Using the miniDSP SHD with Roon
The miniDSP SHD Series processors are certified Roon Ready players. This means that they are certified by Roon Labs to work seamlessly with the Roon software running on your PC, Mac, or Linux-based server! You can also use the Roon Remote for Android or iPhone/iPad for full remote control of your music playback with the miniDSP SHD Series.
Note: To use Roon, you will need to have a paid account with Roon Labs. Your miniDSP SHD Series includes a free two-month trial.
What is Roon? [Top]
Roon is an incredibly rich and engaging way to browse and organize your music. It runs on most Mac, Windows, and Linux PCs, or on other products which include Roon Core.
Being Roon Ready means that miniDSP network players transparently discover and connect to Roon without any configuration, and bit-perfect audio is delivered from Roon to your network player.
Together, Roon and miniDSP deliver the power, flexibility, and performance of networked audio, with the easiest setup and highest reliability available.
Learn more about Roon partner programs.
1. Enable Roon on the SHD Series processor [Top]
Open the Volumio web interface for your SHD Series processor. Navigate to Settings, then to My Music, and scroll down. Confirm that Roon Ready is turned on. If not, press the button to enable it.
2. Install Roon [Top]
You will need to install Roon on your Mac or PC. Download the software for your platform from the Roon Labs download page, then install and run it.
The first time you install Roon, you will need to proceed through a setup wizard. Note that you will need a Roon account to proceed. If you do not have one, use the coupon code included with your SHD to get a two-month free trial.*1
The setup wizard will provide several options for providing your music to you. Tell Roon where your music files are located by clicking on "Add Folder...":
If you have a Qobuz or Tidal subscription, you can enter your login details in the wizard, or later on if you wish.
*1 The coupon code is included in the box with all SHD Series processors starting from January 2022. If you purchased your SHD Series prior to this date, you can still obtain the 2-month trial by sending an email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with the subject line "REQUEST ROON TRIAL." Be sure to include your SHD Series serial number in the email.
3. Enable your SHD Series processor [Top]
Each audio device needs to be enabled in Roon. Go to the Settings -> Audio page in Roon and locate your SHD Series processor in the Roon Ready category:
Click on its Enable button. The display will change to show the default name:
Return to the main screen in Roon. Click on "Select an audio zone" and select the your SHD Series processor:
The SHD Series icon and name will appear at the bottom right of the window, together with the current volume setting. The icon may vary depending on your SHD Series model:
Go to the Browse section in the Roon UI, navigate to an album, and click on "Play now":
For additional resources on how to use Roon, refer to the Roon Labs Knowledge Base and the Roon Community Forum.
Wrapping up [Top]
That's it for this app note! Have fun, and please share your experiences with Roon in our community forum.
Streaming to the miniDSP SHD via UPnP with BubbleUPnP (Android)
There are a number of well-regarded music players that can stream audio to the miniDSP SHD Series over your local area network (LAN). In this app note, we will show you how to use BubbleUPnP for Android. You can download it for free, and upgrade it by purchasing a low-cost license.
To begin, in the Volumio interface (e.g. http://minidsp-shd), check that UPnP is enabled. Go to Settings, then My Music, and scroll down to Functionalities Control. If UPNP Renderer is not on, turn it on as shown here:
Set the SHD to LAN input:
On your Android device, install BubbleUPnP from the Play Store. Go to the Now Playing screen of BubbleUPnP and tap on the icon indicated by the red arrow here:
On the overlay, select the miniDSP SHD:
You can now select the source of music by tapping on the dropdown menu at the top left of the screen:
If you have a DLNA/UPnP music server on your network, tap on "Select library..." and select it. For this app note, however, we decided to use Qobuz as an example. Tap on "Local and Cloud" and then Qobuz. Log in to your Qobuz account at the prompt:
You can now navigate through Qobuz:
Browse to find music that you like:
Tap on an album and press the triangular play button. Then tap on Now Playing where you can control playback in real time:
That's it for this app note! Have fun, and please let us know how you go in our forum.
Multichannel recording on Linux with miniDSP
This app note is a short example of recording multichannel audio on Linux using miniDSP devices.
Please note: miniDSP can't provide support for non-miniDSP hardware and software. In particular, we cannot trouble-shoot Linux-related issues. If you get stuck with Linux and miniDSP hardware, try a simple configuration such as the one we describe here and then proceed from there.
What you will need [Top]
For multichannel recording, you will need one of the following USB interfaces:
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The USBStreamer (or kit version) supports 8-channel ADAT and 8-channel PCM over I2S (with an additional two channels via TOSLINK).
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The MCHStreamer supports many different formats, including 8-channel ADAT and 8-channel PCM over I2S (optionally with an additional two channels via TOSLINK or SPDIF), PDM and TDM.
