TOPIC:

I just got a DDRC24 and I'm trying to run Dirac Live 2.5.3 with it.

Volume calibration screen seems to be really buggy. I encounter the following weirdness:

- the bar graph next to speaker level adjusters sometimes show up, sometimes not, sometimes there's a colourful scale (short horizontal lines)
- the bar graphs seem to reset to their lowest level (-72dB) whenever I switch speakers (left/right). This means that if I set Mic gain to 0% and switch speakers, I can easily get the bar graph to green by raising Mic gain. If I set it to e.g. 60%, I run out of Mic gain adjustment range and the bar graph stays below green levels.
- dB reading in speaker colums moves when I adjust Mic gain, and it goes over speaker graphics (a visual glitch)

As a result, I have no idea if my volume calibration is even in the ballpark.

This may or may not be the reason that I can't get a result other than "Signal to noise level too low" in Measure.

I've tried going through Mic gain settings in 10% increments to no avail. I've also tried several different volume levels.

Has anybody had similar problems?
Any suggestions on what I could try?

Versions:
Mac OS Mojave 10.14.6.
DDRC-24 v1.9d2
Dirac Live 2.5.3 build 399-788bba03

try setting a new microphone calibration

Thanks for the suggestion.

I downloaded the calibration files (two, regular and 90 deg) that are available from Minidsp with the mic serial. I tried them both, and then once without calibration. Same result.

Are there any other calibration files I could try?

I tried older version of Dirac Live, 2.2.3. Now I get similar bugs in volume calibration, but in Measure I get "Samples lost during recording". It's the same with version 2.4.

I have the same problem. Just got my unit today, installed the most recent everything and it just tells ”Low signal to noise”. Tried pretty much every possible volume/gain setting combination.

I’ll try older versions tomorrow, hopefully something will work.

Older version's different error message gave me more to search with, and I found this: the software might not have access to microphone at all, due to the OS blocking it. Setting is found under System settings > Security & Privacy.

Haven't had a time to test mine yet.

Edit:
Source: www.minidsp.com/forum/shd-series/16647-e...ost-during-recording

I think you need to start Dirac Live separately. There was a thread about it, but basically the procedure is to click the Start Dirac Live button, then quit Dirac Live, then start it from the Finder.

I can confirm that at least in my case, Dirac didn't have access to microphone (it was never requested). Dirac software was not found in System settings under Security & Privacy. But doing as John suggested – i.e. launching Dirac live via DDRC-24 plugin, quitting it and immediately relaunching it by launching the app directly – caused a prompt appear, asking for mic access. Having granted that, I now have Dirac live in that mic access list in Security & Privacy, and a level meter that actually reacts to sounds heard via the mic in Dirac Live.

Phew. Maybe I'll get to do my first measurement soon. About time.

Yeah, same here. Dirac didn't ask for microphone access until launching it separately. Now everything works and I got the measurements. Thank you, John!

I'm getting the same "low signal to noise level" even with unpleasant level of the sweeping sound and low level ambient sound.
It should have access to my mic because I can see it's level changing with sounds, though I didn't remember it asking for permission, restarting from folder doesn't prompt access request as well.

My unit is SHD studio
Any suggestion how to debug this? It's quite frustrating...

Hello matthewyih:

If your software is running on macOS, you can check if the Dirac Live has access permission to the microphone in "System Preferences" -> "Security & Privacy" -> select "Privacy" tab -> select "Microphone" from the left side.



If the Dirac Live app doesn't appear in the list, then it cannot access any microphone for recording, you may need to use "tccutil reset Microphone com.dirac.live" from the terminal.app (to make the Dirac Live app prompt for permission again) or if it still doesn't work, check if System Integrity Protection is enabled (by issuing "csrutil status" in the terminal.app, it should print out "enabled" by default).

If the Dirac Live app does appear in the list and you get low signal to noise level error even if you see the microphone is working in the Dirac Live app, please double check if any noise source is present in the environment that may possibly interfere with your recording task and try to eliminate it.

DevTeam

I had the same issue today in my first Dirac 3.0.2 calibration run with my DDRC88A+BM. In my point of view the error message given by Dirac Live "Low signal-to-noise level" is too generic for one specific case which I had.

I have a 5.1 system, so 6 channels. I had kept sequence 7 and 8 as "Dirac 7" and "Dirac 8" and only set the speaker type of 7 and 8 to "Unknown".

In the calibration run, Dirac Live would then attempt to measure Dirac 7 and Dirac 8 but would come up empty, triggering the very generic "Low signal-to-noise level" error message. Not knowing the logic of the new Dirac Live, the first couple of attempts, I actually thought this is normal and I might have noise or line of sight issues or whatever and the new Dirac Live might just be more sensible to this than Dirac 1. After a number of attempts ruling out all sources of noise, I realized my error:

Sequences you do not have in your chain, you absolutely have to set to "unused" in the miniDSP plugin channel configuration. As long as the channel configuration is "Dirac x", Dirac Live will attempt to measure this and complain with said error not knowing any better.

In my point of view Dirac Live could throw a smarter error message in this case. All channels but 2 picked up something, 2 channels "Dirac 7" and "Dirac 8" recorded a flat line, no noise, nothing. In such a case a speaker misconfiguration is very likely allowing a more specific error message hint than the very generic "Low signal-to-noise level".

john.reekie wrote:

I think you need to start Dirac Live separately. There was a thread about it, but basically the procedure is to click the Start Dirac Live button, then quit Dirac Live, then start it from the Finder.

This is the correct response for me for my DDRC-22D. It is a permissions issue on the microphone. So here is what I found on OSX Mojave 10.14.6......

Symptom was that I could select my UMIK-1 but it was as it it had no signal into the DiracLive application.
Going to System Preferences -> Security and Privacy -> Privacy Tab -> Microphone did NOT show DiracLive in the list.

Make sure DiracLive and the DDRC-22 control software is NOT running.
Open the DDRC-22 control software.
Click "Connect" to make sure you can actually connect to the DDRC-22.
Click "Start Dirac Live Software" from the DDRC-22 Utility.
When the DiracLive 3.0 software starts, CLOSE IT.
Now, start the DiracLive 3.0 software FROM THE FINDER UTILITY, NOT from the DDRC-22 Utility.
When the DiracLive 3.0 software starts, click on the UMIK-1.
You will be prompted by OSX, asking if you want to allow DiracLive to access your microphone. Allow it.
The microphone should now work.

If you want, navigate over to System Preferences -> Security and Privacy -> Privacy Tab -> Microphone and you should now see DiracLive in the list and it should be ticked.

NOTE: This still does not fix it for me if I launch it from DDRC-22, but this is not an issue as long as I can get a filter set.

I had the same issue.
For me, it happens if i connect the usb mic to the SHD.
If i connect the usb mic directly to my PC, the issue is gone

yakman wrote:

I had the same issue.
For me, it happens if i connect the usb mic to the SHD.
If i connect the usb mic directly to my PC, the issue is gone

I'm surprised it worked at all with the microphone connected directly to the SHD! Connecting the microphone to the computer running Dirac is the correct way to do it.