miniDSP UMA-8 User manual
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Important Information ...............................................................................................................................................5
System Requirements – Windows..........................................................................................................................5
System Requirements – Mac OS X..........................................................................................................................5
Disclaimer/Warning................................................................................................................................................5
Warranty Terms......................................................................................................................................................5
FCC Class B Statement ............................................................................................................................................5
CE Mark Statement.................................................................................................................................................6
Package Contents ...................................................................................................................................................6
A Note on this Manual............................................................................................................................................6
1 Product Overview ................................................................................................................................................7
2 Hardware connectivity.........................................................................................................................................8
2.1 Board overview...........................................................................................................................................8
2.2 USB (Audio + DC power).............................................................................................................................9
2.3 I2S expansion header pinouts ....................................................................................................................9
2.4 I2S overview ...............................................................................................................................................9
2.5 Additional I2S usage notes ...................................................................................................................... 10
3 Driver Installation and Configuration – Windows ............................................................................................ 11
3.1 Installation............................................................................................................................................... 11
3.1.1 Download the latest driver.............................................................................................................. 11
3.1.2 Connect your UMA-8....................................................................................................................... 11
3.1.3 USB Driver installation..................................................................................................................... 11
3.2 Configuration........................................................................................................................................... 12
3.2.1 Format ............................................................................................................................................. 12
3.2.2 Buffer settings ................................................................................................................................. 12
4 Driver Installation and Configuration – Mac OS X ............................................................................................ 13
4.1 Installation............................................................................................................................................... 13
4.2 Configuration........................................................................................................................................... 13
5 Driver Installation and Configuration – LINUX.................................................................................................. 14
5.1 ALSA Installation...................................................................................................................................... 14
5.2 Raspberry Pi............................................................................................................................................. 14
6 Software installation......................................................................................................................................... 15
6.1 Windows Installation............................................................................................................................... 15
6.2 Mac OSx Installation................................................................................................................................ 16
7 CONFIGURING DSP SETTINGS ........................................................................................................................... 17
7.1.1 UMA-8 DSP MODE........................................................................................................................... 18
7.1.2 BEAMFORMER ................................................................................................................................. 18
7.1.3 NOISE SUPRESSION.......................................................................................................................... 19
7.1.4 DE_REVERB...................................................................................................................................... 19
7.1.5 ACOUSTIC ECHO CANCELLATION (AEC)........................................................................................... 19
7.1.6 AUTO GAIN CONTROL (AGC) ........................................................................................................... 20
7.1.7 EQUALIZER SELECTION / FUTURE NOT ENABLED AT THIS TIME. .................................................... 21
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7.1.8 LOUDSPEAKER COMPRESSOR/LIMITER........................................................................................... 21
7.1.9 Direction of Arrival (DOA)................................................................................................................ 22
7.1.10 Voice Activated Detection (VAD)..................................................................................................... 23
7.1.11 Control Switches.............................................................................................................................. 23
8 USB API / Customization................................................................................................................................... 24
8.1.1 Discovery of UMA-8......................................................................................................................... 24
8.1.2 Voice Activated Detection (VAD) + Direction Of Arrival (DOA) ....................................................... 24
9 Additional Information ..................................................................................................................................... 26
9.1 Specifications........................................................................................................................................... 26
9.2 Firmware Upgrade................................................................................................................................... 27
9.2.1 Windows.......................................................................................................................................... 27
9.3 Obtaining support.................................................................................................................................... 28
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IMPORTANT INFORMATION
Please read the following information before use. In case of any questions, please contact miniDSP via the
support portal at minidsp.desk.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
•Intel Core Duo processor or greater
•256 megabytes (MB) of RAM or higher recommended
•One free USB 2.0 port
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 BSTATEMENT
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.
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•This device must accept any interference received, including interference that may cause undesired
operation.
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 UMA-8 has passed the test performed according to European Standard EN 55022 Class B.
