miniDSP ambiMIK-1 User Manual ambiMIK...0.2 Updated with release version of plugin 30 June 2020 0.4 Corrected support links, other minor corrections 6 July 2020 0.5 Added ASIO4ALL

miniDSP Ltd, Hong Kong / www.minidsp.com / Features and specifications subject to change without prior notice 1

AMBIMIK-1 AMBISONIC MICROPHONE

User Manual

http://www.minidsp.com/


Revision history

Revision Description Date

0.1 Preliminary 22 June 2020

0.2 Updated with release version of plugin 30 June 2020

0.4 Corrected support links, other minor corrections 6 July 2020

0.5 Added ASIO4ALL install and config 27 July 2020

0.6 Minor correction to driver installation 21 August 2020

0.7 Minor installation updates 17 December 2020



TABLE OF CONTENTS

Important Information ........................................................................................................................................ 4

1 Product overview.......................................................................................................................................... 6

2 Installation .................................................................................................................................................... 7 2.1 Download ............................................................................................................................................. 7 2.2 USB driver installation (Windows only) ................................................................................................. 7 2.3 ambiMIK-1 app installation ................................................................................................................... 8

2.3.1 macOS .......................................................................................................................................... 8 2.3.2 Windows ...................................................................................................................................... 8

3 Using the ambiMIK-1 .................................................................................................................................... 9 3.1 Setting analog gain ............................................................................................................................... 9 3.2 Install the VST plugin .......................................................................................................................... 10

3.2.1 macOS ........................................................................................................................................ 10 3.2.2 Windows .................................................................................................................................... 11

3.3 Create the audio device ...................................................................................................................... 12 3.3.1 macOS ........................................................................................................................................ 12 3.3.2 Windows .................................................................................................................................... 14

3.4 Set up the project ............................................................................................................................... 15 3.4.1 Set up the input track ................................................................................................................. 15 3.4.2 Set up the decoder track ............................................................................................................. 17

3.5 Recording and playing back binaural audio ......................................................................................... 20

4 Additional information ............................................................................................................................... 21 4.1 Specifications ..................................................................................................................................... 21 4.2 Obtaining support .............................................................................................................................. 21 4.3 Licensing ............................................................................................................................................ 21



IMPORTANT INFORMATION

Please read the following information before use. In case of any questions, please contact miniDSP via the

support portal at support.minidsp.com.

System Requirements – Windows

• 1GHz or higher processor clock speed recommended / Intel® Pentium®/Celeron® family, or AMD K6®/AMD

Athlon®/AMD Duron® family, or compatible processor recommended.

• 512 megabytes (MB) of RAM or higher recommended

• One free USB 2.0 port

• Microsoft• ® Windows® Win7/Win8/Win10

System Requirements – Mac OS X / macOS

• Intel Core Duo processor or greater

• 256 megabytes (MB) of RAM or higher recommended

• One free USB 2.0 port

• OS X 10.8 (Mountain Lion) or later, macOS 10.12 (Sierra) or later

Disclaimer/Warning

miniDSP cannot be held responsible for any damage that may result from the improper use or incorrect

configuration of this product. Please read this manual carefully to ensure that you fully understand how to

operate and use this product, as incorrect use or use beyond the parameters and ways recommended in this

manual have the potential to cause damage to your audio system.

Please also note that many of the questions we receive at the technical support department are already

answered in this User Manual and in the online application notes on the miniDSP.com website. So please take

the time to carefully read this user manual and the online technical documentation. Thank you for your

understanding!

Warranty Terms

miniDSP Ltd warrants this product to be free from defects in materials and workmanship for a period of one

year from the invoice date. Our warranty does not cover failure of the product due to incorrect connection or

installation, improper or undocumented use, unauthorized servicing, modification or alteration of the unit in any

way, or any usage outside of that recommended in this manual. If in doubt, contact miniDSP prior to use.

FCC Class B Statement

This device complies with Part 15 of the FCC Rules. Operation is subject to the following two conditions:

• This device may not cause harmful interference.

