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EQ Software for Windows, Linux, macOS, iOS/iPadOS and Android.

Head_Unit

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As far as iOS, is there any user-controllable EQ that will actually affect the sound? I don't mean the preset crap in the menu, but something where you could fine tune a parametric or even graphic...and that would modify all sources whether Apple Music or SiriusXM etc etc. I like my AirPod Pros* but they could use like 1-2 dB upper mid boost I feel
*they are the ONLY thing that maintains a consistent seal on my ears, and I've tried so many. So no I'm not going to try other 'phones for better sound, I'm done with that.
 

DeLub

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As far as iOS, is there any user-controllable EQ that will actually affect the sound? I don't mean the preset crap in the menu, but something where you could fine tune a parametric or even graphic...and that would modify all sources whether Apple Music or SiriusXM etc etc. I like my AirPod Pros* but they could use like 1-2 dB upper mid boost I feel
*they are the ONLY thing that maintains a consistent seal on my ears, and I've tried so many. So no I'm not going to try other 'phones for better sound, I'm done with that.
Unfortunately: No.

You could try creating a "fake" audiogram and using the headphone accommodations, but I doubt it will bring you where you want to get.
 

Backflash

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..so I'm able to use ASIO output in my player (which is MusicBee), which loops back to input channels in my DAW (which is Bitwig), which hosts the plugins and also uses ASIO for SPDIF output to my DAC.

General Windows audio is also able to go through this loopback, which means I have one point for full system equalization on all sources (this includes all other external sources that arrive at the audio interface: vinyl, cassette, R2R, mixing consoles etc) with monitoring outputs (speakers, headphones) having individual EQ profiles.
Got, probably, a silly question, do I have to run DAW constantly for it to overtake my Windows mixer? So I can run an EQ replacement for EQ APO?
I want to try and fix my IR and phase, is it possible to do system wide? As I understand it EQ APO can't do that.
 

N9R

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Got, probably, a silly question, do I have to run DAW constantly for it to overtake my Windows mixer? So I can run an EQ replacement for EQ APO?
I want to try and fix my IR and phase, is it possible to do system wide? As I understand it EQ APO can't do that.

In my case, yes, the DAW is running all the time. I have automation tools that make that easy to manage though. A DAW is not required to use plugins, of course; I believe Equalizer APO can host VST plugins itself. My listening space is also a recording studio, so for me it just makes sense for the DAW to be the place where everything is integrated.

I don't personally have any experience with phase correction - my monitors are active and my sub is equidistant to the listening position, so have no requirement for it.
 

Grumple

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Great list! But, I seem to be having an issue that maybe someone can help with? The Equalizer APO seems to introduce something akin to "pumping". It's very irritating, because the sound is very appealing but there seems to be some amplitude variation? that is driving me mad. I don't think I'm imagining it, but of course I could well be.

Anyone else experienced this? Or something similar? The only thing I can compare it to is the pumping you sometimes used to get from dodgy cassette playback.
 
OP
Doodski

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Can you provide a example of a pumpy sorta track?
 

batou069

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Hi, I'm new to EQing and the pro interfaces I see now that I try to EQ like mixers etc...
I don't seem to get EQ on mac working properly...

MacBook Pro 13" 2020, 2.3GHz i7 running Monterey 12.1

I first tried using BlackHole -> Reaper > MathAudio Headphone EQ but this made the sound stutter/hickup every 5s, especially when outputting to BT (Fiio UTWS3), but also when the output is to the Aune T1 via USB.

Am now trying BlackHole -> AU Lab with the AUNBandEQ plugin but for some reason I don't even hear something with this one.
Adding some screenshots hopefully someone recognizes an issue

1642576047809.png


1642576175202.png
 
Last edited:

cottonballs

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Thanks for this impressive list! I was wondering if you mentioned Audacity here and what would you think of it. I managed to dig out the sound of horrible holes there.
 
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Doodski

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Thanks for this impressive list! I was wondering if you mentioned Audacity here and what would you think of it. I managed to dig out the sound of horrible holes there.
I don't see a EQ/PEQ function in Audacity. I checked the features and found nothing. This webpage list is a EQ/PEQ list and to start adding mixers and stuff like that gets out of the realm of the list. :D
 

just_unreal

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Hi, I'm new to EQing and the pro interfaces I see now that I try to EQ like mixers etc...
I don't seem to get EQ on mac working properly...

