TOPIC:

Hello All, 

When I run Dirac Live, the signal output to the amplifiers from the SHD is somehow being limited to around 100hz and up. It is behaving as though my speakers are set to "Small". 

There is an area in the Control Panel where one can choose Large or Small speakers for any given sound device within Windows. It seems to default to Small. But even after changing it to Large, my Dirac is not working properly. (Note, REW had the same behavior when I used Java drivers. Only when using ASIO, did the SHD overcome this crippling effect by what I believe is something deep in Windows)

For example, here is the 20-200 hz output from my system as captured by REW (with ASIO drivers):

 

You can see above that I have plenty of output below 100hz. 

Below is what I see in Dirac. I'm down 50db by 50hz:

 

And here is the setting in the Control Panel where the "speakers" (the SHD) are set to Large. 

 

Has anyone encountered this before? Any ideas for troubleshooting?

Check the crossover settngs in the SHD plugin. You'll probably find there are high-pass filters applied.

I appreciate the reply, but unfortunately that is not the case. 

The REW and Dirac measurements shown were taken within minutes of eachother with no changes to the SHD crossover or PEQ settings. 

This same behavior was exhibited in REW when I was using the JAVA drivers. Something like a 4th order cut below 100hz. But when I switched to ASIO drivers, the problem went away. 

With Dirac, there is no choice of drivers to use -- only selecting the SHD. 

Highly likely it is related to the issue discussed in the link below.

www.minidsp.com/forum/umik-questions/193...io-enhancement#56836

Michael

Michael,
Thanks for linking that. It's a shame there isn't a way to sign up to general alerts like that. 
I get alerted to posts on SHD and DDRC-24 but totally missed that. When Dirac does a sweep on my SHD, I get a strange 'wah wah wah' in the high frequencies... I wonder if that's windows "enhancements" too. Next time I run dirac I'll check those settings first. 

Michael,

Thank you! I had disabled enhancements everywhere but on the microphone. That did it! 

Thank you again!

asx77 wrote:

When Dirac does a sweep on my SHD, I get a strange 'wah wah wah' in the high frequencies... I wonder if that's windows "enhancements" too. 

I think that's normal? I think I know the sound you mean although I can't remember right now if Ive heard it with REW or Dirac but whichever it's not been a recent change. And actually checking the Windows 10 version I'm running doesn't seem to have any 'enhancements' as shown in the link.

Hi @Ultrasonic,
That's interesting you've heard it too, I always assumed it was a parculiarity of my PC in combination with the SHD because I never heard it with the DDRC-24. It only happens with the SHD. All other parts of the system are the same. The SHD was a straight swap with DDRC-24 relegated to other duties.

asx77 wrote:

Hi @Ultrasonic,That's interesting you've heard it too, I always assumed it was a parculiarity of my PC in combination with the SHD because I never heard it with the DDRC-24. It only happens with the SHD. All other parts of the system are the same. The SHD was a straight swap with DDRC-24 relegated to other duties. 

Ultrasonic wrote:

asx77 wrote:

When Dirac does a sweep on my SHD, I get a strange 'wah wah wah' in the high frequencies... I wonder if that's windows "enhancements" too.

I think that's normal? I think I know the sound you mean although I can't remember right now if Ive heard it with REW or Dirac but whichever it's not been a recent change. And actually checking the Windows 10 version I'm running doesn't seem to have any 'enhancements' as shown in the link. 

I've noticed this as well, though I do not own any MiniDSP devices just yet. Make very sure your sampling rates are set correctly everywhere in the chain, and that they match up. In my case I had a virtual soundcard device at 48KHz while everything else was at 44.1KHz, and this caused the weird looping-back of high frequencies. Changing everything to the same rate fixed it. I've had this happen a few times, but on the most recent occurrence REW's RT60 view was very helpful:



Note how Topt, T20 and T30 shoot way up in the higher frequencies; these fell right back in line post-fix. May be an easy way to check if everything's working right.

The forums don't seem to want to attach my updated picture, so new post with it...


Picture after the fix, for reference:

Thanks for that info.  Next time I run Dirac I’ll have a look at that. WRT where to check… would it be in Windows (Sounds app?) and within REW somewhere? Anywhere else?

thanks again. 

 

XpanD wrote:

I've noticed this as well, though I do not own any MiniDSP devices just yet. Make very sure your sampling rates are set correctly everywhere in the chain, and that they match up. In my case I had a virtual soundcard device at 48KHz while everything else was at 44.1KHz, and this caused the weird looping-back of high frequencies. Changing everything to the same rate fixed it. 

This is something I'd wondered about actually but I'm not sure what sample rate Dirac Live may use.

However, I know that the UMIK-1 uses a 48 kHz sample rate and I'm aware that I didn't always have it set this way at a Windows level, although I have now. When I remember I might try a quick test measurement to see if this has made a difference...

 

asx77 wrote:

Thanks for that info. Next time I run Dirac I’ll have a look at that. WRT where to check… would it be in Windows (Sounds app?) and within REW somewhere? Anywhere else?

thanks again.


 

In my case it was indeed under Sounds, where my Voicemeeter virtual device was set to the wrong rate for some odd reason.

I'm not entirely sure whether MiniDSP devices have internal settings for changing this as well, but it's worth looking into. If it's the same issue I was having, the correct settings should result in clean sweeps (no repeats), clean REW measurements and no high-frequency weirdness.

Ultrasonic wrote:

XpanD wrote:

I've noticed this as well, though I do not own any MiniDSP devices just yet. Make very sure your sampling rates are set correctly everywhere in the chain, and that they match up. In my case I had a virtual soundcard device at 48KHz while everything else was at 44.1KHz, and this caused the weird looping-back of high frequencies. Changing everything to the same rate fixed it. 

This is something I'd wondered about actually but I'm not sure what sample rate Dirac Live may use.

However, I know that the UMIK-1 uses a 48 kHz sample rate and I'm aware that I didn't always have it set this way at a Windows level, although I have now. When I remember I might try a quick test measurement to see if this has made a difference...



 

For what it's worth, my UMIK-1 is always set to 48KHz and my system audio is always set to 44.1KHz. No issues there, except when the actual playback chain settings are mismatched as before. I don't think the UMIK's sample rate affects anything here. (though maybe that's different with MiniDSP's baked-in Dirac? I'm using the plugin version for desktop currently)

XpanD wrote:

For what it's worth, my UMIK-1 is always set to 48KHz and my system audio is always set to 44.1KHz. No issues there, except when the actual playback chain settings are mismatched as before. I don't think the UMIK's sample rate affects anything here. (though maybe that's different with MiniDSP's baked-in Dirac? I'm using the plugin version for desktop currently)

Thinking about it, it would of course be pretty weird if the microphone sample rate affected what is heard (i.e. the output)  . I should be awake by now, but perhaps I can blame having just had lunch...