MM IR 2.0 – Device Output Mapping

The device output mapping menu allows for the mapping of gain channels to device output channels.

The names of the available devices in the room are displayed in the first column (red rectangle below), together with their device output channels in the second column (yellow rectangle).

The available gain objects can be assigned in the third column (green rectangle), together with their respective gain channels in the fourth column (blue rectangle).

Currently, it is the user’s responsibility to re-create the same connections as in the Signal Flow Designer to ensure the expected functionality.

The assignment of the first gain device will trigger an auto-completion of the entire list. This behavior can be disabled by unchecking the checkbox in the lower left corner of the menu.

Measurement

The measurement tab consists of five sections.

  1. Measurement Configurations: This section displays the measurement sequence list of all the measurements included in this session. The measurement number indicates the order in which the measurements will be performed. If the measurement is defined with the Mannequin Mic array, the measurement sequence list will include the movement information for each step. The physical mannequin will be initiated before starting acquisition, and acquisition will begin once the movement is completed.
  2. Speaker and Microphone Layout: This section shows the layout of the speakers and microphones on the selected car.
  3. Instructions: This section contains microphone calibration warnings and suggestions to relocate microphones.
    • Signal Noise Ratio Settings: The settings button in highlighted area 3 displays the
      Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) Settings dialog, where SNR validation can be:

      • Enabled or disabled SNR,
      • Can stop the measurement if SNR fails,
      • Can set the SNR threshold value.

        You can update from 0 to 98 dB as the threshold value. In case of SNR validation success, below message will appear.
        In case of SNR validation failure, below message will appear.

        SNR validation will occur only if a single speaker is measured using the sync IR measurement type.

  4. Inputs/ Outputs: This section shows the current input and output levels using the meters.
  5. Measurement Inspection viewer: This section displays the result of each measurement.
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    You can highlight a channel by selecting the channel from the ‘Highlight input channel’ drop-down menu.
    The Measurement Viewer loads with default settings. You can change the viewer settings using the Settings icon.

Viewer Settings Properties

The Viewer Settings window contains the following options, which are saved on an application-wide basis.
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Properties Description
Frequency Domain
  • Smoothing: Smoothing is a technique that reduces variations in plotted curves to improve the visual perception of trends or patterns in frequency response or level measurements. It is commonly used in audio analysis and equalization tasks to enhance clarity while considering the trade-off between noise reduction and preservation of important details.
    By default, the frequency smoothing function is set to Off. and
    Frequency smoothing has the following selections [1/48, 1/24, 1/12, 1/6, 1/3, 1], referring to sample points used per octave.
  • FFT Window: The default setting for the FFT window is ‘With time domain setting’; sets the same signal length displayed for the time signals as the base for the FF. The full signal option takes the entire time signal as the base for the FFT.
Time Domain
  • IR Mode: Set the length of the time signal displayed in IR mode.
    By default, the IR mode is set to 5s.

When Generator Mode is selected for recording, IR mode will be disabled.

  • Recording Mode: Set the length of the time signal displayed in Recording mode.
    By default, the IR mode is set to 5s.

MM IR-Define Measurements

The Measurement Definition screen is the final preparatory screen before the actual measurement. This screen consists of list of Measurement Sequences (highlighted in red), Mode and Parameter configuration (highlighted in yellow), and list of Resulting Sequence measurement (highlighted in green).

Steps to configure Measurement Definition:

  1. On the Measurement Configuration screen, go to Measurement Sequences section and click on the (+) button.
    By default, project-specific Generator settings are assigned to each new Measurement Configuration, after which you can configure distinct Generator settings for each Measurement Configuration.
  2. On the Mode selection allows you to change the settings of the specified measurement.
    Possible measurement modes are:

    • Step through all speakers: play back signal through each speaker sequentially
    • Step through all groups: play back signal through all groups sequentially, parallel through all speakers in one group
    • Step through selected speakers: play back signal through each speaker or group selected in list
    • All speakers in parallel: play back signal through all speakers at once
    • Selected speakers in parallel: Play back signal in parallel through all speakers/groups selected in list.
      The resulting sequence of the currently select measurement is display on the right (green rectangle)
  3. Once you have configured all the measurements, click on Start Measurement Session to activate the measurement mode.
    This opens a new measurement window.
  4. On the Measurement Setting dialog box, enter the session name, add a Note (optional) and click Ok.
    If you want to optimize the measurement order select Optimize measuring order and enter the session name. The optimization of the measurement order applies when several sequences with different loudspeakers are defined for at least one rotating microphone.
    – If no optimization is applied, the measurement will be performed independently for each sequence, resulting in the rotation of the microphone over all the seats within each sequence.
    – When optimization is applied, all the measurements that are linked to a seat position are performed one after the other, regardless of the sequence to which they belong.