MacBook Pro 13" 2020, 2.3GHz i7 running Monterey 12.1

I first tried using BlackHole -> Reaper > MathAudio Headphone EQ but this made the sound stutter/hickup every 5s, especially when outputting to BT (Fiio UTWS3), but also when the output is to the Aune T1 via USB.

Am now trying BlackHole -> AU Lab with the AUNBandEQ plugin but for some reason I don't even hear something with this one.
Adding some screenshots hopefully someone recognizes an issue
Hello
just in case you still need support on this
had the same issue you describe and I spent lot of hours to figure it out and nearly despaired :facepalm:
main problem with AU Lab is that it never asks for microphone usage permission and unfortunately it can't be forced to do it
instead you can try AU Hosting which works fine in combination with blackhole and AUNBandEQ

Bildschirmfoto 2022-02-26 um 14.07.24.png
Bildschirmfoto 2022-02-26 um 14.10.09.png
Bildschirmfoto 2022-02-26 um 14.24.45.png
 

Spider

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I tried to purchase Boom 3D, & it sounded great with 3D surround turned on, but I eventually uninstalled it because it wouldn't function with my WhatsApp, Skype & Messenger using Bluetooth Headset, but music-wise it was great, too bad.:confused:
 

xpop

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Hi, I'm new to EQing and the pro interfaces I see now that I try to EQ like mixers etc...
I don't seem to get EQ on mac working properly...

MacBook Pro 13" 2020, 2.3GHz i7 running Monterey 12.1

I first tried using BlackHole -> Reaper > MathAudio Headphone EQ but this made the sound stutter/hickup every 5s, especially when outputting to BT (Fiio UTWS3), but also when the output is to the Aune T1 via USB.

Am now trying BlackHole -> AU Lab with the AUNBandEQ plugin but for some reason I don't even hear something with this one.
Adding some screenshots hopefully someone recognizes an issue

View attachment 180115

View attachment 180117
Hello batou069, working fine for me.
System preference - Sound - BlackHole as output
Utilities - Midi and Andio Configuration - Integrated Input (or USB DAC) for output
AU Lab: Audio Input is BlackHole and Audio Output as Integrated Input (or USB DAC) for output

Screenshot attached (french MacOS 11.6.4)
 

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just_unreal

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it seems that this no longer works on Monterey, perhaps they will fix this some day
 

NoSnakeOil2

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Any suggestions are welcome. Post suggestions here. I will gather the details and add them. Thanks. :D This will be organized as results come in.
@sweetchaos made a guide for PEQ filter data input and operation.
For crossover software go here.

Windows:
Equalizer APO is a parametric / graphic equalizer for Windows.
Equalizer APO multichannel peakmeter.
PC Equalizer is a Graphical User Interface for "Equalizer APO" which is a parametric / graphic equalizer.
Peace equalizer is a Windows PC interface for Equalizer APO.
Mega Switcher is an Alternative GUI for Equalizer APO
MusicBee media player with EQ
Hang Loose Convolver
QRange 12 band EQ, each band can be used as peak, shelf and cut filter.
REW is free room acoustics analysis software for measuring and analysing room and loudspeaker responses.
foobar2000 is an advanced freeware audio player with EQ.
VLC is a free and open source cross-platform multimedia player w/10 band EQ.
MathAudio add-ons Room EQ VST, VST3, AU and Foobar2000 component.
Roon manages the music from all your digital sources: TIDAL, Qobuz, NAS, hard drives, iTunes, live radio and includes a parametric EQ.
Neutron Music Player audiophile-grade platform-independent 32/64-bit audio engine, parametric EQ.
CamillaDSP supported platforms: Linux, macOS, Windows.
Boom 3D Desktop 31-band equalizer, 3D surround.
Realtek HD 10 band EQ for Realtek audio chipset.
FxSound Enhancer uses EQ presets.
Sonarworks Reference 4 calibrates your studio monitors and headphones.
Waves EQ plug-ins
Equalify Pro a 3rd party desktop plug in specifically for Spotify.
ToneBoosters Equalizer 4 all-purpose dyamic equalizer with AI assist functionality.
Toneboosters TB Equalizer v3
Toneboosters Morphit hundreds of headphone profiles
Sonic Studio 3 for ASUS motherboards.
JRiver comprehensive and seamless software available for managing and playing your media.
Voicemeeter Banana virtual mixer with EQ and audio routing capabilities, integration with VST host software.
FabFilter Pro Q 3 up to 24 EQ bands, regarding setting the Q values please refer to comment #305 and #308
EKIO is a comprehensive loudspeaker management application. It lets you customize the sound of your loudspeaker system.
ARC System 3 - Acoustic Correction System 2 types to choose from.
oratory1990 is headphone specific equalization.
AutoEq uses EQ profiles to be used with EQ software.
CanOpener Studio EQ with Crossfeed plugin.
Boom3D and Boom2 10-band & 31-Band Advanced Equalizers.
HQPlayer PEQ, a convolver with impulse response files, cross-feed and multi-channel support/mixing/routing.
rePhase comes as a simple portable executable in a zip file, and does not require installation.
MEqualizer is an extremely easy-to-use and powerful 6-band equalizer.
SplitEQ parametric EQ with 8-bands and proprietary effects.
Element is a VST/AU host and comes with quite a few built in effects as well.
MFreeformEqualizer draw the equalization that you want and the plugin will make it happen.

