MAESTRO is a multichannel analyzer (MCA) “emulation” software package. When used in conjunction with a personal computer, and appropriate MCB hardware, MAESTRO constitutes an advanced “smart” multichannel analysis environment for use in a wide variety of scientific applications in industry, teaching, and research, including nuclear counting laboratories. The MAESTRO user interface provides live spectral display and control of hardware and provides a number of “smart” analysis tools. The spectrum display and manipulation has a common “look and feel” with other ORTEC spectroscopy products, such as GammaVision and Scintivision