PACKAGE CONTENTS
Your UMA-8 package includes:
•One UMA-8 USB far field microphone array module
•One USB cable for computer connectivity (1.5m)
ANOTE 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.
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1PRODUCT OVERVIEW
Thank you for purchasing a miniDSP UMA-8 USB microphone array. The UMA-8 is a high-performance yet low
cost multichannel USB microphone array built around XMOS multicore technology. Seven high-performance
MEMS microphones are configured in a circular arrangement to provide high-quality voice capture for a wide
range of applications.
Leveraging the onboard DSP processing, the UMA-8 supports voice algorithms including beamforming, noise
reduction, acoustic echo cancellation and de-reverb. Non-technical users can enjoy a plug&play experience,
while advanced users can fine-tune all DSP parameters with a realtime Win/Mac GUI for optimum performance.
The UMA-8 is a fully compliant UAC2 audio interface with driverless support for Mac/Linux and ASIO drivers for
Windows.
Depending on the loaded firmware, the UMA-8 has different modes of operation.
For the current release, the interface is running as a 2xIN (2ch Beamforming), 2 x OUT (Stereo out on I2S_OUT_0
/ Pin J3.1) configuration in the DSP mode. In the RAW mode, the unit is advertising as a 8xIN (7 x MEMS + 1 x
PDM input), 2 x OUT (Stereo out on I2S_OUT_0 / Pin J3.1).
The below sections will hopefully clarify how to install and configure the UMA-8. If any doubt/questions, feel
free to contact our technical support team.
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2HARDWARE CONNECTIVITY
2.1 BOARD OVERVIEW
The UMA-8 has few exposed headers to help for customization of the product. Note that MEMS are up-firing(
through the board) such that SW1/2/3/4 are on top.
J3.1 - I2S_OUT_0
J3.2 - I2S_IN_0
J3.3 - I2S_OUT_1
J3.4 - I2S_IN_1
J3.5 - I2S_OUT_2
J3.6 - I2S_IN_2
J3.7 - I2S_OUT_3
J3.8 - I2S_OUT_4
J3.9 - MCLK
J3.10 - I2S_BCLK
J3.11 - GND
J3.12 -
I2S_LRCLK
J2.1 - GND
J2.2 - 3.3V
J2.3 - GND
J2.4 - 3.3V
J2.5 - N/A
J2.6 - UART_TX
J2.7 - UART_RX
J2.8 -
XMOS_RST
J2.9 - I2C_SDATA
J2.10 - I2C_SCLK
J2.11 - N/A
J2.12 - N/A
90 mm
miniUSB
J9J4
J3
J3 / Audio data & clocks
J2 / Control IO pins
Bottom VIEW
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2.2 USB (AUDIO +DC POWER)
The UMA-8 is USB self powered. A single USB connection to your PC/Mac will suffice to provide power to the
unit and stream bidirectional audio simultaneously.
To record audio from the UMA-8, connect the USB port of the UMA-8 to a USB 2.0 port on your computer using
the supplied cable. The UMA-8 should also be connected for initial driver installation under Windows.
2.3 I2S EXPANSION HEADER PINOUTS
Headers J3 is provided for connection of I/O circuitry via I2S. The pinouts are shown in Table 1.
In the current firmware, only J3.1 / I2S_OUT0 is enabled as “SPEAKER OUTPUTS”
Table 1. J3 expansion header pinout
J3.1 - I2S_OUT_0
J3.2 - I2S_IN_0
J3.3 - I2S_OUT_1
J3.4 - I2S_IN_1
J3.5 - I2S_OUT_2
J3.6 - I2S_IN_2
J3.7 - I2S_OUT_3
J3.8 - I2S_OUT_4
J3.9 - MCLK
J3.10 - I2S_BCLK
J3.11 - GND
J3.12 - I2S_LRCLK
2.4 I2S OVERVIEW
I2S, or Inter IC Sound, is an electrical serial bus used to interface digital audio devices at the chip and circuit
board level. An I2S interface consists of up to three clocks, and a data line for each pair of channels. There are
three types of clock:
MCLK The master clock that the UMA-8 uses internally. This clock is always provided as an output by
the UMA-8, and connected circuitry can choose whether or not to use it.
