TOPIC:

Hi, a question to the collective intellect here. I want to set up two stereo systems with each its own power amp and speakers, through a 4-channel DAC, fed by my FLEX digital.
By switching between the two sets of stereo outputs of the DAC I can compare the two systems 'on the fly', so to say.

I want to use DIRAC Live! in my FLEX digital. Each of the two stereo systems will need their own DIRAC correction as especially the speakers are different.

Now to my question: Can I set up the FLEX in such a way that one DIRAC config is applied to outputs 1 & 2, and another DIRAC correction to outputs 3 & 4. All being active at the same time.
Any ideas?

Jan Didden

Hi Jan -

You could certainly do this on the DDRC-24, by setting up two different configurations, one for each system. You have 4 configurations to play with so should be a doddle - the "routing" can be independently set per configuration, so you would set config #1 (say) to route to outputs 1&2 and config #2 to outputs 3 & 4. You would need to run Dirac twice (and preferably save two independent Dirac projects), one for each system, and of course remember to enable the correct config for eacgh Dirac run (and save the Dirac correction on the correct config). I would be surprised (and concerned) if the Flex is significantly different in this regard.

I'm actually doing something similar to this with my DDRC-24 right now - in my case I am switching all 4 DDRC-24 outputs externally between two separate 2-way active systems, and using 2 different Dirac corrections, so I can switch between the two systems to compare performance. I'm hoping that my Flex-eight (when it arrives) will let me do this rather more smoothly!

Cheers,
Tony

Hi Tony, thanks for that. Are you saying that you have two configs 'live' at the same time, like config1 on outputs 1 & 2 and config 2 at outputs 3 & 4, with all 4 outputs active? Because that is the only way to externally (downstream) switch between systems.
(Which is also what I want to do, in this case I switch the insides of a pair of ESLs between a direct drive amp and the traditional step-up transformer driven by a regular amp).

Jan

Hi Jan

I am driving 2 separate 2-way systems, so Config 1 and Config 2 both use all 4 outputs. When I said "switching externally" I meant literally that - I have inserted mechanical switching between the 4 outputs and the eight amp inputs. When you tell the miniDSP to switch from config 1 to config 2 (or vice versa) there's a couple of seconds of silence while it gets its act together, during which time I manually switch the outputs to the right pair of amps. 

My configs #1 and #2 have different crossover settings and PEQ filters, to match the needs of the drivers in the 2 systems, and of course have different Dirac filters installed. So the setup workflow is:

- Select #1 and mechanically switch the miniDSP outputs to the amps for system 1.
- Perform Dirac measurement, target curve and filter generation and install the Dirac filters in #1. Save this as #1 project in case you need to go back and fiddle with the target curve.
- Select #2 and mechanically switch the miniDSP outputs to the amps for system 2.
- Perform Dirac measurement, target curve and filter generation and install the Dirac filters in #2. Save this as #2 project in case you need to go back and fiddle with the target curve.

Once the filters are set up I can switch between the systems by selecting #1 or #2 and then mechanically switching the outputs to the right amps. I suspect in your case, the mechanical switching is between the outputs of your drive systems and the guts of the ESL's, rather than the miniDSP outputs and the amp/driver inputs, but the idea is very similar.

Hope that helps.

Tony
 

OK, understood, that makes sense. Switching both the FLEX/DIRAC config as well as the active amplifier will accomplish what I had in mind.
I was hoping to avoid the need to switch the FLEX config by somehow simultaneously having two configs active on two diferent sets of outputs, but that appears not to be possible. 
Unless I get another FLEX but seems a bit overkill.

Edit: some more thoughts and manual reading. I can do a measurement series on each stereo system separately, say S1 and S2.
This gives two sets of measurements for two stereo systems.
I can then start a new multichannel session with 4 channels grouped into two groups (group 1 for S1 and group 2 for S2).
I can set up the target response separately for each group.
The unanswered question so far is whether I can load a separate measurement set for each group before applying the target curve.
The manual doesn't address this as far as I can see.
I would think it should be possible to save measurement sets and reloading them to apply the target curve to?

Maybe devteam could chime in on that last question?

Jan

jan.didden wrote:

Edit: some more thoughts and manual reading. I can do a measurement series on each stereo system separately, say S1 and S2.
This gives two sets of measurements for two stereo systems.
I can then start a new multichannel session with 4 channels grouped into two groups (group 1 for S1 and group 2 for S2).
I can set up the target response separately for each group.
The unanswered question so far is whether I can load a separate measurement set for each group before applying the target curve.
The manual doesn't address this as far as I can see.
I would think it should be possible to save measurement sets and reloading them to apply the target curve to?

Maybe devteam could chime in on that last question?

Jan

Anyone can load any previously saved measurement set in Dirac Live, adjust the target curve to whatever they want, and then save the generated filters to a DL capable miniDSP. You'll be able to do this for each of the measurement sets you were asking about, and save the filters to a different preset slot as Tony described above.

Thanks, I'll see if I can do that, I'm new to miniDSP. 
I just want to note that I want to save the complete set to a single preset slot, as a complete set of four outputs, measured and corrected in two groups of two (stereo) channels,
with the measurements originating from two separate stereo system measurements.
If you say I can, I'll find how!

Jan
 

jan.didden wrote:

Thanks, I'll see if I can do that, I'm new to miniDSP. 
I just want to note that I want to save the complete set to a single preset slot, as a complete set of four outputs, measured and corrected in two groups of two (stereo) channels,
with the measurements originating from two separate stereo system measurements.
If you say I can, I'll find how!

Jan

 

No, you can't do that. That isn't what I said  .

A preset is for a single stereo setup. If you have two setups you need to use two presets, one for each.

That is correct.

I’ve come in late and not read all the previous posts so sorry if this has been discussed. But once you run Dirac, it can add a gain and delay on the inputs tab. I can’t quite remember but something makes me think that that delay and gain is there regardless which preset you select. So if you want different presets for different systems you might want to go to preferences and stop Dirac adding gains and delays on the input and just do these yourself on the outputs tab. Anyway, not 100% sure what I’ve just said is correct but something you should check. 

Good tip, I will certainly look that up.

Thanks.