Not me, but investigate if that device does all those audioprocessing by itself or if you have to write software for it.
In the latter case, nevermind. That is what Matrix advertised as well. That is a nice mic to have, but no use in a noisy environment for use as a voiceAi mic.
The hardest thing to do is get accurate keyword spotting in noisy environments and I have not see a device other than the commercial devices (google/amazon etc) that can do that well on its own.
It is the one thing holding me back on using Rhasspy as my voiceAI at the moment.
The esp32-box does a pretty good job with its aec->snr->bss but even with commercial Googles voice-filter-lite does beat Amazons beamforming as it is noticeable. Esp32-box is not just hardware its software but closed source blobs but freely available.
Google with there huge resources in AI is leading the way from offline ASR the above voice-filter-lite that from a couple of words is able to do targeted speaker extraction, which I would love to get some code for.
What is weird to me though is there are examples and code out there that can be used in the projects and frameworks available there is a total absence of any integration of that tech in the crucial initial audio processing chain.
Mycroft are about to employ a beamformer (SJ201 rev 8!) and they have had a change of direction with a new CEO but still have my doubts and curious to how wide the Snips fever pandemic was.
Mark II supposedly released in September and October but still waiting to see if that happens and how use pans out.
UMA-8 is very similar to the respeaker-usb think its same chipset on a brief glance and its the same story its an isolated beamforming, aec, ns mic that just outputs an audio stream and that is as far as its integration goes as can cope with audio played but external noise from appliances, media or other voice it will not cope with as its just a fraction of the system the likes of google and amazon use.
In fact Google as said dropped that method in favour of targeted speaker extraction.
I had one in an Anker powerconf which really didn’t like Linux and its strange as I also have there c300 2 mic camera which is great for its audio pickup far field and NS but is just a webcam whilst the powerconf with multi mic array and xmos is completely inferior when its a speaker/phone ?!!!
Never tried the respeaker but generally its reviews by reasonably technical tend not to be too great either.
Give it a go if you have the cash to spare as an interest project to check what we are saying, as I have repeated myself to try and save you a couple of quid, but maybe you just want to check for yourself.
the “UMA-8 USB mic array - V2.0” device has two modes: Either it outputs all the 7 microphone channels raw (which you don’t want obviously) or you enable DSP and you then receive on a stereo audio stream after all the DSP pre-processing.
Indeed, seems similar to the “ReSpeaker Mic Array v2.0” product, but I’m a bit hesitant to try this as it looks like support is pretty poor like an abandoned product. miniDSP at least replied quickly to a first question from myself, if they also reply to my follow-up now in a satisfying way, I guess I’ll give their product a try and report back here thereafter.
Indeed, for testing I’ll use a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 which should be OK for some tests, but later on I would consider doing the actual processing beyond hot word detection on a central server like a Nvidia Jetson which should result in quicker reactions.
Anyway, I’ve ordered this miniDSP product for a test yesterday (after getting another quick reply from their support); let’s see, will report back.
yes, I can definitely NOT recommend the miniDSP UMA-8 product!
It works for some hours and then simply stops working and “hangs” until a power cycle which is obviously not acceptable for a product that ideally is capable of running 24/7.
I’ve tested that both with the Raspberry Pi on Linux as well as on a Windows 10 system - both the same.
miniDSP support replies, but is not helpful at all and just check their forum - this product seems dead for me:
I’ve ordered the ReSpeaker Mic Array v2.0 for testing as well and this at least works.
If you want a microphone array including integrated DSP functionality, this seems currently the only working product available unfortunately.
I have reSpeaker 4-mic HAT, reSpeaker 2-mic HAT on different Raspberry Pi’s, and have tried one of the other 2-mic look-alikes. They are all quite satisfactory.
But following rolyans advice I have a simple microphone on my third satellite, which works just as well at a lot lower cost.
Having said that, I really like the visual feedback provided by HermesLedControl on the RasPi 3A / reSpeaker 4-mic HAT combo
Sadly that one is not future proof. I don’t think there are working drivers for arm64 or any of the newer kernels. I don’t think the respeaker4 is worth investing in anymore
Not sure whether you are referring specifically to the reSpeaker 4-mic or HermesLedControl; or the concept of FOSS or electronic devices generally.
I agree that reSpeaker is not worth investing in - but I think for very different reason.
I was very disappointed to find that seeed had abandoned support for the reSpeaker range several years before, and you needed to downgrade OS to install the seeed drivers. I then found that HinTak has taken on the task of updating the reSpeaker drivers for newer kernels. Since then he has even been updating the official reSpeaker repository, and replied to an issue only 12 days ago. He is not actively developing, so it is likely that the driver doesn’t support 64 bit OS.
And pretty much all of the other multi-mic boards seem to be based on the same seeed driver
Similarly the HermesLedControl repository appears to have been updated within the last month.
Personally i think the “future” will be ESP32-S3 and similar chips which combine processor and ADC, with enough grunt to do the DSP on-chip.
Exactly that is what I was referring to. As far as I can see from the github issues, you need to compile a custom kernel to get 64bit support even somewhat working. Only respeaker that has “support” is the 2-mic because that does not depend on seeed drivers
Yes … then I asked myself if I need 64-bit on a Raspberry Pi that I am using as a satellite … and the answer was “no”. Probably on a Base station, but that doesn’t have a microphone/speakers, so not an issue.