LRCLK The frame synchronization clock, also known as the word clock. This clock is equal to the
sampling frequency (Fs) of the audio signal.
BCLK The bit clock (also known as shift clock or system clock). This is always equal to 64 x Fs.
Table 2. I2S clock ratios
Firmware
Sample Rate
Master clock (MCLK)
Bit clock (BCLK)
MCLK/LRCLK
2ch DSP
Mode
16 kHz
24.576 MHz
1.024 MHz
1536
8ch RAW
Mode
11.2/16/32/44.1/48kHz
24.576 MHz
1.024 MHz
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The timing of data lines is determined by the bit clock and the word clock, as illustrated in the following diagram:
The UMA-8 board has four I2S input data lines and four I2S output data lines, each carrying two channels of
audio. Note, however, that current firmware do not make use of all I2S in/out lines. The below table will be
updated over time as we add new features to the firmware.
Table 3. Input and output mapping
FW
Recording (PC in)
Playback (PC Out)
2ch DSP mode
8ch beamformed to 2ch
I2S_OUT0
8ch RAW mode
8ch RAW channels
I2S_OUT0
The playback output, also called “SPEAKER OUTPUTS” through out this section is to be connected to an external
I2S amplifier or I2S DAC. Feel free to contact miniDSP tech support if you have some specific questions.
2.5 ADDITIONAL I2S USAGE NOTES
Note that I2S is not a “plug and play” protocol. It requires attention to technical details such as clocking and wire
layout. It is a solution for OEMs and advanced DIYers (or professionals) with suitable knowledge, skills and
measurement equipment.
Be sure to take the following precautions when designing your I2S interface and wiring:
General I2S usage notes
•Unbuffered I2S lines must be kept short to ensure clock and data integrity.
•If driving longer lines, buffers may be required for the clock signals (MCLK, LRCLK, and BLCK).
•Observe correct grounding and shielding, and keep analog and digital grounds separated.
•Ensure that the clock ratios (as listed in Table 2) are compatible with connected circuits.
3.3V logic level
All lines use a 3.3V logic level. Ensure that connected circuits use a compatible level (1.8V, for example, will
not work).
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3DRIVER INSTALLATION AND CONFIGURATION –WINDOWS
3.1 INSTALLATION
The UMA-8 is a USB Audio Class 2.0 device. For use with Microsoft Windows, driver installation is required.
3.1.1 Download the latest driver
When you receive notification that your order has shipped, your installation software download will be available
at the User Downloads section of the miniDSP website:
http://www.minidsp.com/userdownloads
(If you are unable to access this section of the website, please login first.)
Download the installation zip file under the USB Microphone array series heading and unzip the folder on your
PC.
3.1.2 Connect your UMA-8
In order to automatically detect the UMA-8 during driver installation, connect the UMA-8 to your PC and power
it on before going to the following step.
3.1.3 USB Driver installation
1. Connect the UMA-8 to the computer using the supplied USB cable, and power it on.
2. Navigate to the WinDrivers folder of the software download and double-click on the appropriate installer:
•miniDSP_UAC2_v3.34.0_ForWin7_8_10.exe for Windows 7, 8, and 10
We recommend accepting the default installation location. Once the driver installation completes, click the
Finish button.
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3.2 CONFIGURATION
To configure the UMA-8, open the USB Audio Control Panel (from Start Menu -> miniDSP Ltd -> UAC2 Control
Panel). It has several panes, described below.
3.2.1 Format
This panel selects the input and output data format.The screenshot here shows the DSP mode.
3.2.2 Buffer settings
The buffer settings are for those looking to optimize buffering and latency settings. Note that changing these
settings may result in unstable operation. For example, the lowest latency settings require high amounts of CPU
and memory, and may not work on some machines. If you do not require lowest latency, we recommend that
you do not depart from the default safe settings.