- The USB microphone array series (UMA-8/UMA-8SP/UMA-16) support multichannel audio for custom beamforming algorithm development
- The U-DIO8 supports 8 channels of input and output via AES/EBU or SPDIF (BNC).
These devices are all USB Audio class-compliant, so will work on Linux without any driver installation required.
In the case of the MCHStreamer and USBStreamer, the correct firmware must be loaded to configure it for the desired I/O format. For example, for ADAT I/O, load the ADAT firmware. See the relevant user manual for the procedure.
Linux setup and DAW installation [Top]
As a concrete example for this app note, we installed Linux Mint, a user-friendly distribution of Linux, on an Intel NUC. Because of the wide variety of Linux systems, you may need to do things a bit differently depending on the Linux distribution you have installed on your own computer.
For multichannel recording, you will also need a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) application. For this app note, we installed Ardour. Once the installer is downloaded, open and install it. In Mint, for example, double-click on the downloaded file and then click on the Install Package button.
During the installation process, there were a number of options:
- We elected to install Jack (although we didn't use it for this app note).
- We chose to enable realtime scheduling:
Create a project [Top]
First make sure that your miniDSP device is connected to your Linux computer via USB. In the case of the U-DIO8, power it on.
To start Ardour, locate it in the main menu in the Sound & Video section. (Your version of Linux may be different.) When Ardour starts, set the parameters as shown here:
Note that the miniDSP MCHStreamer is automatically detected and can be selected from the dropdown menus for the Input and Output devices.
On the next screen, enter 8 for "Create Tracks," then click OK:
Record audio [Top]
Enable all tracks for recording. This screenshot shows the record enable button for one track:
Then press the main record and play buttons, in that order:
Ardour will record all 8 input channels from the MCHStreamer, USBStreamer, or U-DIO8. Here's our screen after recording an 8-channel file over ADAT with an MCHStreamer:
You can now proceed to mixdown or export to a file. Have fun, and please let us know how you go in our forum!
Using ambiMIK-1 + OBS for binaural audio livestream & recordings
In this day and age of Covid -19 social distancing where public events are cancelled, quite few of us are looking for ways to create immersive content. One way to do so is using a binaural immersive audio experience over headphones. This app note demonstrates the use of ambiMIK-1, a USB microphone featuring four low-noise microphone capsules and integrated preamps, as the perfect fit for an all in one solution for your next livestream concert or 3D audio recording . With the help of Dirac Research's binaural plugin, we will demonstrate how one can setup a powerful system with only few clicks and minimal investment. For this scenario we'll be using the powerful open source Open Broadcaster Software (OBS) to record and process audio + video.
Please note that OBS is third-party software. miniDSP is not able to directly provide support for this software. For questions or issues specifically related to OBS, please refer to the OBS Forum and its online tutorials.
- 1. Software installation before you proceed
- 2. Configuring OBS for the ambiMIK-1
- 3. Start your OBS Stream/Recording
- Wrapping up
1. Software installation before you proceed [Top]
Let's list the software you'll need to download and install before you proceed
- Download and install all ambiMIK-1 drivers and Dirac Live Binaural plugin as per the ambiMIK-1 user manual
- Download and install OBS build for your OS.
- Download and install the OBS ASIO plugin. This plugin will be used to discover the ambiMIK-1 multichannel interface inside your OS. Note that v3 version is based from a 3rd party library that needs to be installed separately (You need to download bassasio.dll from https://www.un4seen.com/bassasio.html.). You can find detailed instructions on the OBS ASIO plugin from here.
- Download and install the VST plugin host for OBS from here.
2. Configuring OBS for the ambiMIK-1[Top]
For OBS to be able to support the 4 ch USB audio interface from the ambiMIK-1, there are few settings to be configured first. To make sure the below steps are running smooth, make sure to connect the ambiMIK-1 to your PC/Mac before going further.
1. Configure OBS as a multichannel stream. Under OBS, go to File -> Settings - > Audio Tab. We'll select 4.0 as the audio configuration.
Note the general comment that we'll actually only feed 2.0 (binaural) with this configuration. Both Facebook/Youtube will take it as such.
2. Next we'll add the ambiMIK-1 as an ASIO audio input source to OBS. To do so, right click on the Source section of the GUI and select "ASIO Input" as per below.
A dialog box will prompt you to name the source. We'll call it ambiMIK-1 for the purpose of this demo.
3. Next stage is to configure the ASIO source. We'll select the miniDSP ASIO driver(previously installed) and follow the below example configuration.
4. At this stage, the ambiMIK-1 should be live and ready to stream audio as you'll notice from the RMS meters in the Audio Mixer section. Make sure to use the ambiMIK-1 gain utility (see user manual) to modify the internal gain for proper signal as you speak/play music... The yellow section from -20~-10dB is what we'd typically recommend.