I haven’t paid attention to Seeed’s USB interface reSpeakers - but other I’m pretty sure all the other models use the same driver.
Its a real shame that on the Pi there isn’t a good multichannel hat as the respeaker 4/6 mic hats show that it can be done and all that is missing is channel sync, so you don’t get the random channels you currently get with the Seeed drivers.
I find it weird that Seeed continue to sell a product that a couple of year ago they stopped supporting as EOL.
Still fixed geometry hats for software implementation especially with the geometries we have are fubar.
Aliasing with an endfire means a max spacing of somewhere in the region of 30mm and broadside 60mm max, whilst what was provided was something that looked like a mic array minus any audio engineering.
The mems mics on board are analogues and why they are on board and not just an ADC board with daughter mic boards on dupont jumpers or ribbon, so it can be used with any multichannel analogue signal is curious and makes it near impossible to provide any vibration damping and audio insulation.
Audio wise from drivers to audio engineering its devoid of any possible use and leds just sparkle to hide the fact its a piece of total c-rap.
The 2mic & the USB version are really the only audio working mics Respeaker do, but still have some pretty dodgy fixed geometries that on a hat directly on a pi provide near choice in mic positioning.
Maybe you should ask yourself again if you need 64-bit as every module from KWS, ASR to TTS use models that can be quantised to 8 bit that the 64bit neon co-processor of a Pi can operate x8 in one instruction whilst 32bit is a max of x4 and why on 64bit almost a x2 speed or load reduction is provided over 32bit with quantised models, but hey enjoy the bright lights.
Hello, I am new here, and even after reading several threads, I am completely lost on the choice of a microphone for a satellite intended to be in the main living room of the house (with potentially a little noise and often music)
frankly, I don’t know what to think and take as an audio input device anymore. In fact, I just want to know what to take at this time for the satellite to work best.
I came across some interesting comparisons (like here), but they are starting to get dated now…
and, I don’t know what to choose now?
between the different solutions and products that exist: …
@C64ever Might give you a review as for £69.99 the Anker S330 might be best value for money for a ‘speakerphone’ that you can just plug in.
The Anker soundcore is just a BT speaker as far as I know, but you have a mixture of mic only, speaker only and then the Jabra Speak 510 so its hard to understand what you are looking for?
There are microphones on all these devices, even the Anker soundcore v1, v2 and v3 (to be confirmed).
My main need is a good microphone (audio input) for the STT to work the best as possible even with other ambient noises or music.
But if there is an audio output as well, it’s better
After that, but maybe I shouldn’t dream too much.
If the whole thing is wireless (as could theoretically be done by devices like the Jabra Speak 510 to 750 or the Anker PowerConf from S3 to S500) with Bluetooth dongles, that would be the holy grail
So in my situation, the Anker PowerConf S330 is surely one of the best solution that we know is really functional by @C64ever (even if it is not wireless)
Dunno about the soundcore as prob been mentioned before but with my memory forgot (I did a quick google and looked like just a BT speaker), bluetooth often seems a struggle for users in Rhasspy as have noticed a few threads before.
I would stay away from BT and go for an easier install with USB as depending on docker/not docker and bluealsa or pulseaudio it can get a bit confusing and also the shared sdio combo wifi/bt on the pi can be a little temperamental as one thing I do remember with an airplay/spotify/Bt on a Pi project it kept disconecting and did what the documenation said and disabled onboard. I did and used an external dongle dunno what the problem is but with an external it suddenly worked flawless.
PureAudio Array Microphone Kit for Raspberry Pi 3 is just a stereo usb card with a premade 2 mic, with a closed source beamformer and KW that dunno as if anyone has ever intergrated with Rhasspy I have forgot.
ReSpeaker_Mic_Array is more expensive than the AnkerS330 but minus a speaker but functionally very similar if you add a powered speaker, do remember think it was @fastjack that it could be hissy and noisey.
PS3Eye mic is just a USB mic and has no algs to beamform or aec that you can really use with it whilst the others are ready made contianed units and its already built in.
Nothing works well with ‘other’ ambient noises or music, static filtering some do quite a good job, but conference mics are of a different design focus than smart assistant mics.
If ‘other’ means your playing media on your device its not as bad as the situation with ‘other’ devices playing media, but then again even the latest and greatest from the likes of Google and Alexa can be poor in that scenario especially the older models and Alexa.
Its really hard to say what is good as can only make a comparison as do keep testing the Google & Amazon units when they come out and likely not as good as them, but if that is good enough only your own experience can answer that.
The Respeaker 2mic hat is prob the most budget friendly, but you still need a powered speaker and the software and install can be too much hassle, whilst the Jabra/Anker its all there and just plug in and often that sways decision more than ‘barge in’ and ‘Word Error Rate’.
So its real hard and very subjective to say what is good and prob just easier to make a different criteria.
Jabra/Anker like units for minimal software and maker fiddling of just plug and play vs the Respeaker 2 mic or USB sound card for a more budget concious but far more complex software and maker build, but many actually really enjoy the maker stuff than just sourcing off the shelf.
That distinction is prob easier to make.
