have never had the training or the tools to make their music as good as everything else they work so hard to perfect before putting it onto a stage.

After learning how much work goes into every routine, I came to believe, passionately, that every dancer deserves to perform with music worthy of them. Not “just okay enough” music, but bold, strong, unique music that measures up to the passion they have for dance. That’s the whole reason Squirrel Trench Audio exists.

Morriss Partee, founder of Squirrel Trench Audio

Why would a professional audio engineer help you do it yourself? Because I believe that every dancer deserves to perform with music that works as hard as they do. Over the years, I've had hundreds of requests to fix song 'cuts' that are off beat and have other issues that make them very hard to repair once choreo is set. So I built a tool to help you get your song edits perfect the first time. I've designed Smart678 to make it easy for you to create beautiful song edits that are locked to the beat. Smart678 puts the tools I wish I always had into your hands. I'm not just the creator of Smart678, I also use it to create seamless, professional stage-ready song edits myself.

Every dancer deserves to perform with music that works as hard as they do.