• This device must accept any interference received, including interference that may cause undesired

operation.


https://support.minidsp.com/

http://www.minidsp.com/applications


Warning: This equipment has been tested and found to comply with the limits for a Class B digital device,

pursuant to Part 15 of the FCC Rules. These limits are designed to provide reasonable protection. This

equipment generates, uses and can radiate radio frequency energy and, if not installed and used in accordance

with the instructions, may cause interference to radio communications. However, there is no guarantee that

interference will not occur in a particular installation. If this equipment does cause harmful interference to radio

or television reception, which can be determined by turning the equipment off and on, the user is encouraged to

try to correct the interference by one or more of the following measures:

• Reorient or relocate the receiving antenna.

• Increase the separation between the equipment and receiver.

• Connect the equipment into an outlet on a circuit different from that to which the receiver is connected.

• Consult the dealer or an experienced radio/TV technician for help.

Notice: Shielded interface cable must be used in order to comply with emission limits.

Notice: Changes or modification not expressly approved by the party responsible for compliance could void the

user’s authority to operate the equipment.

CE Mark Statement

The ambiMIK-1 has passed the test performed according to European Standard EN 55022 Class B.

A Note on this Manual

This User Manual is designed for reading in both print and on the computer. If printing the manual, please print

double-sided. The embedded page size is 8 ½” x 11”. Printing on A4 paper will result in a slightly reduced size.

For reading on the computer, we have included

hyperlinked cross-references throughout the

manual. In addition, a table of contents is

embedded in the PDF file. Displaying this table of

contents will make navigation much easier:

• In Adobe Reader on Windows, click on the

“bookmarks” icon at the left. The table of

contents will appear on the left and can be

unfolded at each level by clicking on the “+”

icons.

• In Preview on the Mac, click on the View

menu and select Table of Contents. The table

of contents will appear on the left and can be

unfolded at each level by clicking on the

triangle icons.



1 PRODUCT OVERVIEW

Thank you for purchasing a miniDSP ambiMIK-1 ambisonic microphone. The ambiMIK-1 packages four low-noise

14 mm cardioid microphone capsules with preamps and A/D convertors. Sample rates from 44.1 to 192 kHz are

supported. The analog gain of the preamp (prior to A/D conversion) is settable in software, with up to 69 dB of

gain available.

The ambiMIK-1 is accompanied by a VST decoder plugin from Dirac Research that leverages their extensive

experience in 3D audio. It is specifically calibrated for the ambiMIK-1 from over 1200 measurements and

includes yaw, pitch, roll and output gain controls. Output formats are 4-channel B-format or stereo binaural.

With its slim aluminium body, nylon protective frame, and single USB connection to your computer with no need

for additional electronics (e.g. preamp/ADC), the ambiMIK-1 has many applications in portable ambient, VR and

music recording.


https://www.dirac.com/


2 INSTALLATION

For use with Windows, the miniDSP ASIO driver must be installed. For both Windows and macOS, you will need

to install the ambiMIK decoder plugin.

2.1 DOWNLOAD

If you purchased your product directly from miniDSP, your software will be available from the User Downloads

section of the miniDSP website when your order ships. You will need to be logged into the website with the

account you created when purchasing to access the download.

If you purchased your product from a miniDSP dealer, you will receive a coupon together with the product.

Redeem this coupon and select the Plugin Group “ambiMIK-1” at the link below:

• https://www.minidsp.com/support/redeem-coupon

The User Downloads link is visible from the dropdown menu at the top right of the website page:

Navigate to the UMIK Series / AmbiMIK Series section, click on UMIK-2, then click on the download link at the

right. Unzip the downloaded file: on Windows, right-click and select “Extract All...”; on Mac, double-click.

2.2 USB DRIVER INSTALLATION (WINDOWS ONLY)

The USB driver enables Windows to stream audio from the ambiMIK-1. In addition, it installs a control panel to

help manage the ambiMIK-1.