    For large numbers of sequences, this greatly minimizes the number of microphone repositioning.

Parameters set configuration is under development.

Even though you can configure different Generator Settings per Measurement Configuration, the Generator Mode will be same for all Measurement Configurations. Only at the project level, Generator Mode can be modified and same will be overwrite to all Measurement Configurations.

MM IR 2.0 – Walkthrough

The workflow of the Measurement Module is sequential.

  1. Scene Selection: Choose the scene for your measurement. This involves selecting a pre-defined scene.
  2. Speaker Configuration:  Select speaker type and arrange the speakers position within the chosen scene. Then configure the speakers.
  3. Microphone Calibration: Select microphone type and arrange the microphone position within the chosen scene. Then configure the microphones.
  4. Measurement Sequence Definition: Define one or more measurement sequences.
  5. Measurement Execution: Initiate the measurement based on the defined sequences. This might involve capturing audio data from the microphones.
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In the current version, the inspection of the result of the measurement, as well as all the postprocessing has to be done in the legacy MM IR module.

MM IR 2.0 – Speaker Configuration

Once respective scene is selected, configure the speaker configuration.

  1. Speaker Selection: The “Speaker Configuration” screen displays the chosen scene. On the left side, you’ll find a list of available speaker types.
  2. Placing Speakers: Drag and drop the desired speaker types from the list onto the scene.
    Dragging a speaker far outside the scene will delete it.
  3. Speaker List: Once placed, speakers appear in the “Speakers” list.
    By default, all speakers belong to “Group_1”. Speakers dragged onto the scene are added to the currently active group.

    The “device” column of the list allows for the assignment of the following modes to a speaker:
    – Master:
    The stimulus will play through the master output channel (see soundcard configuration)
    – Soundcard: Allows for the free choice of a soundcard channel in the “Output” column
    – Device: Allows for the assignment of the speaker to a device output channel (see device output mapping) for (un-) muting. The stimulus will play through the master channel.
    A mix of the modes is allowed. If any speaker is assigned to the master or device mode, it is not possible to use the soundcard output channel defined as master channel for any speaker in “soundcard” mode.
  4. Managing Speakers List:

    • Play Sound: Use this option for quick functionality checks.
    • New Group: Click the “+” button above the list  to create new groups.
    • Move Up: Use the up arrows to move speakers within the list, which can also change their group assignment.
    • Move Down: Use the down arrows to move speakers within the list, which can also change their group assignment.
    • Delete: If you want to delete any speaker from the list.

Double-click on a speaker or group name in the list to rename it. (Speaker types cannot be changed here.)

Each speaker can have its own “start frequency” set. This high-passes any signal played through that speaker. The “start frequency” can also be adjusted in the generator menu, overriding this setting.

After setting up the speakers in the “Speaker Configuration” window, click on “Microphone Configuration” to set and configure the microphones in the scene.

Trace Functionalities

The following are the functional available for the Trace configuration.

Functionalities Descriptions
Select/ Deselect All Traces At the top of the Traces view, there is a checkbox that enables you to either select or deselect all traces. When you select the checkbox at the top, all traces within the trace window will be automatically selected. Similarly, when the top checkbox is deselected, it will unselect all the traces in the trace window.

When the top checkbox in the upper trace window is selected in linking mode, it automatically selects all the traces from both the upper and lower trace windows. Similarly, when the top checkbox in the upper trace window is unselected, it will unselect all the traces from both the upper and lower trace windows.
Lock / Unlock Traces When the trace is locked, the recapture on that trace is disabled. Once unlocked the trace can be recaptured. This button toggles between locked and unlocked states.
Recapture Traces  The trace can be recaptured from the signal for the same channel using this option.
Select / Unselect Trace The trace can be made visible and hidden on the graph using this option.
Show Measurement The measurements can be shown on the graph for the trace using this option.

RTA Shortcuts

The RTA shortcut keys allow you to perform quick action using keyboard keys. Various shortcuts are implemented in the RTA module to increase efficiency and facilitate easy navigation. These shortcuts provide quick access to frequently used functions within the GTT.

You cannot open multiple windows using a shortcut.

The table below provides you detail about available shortcuts in RTA module.

