SavantGarde

The short version: Dirac Live isn't supposed to find any audio outputs – only inputs. The audio is output from the Processor plugin. The longer version: The error message "No devices found." means that Dirac Live (the measurement application) is unable to find the Dirac Live Processor (the convolver plugin). In order for Dirac Live to be able to find the Processor, the latter must first be running in a suitable host such as Reaper, which you seem to have access to. When Dirac Live has connected to the Processor plugin (running in e.g. Reaper) you will be shown a list of all available recording devices and should be able to select the UMIK-1. The audio output is not selected in Dirac Live, but in the host application running the Processor plugin. The Dirac Live application remotely controls the Processor plugin, telling it to output test tones using the output device selected in your host application (e.g. Reaper), i.e. the audio is output from the Processor and not from Dirac Live. If using Reaper, arm the input track for recording by clicking the track-button with the little circle on it so that it turns red. If using another host you may have to play an audio file to the Processor during measurement as detailed here: https://live.dirac.com/processor-step-by-step/ Note: If you use Reaper as a host for the Processor (as I do) you will of course have to route audio from your playback software to Reaper using e.g. Soundflower. To avoid this you could try using playback software that supports audio production plugins, e.g. JRiver Media Center or Audirvana (maybe Roon supports this too). Hope this helps. Otherwise you might try the step-by-step I linked above or contact Dirac support.

Yes, the Dirac website looks nice, but it's next to impossible to find what you're looking for there. That said, I've managed to find out that you can buy a perpetual license, or get a free 14-day trial license, from here: https://live.dirac.com/pro-audio/ and you can download the standalone measurement application "DiracLive" as well as the plugin "DiracLiveProcessor" from here: https://live.dirac.com/download/ . In order to use the DLP you will then have to register your license at your Dirac user account here: https://live.dirac.com/login/ and then run the DLP plugin in a suitable host, such as Reaper (Audirvana and JRiver Media Center probably works too). When you've managed to get that far you have to run the standalone DiracLive application and select the DLP as your device, as well as log in to your user account from the application. You can then proceed to take the needed measurements and create filters that is then uploaded to the DLP plugin running in the host application. When you're finished, you can close the measurement application and use the DLP plugin as you would any other audio production plugin, until you want to add new filters to it.

A new version of the measurement- and filter-creation part of the software (version 2.2.0) was released earlier this week. The main difference seems to be that the stereo image is now skewed heavily to the right instead of to the left.

I'm also trying out the new Dirac Live and have made three nine-point measurements, so far. Two of them resulted in filters that distorted the stereo image (bass instruments, such as timpani moved heavily to the left) but one of them seems to have been successful with no significant changes to the stereo image. Unfortunately I can't think of any difference between the three measurement sessions that might explain the differences in result.

I asked Damien and he tells me this occurs due to a transient issue with the OS X/macOS kernel sometimes giving higher priority to another process (a design flaw in the kernel, he says), thus stalling audio playback. When playback has been stalled for too long Audirvana restarts audio streaming, resulting in the log messages given above. Setting Audirvana's priority to "Extreme" could help, he says, but it's not guaranteed. I guess this is why Linux distributions lets one install a low-latency or realtime kernel. Unfortunately I don't think that's possible with OS X/macOS.

I also have audio drop-outs now and then and when it happened just now I though to check the log and found the exact same two messages as the ones you found. I only have these drop-outs a couple of times per week, some days there is none. It doesn't seem to have anything to do with a lack of memory or processing capacity. By the way, if I turn off Direct Mode these drop-outs become accompanied by distortion. When using Direct Mode, Integer Mode 2 seems to result in the least amount of these drop-outs.

The options "Preserve album dynamics" and "All tracks equal loudness" have nothing to do with compression effects, they just indicate whether volume normalisation should be performed on a per-album or per-track basis. The former preserves loudness differences originally present between album tracks (as intended by the producer), the latter doesn't, which might come in handy with e.g. mixed playlists. To the best of my knowledge, Audirvana Plus never adds dynamic compression, nor limiting, to the audio stream.

… or maybe the mystery of cognitive science .

The latest version seems to use "Exclusive access mode" (hog mode) even if it is deselected in the Audirvana Preferences. Exclusive access mode doesn't work with aggregate devices. (Next time, consider using Shift-⌘-3 instead of photographing your screen …)

I have the same problem with albums that contain both mono and stereo tracks.

Not software related: the Swedish Nobel committee can't find him either …

I still have this issue with beta 17 (when streaming from Tidal).

Yes!

Early versions of A+ Remote and Audirvana Plus 2 didn't cause the screens to wake up when using the Remote app. It was introduced as a feature to solve a problem some users were having with their computers going to sleep. I and, as it seems, others have never had this problem and I would thus like to have this feature made optional. For comparison, JRemote communicates very well with JRMC without waking any screens.

Excellent!