To install the driver, go to the WinDrivers folder of the installation download and double-click on the installer:

• miniDSP_UAC2_v4.82.0_2020-06-09_setup.exe

(The version number embedded in the filename may be different.)

We recommend accepting the default installation location. Once the driver installation completes, click the

Finish button.


http://www.minidsp.com/userdownloads

https://www.minidsp.com/support/redeem-coupon


2.3 MINIDSP-MIK-1 APP INSTALLATION

The download includes a simple app for setting the analog gain of the preamps in the ambiMIK-1.

2.3.1 macOS

1. Navigate to the Plugins folder of the software download and then to the Mac folder.

2. The installer is named miniDSP-MIK.pkg. To run it, double-click on it, or right-click and open as described

above. We recommend that you accept the default installation settings.

3. To run the plugin, locate it in the Applications -> miniDSP folder and double-click on it. To make it easier to

run in future, right-click on its dock icon and select Options -> Keep in Dock.

2.3.2 Windows

1. Navigate to the Plugins folder of the software download and then to the Windows folder.

2. Double-click on the plugin installer to run it. It will be named miniDSP-MIK.exe. We recommend that you

accept the default installation settings.



3 USING THE AMBIMIK-1

The ambiMIK-1 is provided with a VST plugin for Windows and macOS. The plugin decodes the raw four-channel

data into either four-channel B-format or two-channel binaural. The two-channel binaural format can be directly

monitored with headphones.

The VST plugin is installed in a digital audio workstation (“DAW”) program. There is therefore a high amount of

flexibility in how you process and record ambisonic audio. This section will give some specific setup examples

using the Reaper DAW.

3.1 SETTING ANALOG GAIN

Run the miniDSP-MIK app:

Click on the Connect button. The Connect icon will change to a green check-mark. Adjust the analog gain with

the slider or by typing in the desired value and pressing Return.


http://reaper.fm/


3.2 INSTALL THE VST PLUGIN

Follow the Reaper instructions for installing the plugin. This will depend on your platform.

3.2.1 macOS

Unzip the plugin download and view it in the Finder. It will look like this:

Open the folder Library/Audio/Plug-ins in the Finder:

1. Hold the Option key and click on the Go menu at the top of the screen.

2. Select the Library menu entry.

3. In the Library window in the Finder, navigate to Audio then Plug-Ins.

Then copy the file miniDSP ambiMIK-1.vst to the folder VST and the file miniDSP ambiMIK-1.component to the

folder Components.

In Reaper, open Preferences from the Options menu, then go to Plugins->VST. Click on the Clear cache/re-scan

button.



3.2.2 Windows

Reaper on Windows doesn’t use a standard installation folder for VST plugins.

• If you are already using plugins, copy the plugin files to that location.

• Otherwise, you can create a folder for the plugin. A good location is in Documents\MiniDSP.

1. Navigate to Documents\MiniDSP and create a new folder named VST.

2. Copy the files miniDSP ambiMIK-1 x64.dll and miniDSP ambiMIK-1 x86.dll to that folder.

3. Open Preferences from the Options menu and click on VST in the sidebar. Click on Edit… then Add… and

select the new folder.

4. Click on Clear cache/re-scan.



3.3 CREATE THE AUDIO DEVICE

Reaper needs a single audio device for both input and output. The ambiMIK-1 is input only, so it needs to be

combined with an output device.

3.3.1 macOS

Open Audio MIDI Setup. You will see ambiMIK in the left sidebar.

Click on the + icon at lower left and create an aggregate device.

Click on the name “Aggregate Device.” It should change to a text entry box. Type a new name for it. We used

“ambiMIK-IO”:



Check the box for ambiMIK, then for the output device. In this example we are using headphones connected to

the Mac for monitoring:

Open Reaper preferences and go to Audio->Device. Select ambiMIK-IO then click OK.



3.3.2 Windows

If you don’t have ASIO4ALL installed on your computer, download it from https://www.asio4all.org and install it.

In Reaper Preferences, go to Audio->Devices. For Audio, select ASIO, and for the driver, select ASIO4ALL v2.

