I just bought the MiniDSP Umik 1 microphone and want to measure my room. The wizard of REW assumes I have the speakers connected to my laptop which I haven’t. I want to create a file to USB but I am not sure which settings I should choose and which volume to choose on my set.
I saw post this post from @Simon-in-Suffolk but need some help with making sure I create a correct file and follow the correct steps.
However I think I created the noise file as you have above - save to file - you look to have the correct screen above, although perhaps format to 48khz 24 bit if it is there. Also I would go for white noise random - you could optimise later by putting the limits of your preferred speaker response.
The mount that file on a USB drive or other - plug into your streamer and get your streamer to play that usb file. Probably best to make the file duration a few minutes to make things easier.
That way your streamer is playing the sound file from the USB memory stick you have just created
Thanks Simon! Should I set channels to “left and right” or create 2 files for measuring each speaker separately?
Also how to I make sure the volume of my amp is set right for the measurement?
I combined left and right … in a real world room (ie compromised) that is going to best in my opinion… it is just that imaging might be slightly distorted at certain frequencies - but I suspect you wouldn’t / couldn’t notice… if you want perfect stereo field reproduction you really need headphones or a fully treated and symmetrical room with a central listening position.
The mic is good - but I wouldn’t use the MiniDSP - it is rather a low/basic quality device - not commensurate to the standard of Naim digital audio electronics.
others possibly can better than I. In essence you will be creating FIR filter kernel file with Rew (ie a filter response file for an audio filter that works with ‘taps’ - in hifi/audiophile speak people seem to use the word taps rather a lot) … so you need something that can read and process that. I used Roon, but there are other software solutions that can then feed out into an attached quality DAC.
I won’t use the MiniDSP device for room correcting. I only bought the mic for measurement reasons. I will use it mainly for speaker placement and measuring the impact of acoustic treatments.
the noise method is for creating the source file -
to make your measurement don’t you want to hit start- and press from file… but the actual source will be your streamer playing the file -
sorry not sure I fully follow
When I want to import the file I created earlier it says it is incorrect. I suspect because the file is noise while the setting for measurement is set at sweep. I can’t click noise though cause it is greyed out.
ok - my suggestion was to play the file back from your streamer - or DAC from say a USB memory stick… can you not do that? You will then measure the playback with your microphone.
I can’t remember if you need to let the software think its playing the file as well - but you wouldn’t do anything with the output from that.
Maybe I wasn’t clear but I will summarise in a bit more detail.
I generated the white noise file and saved it to a USB stick
I put this stick already in my streamer and it can play the file so that part is covered.
I start playing this file on my streamer
When I go to measure button in REW I get the screen as shown in post 12.
I want to choose “Noise” as the method since that is the file I created and is playing. However I can’t choose this option.
If I just press start it plays the “Sweep sound” (which I understand I mute on the computer) but REW should measure the Noise sound that is playing through the streamer and not a Sweep sound. So I want to set REW to measure Noise and not measure Sweep.
I generated a Sweep file and saved it to a USB stick (if I want to measure Noise files apparently I need to use the RTA function instead of “measure function”
I put this stick in my streamer
Go to the measure icon in REW (screenshot above), choose from file as playback and pick the generated file
Press start on a muted laptop
Start streaming the file from USB on my naim streamer and let it run
Apparently this is not as accurate as playing from a USB file. Playing from a USB file is not the issue as my streamer perfectly reads the files I created and copied to a USB stick.