Shortcuts keys Operation Shortcuts keys Operation
F2 Channels Quick Settings window. Ctrl+Delete Delete selected (highlighted) trace of highlighted chart.
F3 Generator Quick Settings window. Ctrl+Shift+Delete Delete all traces of highlighted chart.
F4 Analyzer Quick Settings window. Alt+A  Switches between Averaging Mode.
F6 Microphone Calibration window . Alt+G Start/Stop Generator.
F7 Export Settings Window Dialog. Alt+M Multiplexer Mode (Average).
F8 Import Settings Window Dialog. Alt+O Switch between Banding Mode.
F9 RTA Advanced Settings window. Alt+R Refresh average values.
Ctrl+C Perform Capture Trace action into the traces panel of highlighted chart. Ctrl+A Hide all traces of traces panel of highlighted chart.
Ctrl+E Export selected (highlighted) trace of highlighted chart. Ctrl+Shift+E Export All Traces of highlighted chart.
Ctrl+I Import Trace into the traces panel of highlighted chart. Ctrl+H Hide selected (highlighted trace) of highlighted chart.
Ctrl+Shift+C Recapture action of selected (highlighted) trace of highlighted chart. Spacebar Start/Stop Analyzer.
Ctrl+Shift+I Import List Trace into the traces panel of highlighted chart. ESC Close Floatable window.

Zoom and Scroll Controls

The following controls can be used to perform zoom and scroll functions on the graph.

Alt + MW (Zoom on Y axis) Expand the Y axis to zoom in or out of the values on the graph.
Ctrl + MW (Zoom on X axis) Expand the Y axis to zoom in or out of the values on the graph.
Shift + MW (Scroll on X axis) Scroll the visible graph along the X axis up to the visible or configured limits, that is, if the graph shows the maximum visible value in the configured X, the scroll will not be available.
MW (Scroll on X axis) Scroll the visible graph along the Y axis up to the visible or configured limits, that is, if the graph shows the maximum visible value in the configured Y, the scroll will not be available.

MW=Mouse Wheel 

Probe Point Configuration

The Probe Point functionality facilitates the streaming of data from any stage of the signal flow to GTT, enabling the analysis, recording, or reuse of the data within IVP. The primary purpose of this feature is to provide the capability to receive data from an audio object and perform real-time analysis of audio input using the Real-time Analyzer view.

Related Topics

Configure Probe Point

To enable probe points per core:

  1. Open the Device View and select the Virtual core layer of the device.
  2. Go to the Virtual core properties, select the Streaming checkbox, and set a number of probe points per core.

Only the configured number of probe points can be enabled in signal flow per core.

The configured probe points will be sent to the device using the “Send Device Config” feature. This configuration can be fetched from the device using the “Load Device Config” feature.

In order to utilize streaming for state variables, it is necessary to enable this feature. However, considering its resource-intensive nature, this high configuration feature can be skipped to ensure optimal utilization of MIPS and memory. The count of probe points specifically pertains to audio streams and a maximum of 16 probe points are supported for a core.

If Streaming is disabled for the core, the number of probe points input field will be disabled, and streamable state variables will be excluded for that core in the streaming window.

Add Probe Point

The Probe Point context menu for selected connections has the below options:

  • Add: The feature allows you to add a probe point on a selected connection source point. Additionally, the default state of the probe point is set to the enabled state.

To add a probe point on the virtual connection:

  • Right-click on the virtual connection > Probe Point > select Add.

    After adding probe points, the source point pin connection will be visually highlighted with a bright purple-colored icon.
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Remove Probe Point

  • Remove: You can remove a probe point from the selected connection.

To remove the probe point from the virtual connection:

  • Right-click on the virtual connection > Probe Point > select Remove.
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  • State: You can alter the state of the probe point on a selected connection.
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Enable Change the probe pin state to enable and the pin will be highlighted with a bright purple color icon. A purple circle with white circles Description automatically generated with low confidence
Disable Change the probe pin state to disable and the pin will be highlighted with grey dark purple color icon.

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Manage Probe points

Open the Probe point management window through the ‘Manage probe Points’ ribbon button.

The Manage Probe Points allows you to enable or disable probe points and edit probe point names in the Probe Point Management window.

In the Probe Point Management window, the probe points are organized in the following order.

  1. Device [Device address]
  2. Virtual Core name
  3. Instance [Sample Rate]
  4. Audio Object Name [Block- Id]

Additionally, the State, Pin Label, and Probe point names are displayed for each probe point.

This window will consistently stay synchronized with the probe point states in the Signal Flow Designer.

After making all the necessary modifications, click Save to persist edited probe point names.

Configure probe points in RTA/IVP

  1. Open the Advanced Settings window
  2. Select Probe Points as Analyzer / Recorder / Sound outsources.
  3. Click Done.

To record the probe point signal.

Start Probe Point Streaming

Pre-requisites:

  • Make sure to enable the Probe Point feature for the core.
  • Ensure that the number of active probe points is set correctly.
  • Ensure that the Probe Points used in the IVP configuration are correctly configured as a source (Analyzer, Recorder, etc).
  • Start Plugin Host and establish a connection with the device.

Use IVP Block Length <= 512 for probing to avoid frame dropping.

Once you have configured as per the above pre-requisites, click on the Probe Point to start.

Example of Streamed data.

Device Reboot

When you click on a “Reboot” button, the device will restart. During the reboot process, the plugin host will go through a shutdown sequence and then start up again.
After the reboot, the plugin host will return to its previous state.

Advanced Analyzer Settings

Click on the “Analyzer Settings” to open the advanced RTA setting dialogue box. Here you can configure different analyzer settings.

By default, the Auto-Completion is enabled, and allows auto-filling of sources for Analyzer channels and Routings.

The following modifications can be made in the Analyzer setting window using the channels list:

  • Source: This defines the input of a certain analyzer channel. By clicking on the control, a context menu pops up from which the desired source can be chosen.

    If there is no input available, “None” will be shown as the source by default.

  • Name: Enter the name of an analyzer channel. This name appears in the channel viewer and will be set as a default name when storing measurements as traces.
  • Calib[db]: When a channel is being calibrated for a certain microphone, the determined value appears here. It can also be overwritten by entering a desired value. The unit is “dBFS”; the analyzer input stream will be scaled by this value. Based on the microphone calibration unit, this unit will be set. The same unit will be suffixed to the Y-axis unit for the Spectrum mode graph. Examples: dBFS(RMS), dBSPL(RMS) etc.
  • AvgCH: When the analyzer is in “Multiplexer” mode, this control determines to which “Average” channel the analyzer source is added. When the channel is “0,” it is not included; when it is “1” or “2,” it is added to “Average-1” or “Average-2,” respectively.

    Channels 17 and 18 are reserved for the “Average” channels. Here, only the name can be edited.

  • Delay: Add or subtract time delay in milliseconds. In Phase measurement, we can add/subtract time delay to compensate for HW and/or acoustic delay.
  • Compensate Mic:  If this flag is enabled and the analyzer source is Sound-In, its respective compensation files will be considered for magnitude curve correction.

Additional Analyzer settings


FFT Settings

The length of the FFT, which is used for the spectrum calculation, can be set between starting from 4096 up to 131072 samples (4k to 128k). The higher the value, the finer the frequency resolution of the spectrum. But with increasing lengths, the CPU load will increase due to the higher number of calculations and data to plot.

You can specify how a finite data set is extracted from the roughly infinite input data stream using the “FFT Window”. The “FFT Length” determines how the data set is cut out. For more details about windowing, refer to the Window Functions.
“Hann” will be the default value for the FFT window. The Weighting function allows you to select how the input signal is weighted across the frequency range. These support A, B, C, and D weightings. For more details about weighting, refer to the A-weighting.

Weighting is also available in Live values. If both weightings are selected, the weighting selected in spectrum settings is applied first, followed by the weighting selected in Live values. If you would like to monitor the live values independently of the spectrum weighting, please select the spectrum FFT Freq Weighting as Flat.

The FFT Averaging setting defines how averaging is applied to the signal, determining how spectral data is smoothed over time. RMS and FFT averaging are always linked together.

  • Fast: Small averaging time constant and hence only a small amount of smoothing.
  • Slow: Large averaging time constant and hence significant smoothing.
  • Forever: Extreme averaging time constant.
  • Custom: User-defined averaging time constant.

Average Settings

Mode Average: This setting defines how averaging is applied to the signal, determining how spectral data is smoothed over time.

  • Time: In “Time” mode, the analyzer works as a multiplexer. It combines multiple input audio signals into one audio signal by dividing the input channels into equal fixed-length time slots and mixing them into a common output channel with fading between channels. The length of the time slots and the fading characteristic can be configured during runtime. The output signal is the signal of one input channel at a time. If the last input channel is reached, the next input channel will be the first input channel again. Since in this mode only one or two spectrums are calculated, it can be used when CPU load is an issue.
    Activating the multiplexer mode to “Time” allows you to set the length of a time slice (referred as “Period Time”) and the time duration for fading one channel into the next (referred to as “Fade Time”).
  • Frequency (Power): Averages the power spectrum across frequency bins. Power averaging is performed in the linear domain, ensuring accurate representation of total energy distribution in the frequency spectrum.
  • Frequency (dB/Linear): Averaging of decibel values treats all sounds equally, unlike power averaging, which gives more weight to louder sounds. This ensures that higher-level measurements shift the average level without significantly altering the curve’s overall shape, making it useful for analyzing relative variations without bias toward louder components.

Live Values (RMS)

Applies standardized frequency weighting to match human hearing perception. These support A, B, C, and D weightings. For more details about weighting, refer to the A-weighting.

Make sure to keep the FFT Freq Weighting as ‘Flat’ in Spectrum settings to impact only the Live Ribbon RMS values and not the graph.

Peak Hold

Peak hold trace allows the analyzer to display a secondary live trace for each channel, showing the highest amplitude values for each frequency. This feature helps to mark the highest amplitude reached at each frequency.

By default, all the peak traces will be disabled. This can be enabled using the checkbox available in the Live Values group for the selected channel.

Click “Delete” in the data context menu of the peak trace in the trace list to reset it. When a peak trace is deleted, the database also deletes the current peak trace and creates a new one.

  • Custom: Sets the hold time to user-defined in milliseconds.
  • Forever: Holds the peak values until the Reset button in the ribbon bar is clicked.

Clipping

Clipping occurs when the input signal exceeds the full-scale range of the input sound device.  The Analyzer detects clipping by checking if at least two consecutive amplitude values in the time domain exceed a threshold of +-0.999999f. If a signal is clipped, it will be indicated on the top right of the graph, as shown below.

Clipping Detection mode includes:

  • Off: Disables clipping detection.
  • On: Enables clipping detection.

Plugin Host Setting

The Plugin Host is a host for virtual amp dll. The Plugin Host supports up to 3 instances of plugins (virtualAmp.dll in 64-bit), which are executed in series.

The block sizes and sample rate will be determined by the sound card settings and will be applied to all plugins. If the block size of the device/instance does not match the plugin’s block size, the plugin needs to internally handle the block size conversion.

The Virtual Amp does not support sample rate conversion in the current version. If a sample rate conversion is attempted, an error message will be displayed, and the processing will be stopped.

Steps to Configure Plugin Host

  1. Navigate to the IVP RTA tab and select Advanced from the ribbon bar. This opens the RTA Settings dialogue box.
  2. On the RTA Settings dialogue box, select the Plugins tab.
  3. Click on the folder icon to browse the xAF library path.
  4. Set the port number under the Port box.
  5. Enable the Bypass option (optional), if you prefer the input to be passed directly to the next plugin or output without undergoing any processing.
  6. Click on Apply. The number of inputs, number of outputs, and plugin type will be automatically updated based on the provided signal flow. Similarly, you can set the remaining plugins.
    Click on Reset (optional), to set back all the values in a specific row to their default values.
  7. Go to the Routing [in] tab.
  8. Set the inputs for “Plugin Host” (such as Generator1 and Generator2). These inputs will determine the channels from the Plugin Host that will be used.
  9. Set inputs for “SoundOut” in order to route the PluginHost output channels to the sound card outputs.A screenshot of a computer Description automatically generated
  10. If you want to display the output of PluginHost in RTA (optional), go to the Analyzer tab and select Plugin Host output as the channel source.
  11. Set the Channel source (such as Generator1, Generator2, PluginHost1, and PluginHost2) to display in the chart.
  12. Once the settings have been updated, click Done.

    By default (no flash file available next to the virtualAmp.dll), the number of in-/outputs in the plugin host is -1.

    The default Port Number starts from 25001.

Connect to the device through Plugin Host

  1. Click Plugin Host.

    The Plugin host button is disabled until you select a valid plugin host.

  2. Switch to the Signal Flow Designer window, configure signal flow, and click on Send Signal Flow. A pop-up message will ask you to reboot the device.
  3. Switch to the IVP RTA tab and click Reboot.

  4. Switch to the Device Designer tab and click on Connect Device to connect to the device.
  5. A device synchronization dialogue box will appear, enable the desired synchronization option, and click Send.
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    If AmpSrv is unable to connect, close it and retry.

    Now you can perform tuning on the IVP RTA.

  6. Switch To the IVP RTA tab and click on the Generator and Analyzer option. In the graph section, the generated signal will be displayed.

  7. Click on Channels to see the values of each channel. If you want to configure the graph, click on Advance Settings and go to the Graph setting.