Click on the button ASIO Configuration… Click on the spanner/wrench icon at lower right to enable advanced

options. Click next to “ambiMIK” to enable it as shown in the screenshot below. Also enable the output device

that you want to use. In this example we have enabled the ambiMIK-1 and PC headphone output:

In Reaper Preferences under Audio->Device, check “Enable inputs” and select the input and output channels:


https://www.asio4all.org/


3.4 SET UP THE PROJECT

In Reaper, create a new project.

3.4.1 Set up the input track

Insert a new track (press Command-T). Double-click in the track name area (initially blank) and enter “ambiMIK-

1 input”:

On the vertical channel strip, click on the Route button. Set the number of channels to 4, and turn off Master

send:

Click on the Record Arm/Disarm button:



Click on the input dropdown and select Record:disable:

Click on the output dropdown and select the 4-channel ambiMIK:



3.4.2 Set up the decoder track

Insert a second track (Command-T). Double-click in the track name area and enter “Decoder”:

On the vertical channel strip for track 2, click on the Route button. Click on the “Add new receive…” button and

select “ambiMIK-1 input”.

Drop down the menu for “Audio” and select Multichannel source -> 4 channels -> 1-4. Leave Master send

enabled.



On track 2, click on the FX button. Select VST in the left sidebar and then the ambiMIK-1 plugin in the main

window. On Mac, it looks like this:

On Windows, it looks like this:

Click OK. The result is:

The default settings are suitable for decoding into binaural stereo. Leave them at the defaults to begin with.



Close the plugin window and press the Record Arm/Disarm button. Click on the dropdown labeled “In” and

select “Record: output (stereo)”:

Making a sound near the ambiMIK-1 will show the meters operating. Check that track 1 shows four channels on

the meters and track 2 shows two channels.



3.5 RECORDING AND PLAYING BACK BINAURAL AUDIO

Press the Record button.

Sounds will be decoded from the ambiMIK-1 and can be monitored from the main out. Press Record again to

stop recording.

• To play back the recorded binaural track, return the cursor to the start and press the Play button.

• To save the recorded binaural audio to a file, drop down the File menu and select Render… .



4 ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

4.1 SPECIFICATIONS

USB Audio Controller XMOS 500MHz multicore processor

ADC 32bit ADC with embedded PGA for up to 60dB analog gain 120dB SNR, Gain control via Mac/Win application

Capsules

4 x Low noise cardioid capsules, 14mm pre-polarized condenser Max SPL: 127dB SPL Self Noise: 16dB SPL A format layout: Ch1 - Front Left Up (FLU), Ch2 - Front Right Down (FRD), Ch3 - Back Left down (BLD), Ch4 - Back Right Up (BRU)

Connectivity USB 2.0 streaming 32bit / Selectable sample rate 44.1kHz to 192kHz

Software

VST plugin (Mac/Win) Powered by Dirac Research Uniquely calibrated for ambiMIK-1 Selectable output: B format or Binaural Controls: Output gain, Yaw, Pitch, Roll

USB Audio

Linux/macOS/Android Driverless ASIO compatible driver for Windows

iOS support with USB camera adaptor

Accessories 1 x mini tripod with microphone clamp 1 x windjammer 1 x USB 2m long USB cable

Dimensions (W x D), weight 42 x 213 mm, 130g

Construction Aluminum body with plastic microphone holder

4.2 OBTAINING SUPPORT

1. Check the forums on miniDSP.com to see if this issue has already been raised and a solution or solutions

provided.

2. Contact miniDSP via the support portal at support.minidsp.com with:

a. The product information.

b. A clear explanation of the symptoms you are seeing.

c. A description of the troubleshooting steps you performed and the results obtained.

4.3 LICENSING

The plugin uses one open-source library (https://github.com/polarch/Spherical-Harmonic-Transform). Copyright

(c) 2015, Archontis Politis. All rights reserved.


https://support.minidsp.com/

https://github.com/polarch/Spherical-Harmonic-Transform