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4DRIVER INSTALLATION AND CONFIGURATION –MAC OS X
4.1 INSTALLATION
Mac OS X has native support for USB Audio class 2.0 devices, so no driver installation is required. The UMA-8 will
automatically be detected by Mac OS X as a compliant multichannel USB audio interface.
4.2 CONFIGURATION
Open the program Audio MIDI Setup (in Applications->Utilities). The UMA-8 will appear automatically in the list
on the left hand side, as a miniDSP micArray XVSM UAC2.0
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5DRIVER INSTALLATION AND CONFIGURATION –LINUX
5.1 ALSA INSTALLATION
The UMA-8 is a fully compliant UAC 2 (USB Audio Class) device. While miniDSP’s technical support team
unfortunately can’t provide email/phone support for Linux due to the large number of distributions, we know
from experience that the UMA-8 is Plug&Play with Alsa 2.0 drivers. For more information/support on ALSA
driver, please consult ALSA project.
5.2 RASPBERRY PI
The UMA-8 was tested to be plug&play with AlexaPi. A complete app note with step by step instructions to build
your DIY Alexa speaker is provided at the following link.
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6SOFTWARE INSTALLATION
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.
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 “UMA-8” at the link below:
•https://www.minidsp.com/support/redeem-coupon
To access the download, you will need to be logged into the miniDSP.com website with the account you created
when purchasing. The User Downloads link is visible from the dropdown menu at the top right of the website
page:
Navigate to the UMA-8 section and download the zip file. Unzip the downloaded file: on Windows, right-click
and select “Extract All...”; on Mac, double-click.
6.1 WINDOWS INSTALLATION
The miniDSP software requires that other frameworks are installed for it to work. For Windows 7 and later,
these packages should be installed automatically by the miniDSP installer.
For Windows XP and Vista, please download and install the following frameworks before attempting to install
any miniDSP software:
•Microsoft .NET framework (version 3.5 or later)
•Latest version of Adobe Air
•Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable Package: for x86 (32-bit operating system) or x64 (64-bit operating
system)
To install the plugin:
3. Navigate to the Windows folder of the software download.
4. Double-click on the Mic-Array.exe installer program to run it. We recommend that you accept the default
installation settings.
5. The plugin will start automatically if you accepted the default installation settings. To make it quicker to run
in future, right-click on its icon in the taskbar and select “Pin to taskbar.”
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Note 1: The Adobe Air framework may need to connect to the Internet the first time you run the plugin.
Note 2: The first time you run the plugin, you may see a warning from Windows Firewall asking whether the
software should be allowed network access. If you do, ensure that “Private networks...” is checked and “Public
networks...” is not checked. Then click on “Allow access.”
6.2 MAC OSX INSTALLATION
To install the plugin:
6. Navigate to the Mac folder of the software download.
7. The installer program is named MicArray.pkg. To run it, double-click on it, or right-click and open as
described below. We recommend that you accept the default installation settings.
8. To run the plugin, locate Mic-Array.app 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.
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7CONFIGURING DSP SETTINGS
The UMA-8 is a versatile microphone array which can operate in 2 modes:
•DSP mode: The 7 MEMS are beamformed to a 2ch signal for the PC. Advanced settings of the GUI are
available for control. Audio output is 16kHz. A stereo output is being sent to the I2S_OUT0 (J3.1header). A
3rd party external board is therefore required to output analog audio(e.g. I2S amplifier module or I2S DAC
module)
•RAW mode: 8ch of audio (7ch coming from the MEMS microphone + 1 ch from spare PDM input) are
available as raw audio (non processed). Sample rates are available as 11.2/16/32/44.1/48kHz.
Note that in RAW mode, the UMA-8 will output the RAW signal from the MEMS without any digital gain
(typically applied in 2ch DSP mode). You may require your own application to boost the signal.
The below information will highlight settings for the DSP mode. In the RAW mode, no processing is enabled and
no configuration is available.