You're now up and running with the ambiMIK-1 streaming into OBS. Next stage is to configure the Dirac Live VST plugin so we're converting the ambisonic signal from the 4 mic capsules to a binaural signal one can enjoy with a headphone.
3. Configure the ambiMIK-1 VST plugin[Top]
The next stage is to load the Dirac ambiSONIC VST plugin inside the VST host.
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Right on the ambiMIK-1 under the "Sources" section and select "Filters"
2. Next, we'll add the VST plugin host as a filter by right clicking on the empty selection and click on Add - > VST 2.x plug-in as below.
3. Select the ambiMIK-1 plugin from the list.
NOTE: if you can't see the miniDSP ambiMIK-1 VST from this list, it's most likely because you didn't copy over the VST files in the correct folder as it will search the plugin in the following folders. Make sure to copy the VST files into one of these folders.
- Windows (*.dll)
- C:/Program Files/Steinberg/VstPlugins/
- C:/Program Files/Common Files/Steinberg/Shared Components/
- C:/Program Files/Common Files/VST2
- C:/Program Files/Common Files/VSTPlugins/
- C:/Program Files/VSTPlugins/
- macOS (*.vst)
- /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST/
- ~/Library/Audio/Plug-ins/VST/
4. The Dirac Research plugin should now be accessible by clicking on the "Open the plugin interface".
Make sure to configure the plugin to binaural audio output. See the ambiMIK-1 manual for other settings you might want to modify. You can easily confirm that the VST plugin works as it should as only 2 channels will now become active under the Audio Mixer.
4. Starting OBS streaming/Recording[Top]
- You're now up and running with the Audio side. You'll want to add your webcam or external video sources to the sources of OBS as per the manual of OBS.
- At this stage the steps to start your YouTube/Facebook/Twitch Live stream or recording a local stream will be similar to any stereo content. If you're not familiar with setting up OBS for Youtube/Facebook live, we recommend you follow some of the great step by step guides to get you started knowing this is a common question. Here are some great examples:
How to livestream on Youtube with OBS
How to livestream on Facebook live with OBS
Make sure to google a bit more for better results.
Wrapping up [Top]
And this is a wrap on yet another interesting applications for the ambiMIK-1. We hope that it will help your future livestream concert, you next 3D immersive audio experience or maybe just learning a bit more about immersive audio! Have fun and please send us feedback on this article and if you'd like to see more. We look forward to hearing from you!
Music playback on Linux with miniDSP
This app note is a short example of playing back stereo audio from a Linux desktop to a miniDSP device.
Please note: miniDSP can't provide support for non-miniDSP hardware and software. In particular, we cannot trouble-shoot Linux-related issues. If you get stuck with Linux and miniDSP hardware, try a simple configuration such as the one we describe here and then proceed from there.
- Basic Linux setup
- Install a music player
- Configure playback
- Play music
- Postscript: system-wide audio
Basic Linux setup [Top]
We'll assume that you already have a computer running Linux. Since there are so many different Linux distributions ("distros"), it's impossible to give instructions that will work for all of them. We chose a user-friendly distro to use as an example and installed Linux Mint on an Intel NUC.
The photo above shows our IL-DSP headphone amplifier, which we've used for the screenshots below. However, all miniDSP devices that support audio playback over USB are class-compliant and so will also work with Linux without any need to install drivers:
Note: this app note describes stereo audio playback to a miniDSP device over USB. However, it's not possible to configure a miniDSP audio device using Linux, as our configuration plugins run on Windows and Mac only.
Install a music player[Top]
For high quality music playback, you'll probably want a dedicated music player. For this app note we installed Strawberry. Download the package that matches your version of Linux from the linked page. The current (as of 2019) version of Linux Mint is based on Ubuntu Bionic, so we downloaded the Ubuntu Bionic installer.
Once the installer is downloaded, open and install it. In Mint, for example, just double-click on the downloaded file. You will probably need to install a few additional packages:
Configure playback [Top]
Connect your IL-DSP or other miniDSP device to the Linux computer with a USB cable. Start Strawberry (in Linux Mint, go to the main menu at lower left and then the Sound & Video section.) Drop down the Tools menu and select Settings.
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Click on Collection and add your folder containing music files:
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Click on Backend and select the option "Output to a sound card via ALSA." Then select the miniDSP audio device:
Note that we disabled volume control in the player. This is because we use the volume control in the IL-DSP.
Play music [Top]
Navigate the library and double-click on an album to add it to your playlist, then press the Play button.
And that's it!
Have fun, and please let us know how you go in our forum!
Postscript: system-wide audio [Top]
While Strawberry allows you to select an audio device specifically for music playback, you may also want to select your miniDSP device as the default system-wide output for all audio playback. This will vary with the specific version of Linux that you use. On Linux Mint, open the main menu and go to the Preferences section, then select Sound. There you can choose the audio output device, like this:
