drcwo/acourate-for-minisharc-from-minidsp-ltd

A Software Package to use miniSharc as a high-quality Room Correction Device (DRC)

Use Acourate FIR filters with miniSharc from miniDSP-Ltd.

The software Acourate® produces Word-Class room correction FIR-filters for audio systems. To use these FIR-filters special hardware (like the Audiovolver®) or a software convolution engine like roon® must be used.

This SCILAB script converts the Acourate FIR-filters into an XML-configuration file for the miniSharc Kit from miniDsp Ltd. To load the XML-configuration file into the miniSharc you must use the miniSHARC-4x8-96k plugin from miniDsp Ltd.

The calculated XML-configuration file !MiniSharc-Config.xml uses the FIR-section of the miniShrac and all IIR filters available. So, the PEQ filters at both inputs, and the PEQ and Xover sections are filled with the calculated Bi-Quads. Therefore, the filter curves in the display of the miniSharc plugin sometimes look quite strange but the overall output is correct.

In the calculated configuration both inputs (I2S and SPDIF) can be used in parallel. The filtered output will show up at the outputs 1(L) and 2(R).

To run the script SCILAB 6.0.2 must be installed on your Windows-10 PC that can be downloaded here.

In the example folder files reside, that are produces by Acourate after a measurement was taken with 44.1kHz and correction filters for 44.1 and 96kHz were generated. You must have these files in your Acourate workspace to run the script successfully.

The script is run by starting !Run_Example.cmd. It creates the !MiniSharc-Config.xml in the example folder (and also some others) and in the subdirectory TestConvolution the files Test44L.dbl and Test44L.dbl. These files demonstrate what you will get with the miniSharc instead of using FIR-Filters directly.

You will find that the difference (except a small gain difference) will be neglectable small, even if you compare the step response. The FIR-part in the miniSharc nicely corrects phase errors in the frequency region above 300Hz so time delays of the tweeter crossover are well compensated.

This means that with this script the miniSharc Kit can be used as a low budget high quality room correction system running at 96kHz!

The example and the provided documentation in the doc folder are for a passive speaker setup only. The script also can provide corrections for active two-way systems with even better phase correction in the lower frequency range but for this the setup is a bit more complicated. For information regarding this please send a personal mail.