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Has anyone had any luck getting the Shure MV7 USB Mic working with Ubuntu Linux?

I use Ubuntu as my primary computer, which I use a microphone for conference calls and tech podcasts on Linux. I currently use a RODE NT-USB for this purpose on Linux, but the NT-USB picks up a lot of ambient noise (since it's a condenser). When the Shure MV7 USB microphone came out, it was compelling to me because it's a high-quality dynamic USB microphone, that was touted to be able to cut out a lot of background noise. So I bought it.

However, I've been trying to use it with Ubuntu 20.04 (using the USB input) but have not been able to get it to work yet. I've also tried on another Ubuntu 16.04 system with the same results.

When I plug the Mic into the USB interface, it does show up as an available sound device in the settings. Unfortunately, the Mic reboots (alternating green and yellow lights on the device) every time I try to select the input device in the sound settings input dropdown, and then it becomes deselected after the mic reboot. Sometimes, I am able to get the selection to "stick", but no sound seems to be registered on the mic input.

This Microphone can be customized with a bit of software called Motive to configure some of the sound systems, but my understanding is that all of the settings are stored on the Mic itself (so you can use it on a computer without the software installed). While I fully expect that the Motiv software will not work on Linux, my hope is that since the settings are stored on the Mic itself, I was hoping that Linux would just detect it as a USB sound device. The mic also supposedly works on Android (which is Linux-based), IOS, and PS4, so I'd think that it would be using a pretty standard sound interface. I'm using firmware 1.1.0 on the MV7. My computer is a Dell Precision 7740.

Other USB mics (RODE NT-USB and a Logitech USB webcam/microphone) works perfectly on the same system, so I know the Linux sound system is working just fine. I'm really disappointed that the MV7 does not seem to work on Linux, where I've never had any issues with other sound devices.

I'm wondering what others have experienced with this Mic? Do you have any recommendations to get the MV7 to be usable by Linux?

arecord -l

**** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 0: ALC289 Analog [ALC289 Analog]
  Subdevices: 0/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: MV7 [Shure MV7], device 0: USB Audio [USB Audio]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
user unknown
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Joe Jasinski
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5 Answers5

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Pulseaudio seems to be interrogating the MV7 in a way that causes it to reset. As a test, try to pulseaudio --kill and then plug the MV7 in (while making sure that pulseaudio has not launched from any other sources) If you can manage switch the configuration within pavucontrol/Pulse Audio Volume Control so that it uses the profile "Multichannel Input" or "Mono Input", it should come up without going into the restart loop and let you use just about all of the mic's functions. The headphone monitor within the mic will still work, however, you will just not be able to send audio from other sources up into the mic.

Alex
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First, the MV7 worked fine on my desktop pc using Ubuntu (18.04).

After I re-plugged some USB devices, I had similar issues: connecting/disconnecting loop with the message:

1:1: usb_set_interface failed (-71)

Although the (USB) webcam and video streams were stuttering. I reverted the replugging and everything was fine again: The "fix" for me is, using a USB2 and NOT a USB3 slot for the MV7.

Looks like the USB3 issue is not only related to the MV7: https://askubuntu.com/a/1199300.

ThunderBird
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Some0ne
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0

Another approach could be using an audio interface that has an XLR input. Many audio interfaces (USB connected) just work under Linux/ Ubuntu being it via Pulsaudio/Jack/Alsa. Then hook up the microphone through the XLR connector. (You would need to buy an XLR cable and Audio interface so that is an extra cost) I have just bought this microphone and having both USB and XLR connector was the determinig factor for me to go for this mike.

Fholst
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There is a utility for the MV7 on Linux called mv7config. You should add the udev rule in the res/ folder, which will set up the microphone as an hidraw device with user access.

For anyone looking to configure the Shure MVX2U—a recent addition to the MOTIV series—I am working on a similar CLI utility, although Shure has changed the communication protocol, so I need to sniff configuration packets and then try to replicate on a Linux PC. I'm having difficulty with the last few USB packets after changing any of the microphone adapter settings, but I can read the mic configuration and change at least one setting before needing to reset the USB connection.

(Feel free to pull request if you get progress on that second link, or think about porting to WebUSB/WebHID or Android/Apple!)

Brian Wright
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We had a hit or miss experience with an MV7+ and kernel 5.10.103 on a Pi using pure ALSA. After updating the MV7+ firmware, everything works out of the box.

Mantriur
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