NOTE: The UMA-8 MicArray tool targets advanced users looking for customization (E.g. DSP features) and some
settings might render the UMA-8 unusable. In the event that you’d like to “Restore to default” settings, follow
this operation:
1) Unplug USB 2) Press Switch 2&3 (SW2&3 on top of board) 3) Plug USB again.
The below GUI is a real time interface which will sync onboard setting when you CONNECT to the board.
Any changes/modifications are real time and will be stored on the onboard flash for subsequent reboots.
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7.1.1 UMA-8 DSP MODE
Bypass_on [0,1] / Modes for DSP processing
0: normal operation / Both microphone processing and speaker processing is enabled
1: bypass microphone processing, speaker processing remains
2: pure bypass where both the speaker processing AND microphone processing is disabled
Mic_shift [0..4]: left shift of microphone input signal can be used to boost the gain of the MEMS. Use this
caution as it could create internal DSP saturation*/
7.1.2 BEAMFORMER
The UMA-8 is using a 2ch highly directive end-fire beamformer to isolate voice from noise. The beamformer uses
a time-frequency adaptive LMS algorithm with differential microphone pre-processing. The beamformer is
suitable for non-stationary sound stations, and integrates seamlessly with AEC and NS algorithms.
BF: [0, 1]: 0: Beamformer off, Beamformer 1: on
BF_direction: [0..3]: 0: 360 degree , 1: end-fire 1, 2: end-fire 2, 3: line array
BF_focus [0..10]:Beamformer focus controls the endfire polar pattern of the microphone. See below for chart
BF_diffgain_dB; /* [-20..0]: diffuse sound gain [dB] controls the de-reverb processing.
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7.1.3 NOISE SUPRESSION
This setting controls the Noise Suppression algorithm for up to 20dB of Noise Reduction.
NS: [0, 1]: 0: off, 1: on */
NS_attlimit_dB: [-20..0]: noise attenuation in dB
7.1.4 DE_REVERB
The De-reverb technology removes room reverberation effects .It gives the feeling the talker is closer to the
microphone and can remove up to 20dB of non –stationary reverb.
rvb_on; /* [0, 1]: 0: off, 1: on */
rvb_attlimit_dB; /* [-20..0]: reverb attenuation in dB */
7.1.5 ACOUSTIC ECHO CANCELLATION (AEC)
The onboard AEC block can be used to remove echo during.
aec_on; /* [0, 1]: 0: off, 1: on */
aec_delay_ms; /* [-1, 0..30]: -1: auto, 0..30 AEC delay [ms] */
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aec_strength; /* [0..10]: Echo suppression strength */
aec_nonlin; /* [0..10]: non-linearity modeling */
aec_lecho_offset_dB;/* [-80..0]: late echo estimation offset [dB] */
aec_lecho_len_ms; /* [0..400]: late echo length time constant [ms] */
aec_force_thr_dB; /* [-80..0]: threshold below which echo removal is put to maximum */
aec_noise_thr_dB; /* [0..40]: when ERLE < aec_noise_thr, then noise echo is not cancelled */
aec_dt_thr_dB; /* [0..40]: when ERLE > aec_dt_thr in dB, then doubletalk release will be disabled */
aec_dt_release_dB; /* [0..24]: during near-end and doubletalk echo removal is released [dB] */
aec_dt_att_limit_dB;/* [-80..0]: maximum echo attenuation when ERLE < aec_dt_thr [dB] */
aec_no_adapt; /* [0, 1]: 0: aec echo path estimation on, 1: set echo path to aec_gain */
aec_init_gain_dB; /* [-60..20]: echo path initial gain (if aec_noadapt then update aec gains to aec_gain) [dB]
*/
7.1.6 AUTO GAIN CONTROL (AGC)
This setting adjusts tge microphone level to maintain the desired target. It’s handy setting to insure that a
constant level is achieved. Note that the AGC takes a bit of time to adapt to environment and train its settings.
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