Linux:
PulseEffects signal processing tools including parametric equalizer.
PulseEffects has been renamed EasyEffects as recent versions have moved from using pulseaudio to requiring pipewire.
JamesDSP Audio Effect Processor For PipeWire Or PulseAudio (Equalizer, Bass Boost, More).
CamillaDSP supported platforms: Linux, macOS, Windows.
Camillagui runs in the browser and handles the actual interface.
dsp is an audio processing program with an interactive mode.
Daphile is an audiophile class music server & player OS – targeted to dedicated headless PC.
moOde audio player parametric and graphic Equalizers music playback for the wonderful Raspberry Pi family of single board computers.
Volumio audiophyle music player for Rasberyy Pie.
FusionDsp a Volumio 3 plug in
Voicemeeter audio mixer application w/ virtual audio device used as virtual I/O to mix/manage any source from/to any audio devices or applications.
DSP for Volumio (previously Brutefir3)
BruteFIR - the convolution engine used by daphile, Volumio's DSP plugin, an LMS plugin and probably others, also manually configurable in a custom alsa config, JACK etc. You can also use it to make crossovers.
BrutefirDRC - the LMS plugin that uses BruteFIR running on the server, configurable per endpoint. Archimago has a howto.
Jconvolver - formerly Zita-convolver, the convolution engine used in PulseEffects, which can also be used with JACK.
Alsaequal - an equalizer you can add to the alsa config. Basic usage is a fixed band graphic equalizer, but it can be used to give a control interface to any other LADSPA plugin via the usual alsa mixer interface. The normal alsa config for ladspa plugins only allows fixed configurations, although for something like an active crossover that's probably an advantage.
REW is free room acoustics analysis software for measuring and analysing room and loudspeaker responses.
oratory1990 is headphone specific equalization.
AutoEq uses EQ profiles to be used with EQ software.
foobar2000 is an advanced freeware audio player with EQ runs under wine.

Shairport Sync uses DSP to allow the user to manually input the REW PEQ settings and save for later.
HQPlayer PEQ, a convolver with impulse response files, cross-feed and multi-channel support/mixing/routing.
Pulseaudio Parametric Equalizer is a python GUI to insert a 3 band PEQ w/ high/low shelves into the pulseaudio audio server.
Pipewire do post-processing of the sound generated by a application, a possible drop-in replacement for both Jack and Pulseaudio.
Calf plugin suite.
LSP (Linux Studio Plugins) is a collection of open-source plugins.
DeaDBeeF is a modular audio player with a 18-band graphical equalizer and other DSP plugins.

Plus there's a whole host of LADSPA plugins you can use via JACK, alsaequal, or with a fixed configuration in the alsa config file. A good example is the PE32LR parametric equalizer from the Linux Studio Plugins Project which provides the parametric equalizer for PulseEffects.

macOS: (System wide parametric EQ solutions on OSX typically rely on separate plugin hosting software and the actual plugin which does the actual equalization.)

Audio plugin hosts include:
MenuBus has a free version but is no longer actively developed.
SoundSource w/ EQ profiles for headphones from Oratory, Reference Audio Analyzer, Crinacle, Inner Fidelity & headphone.com & 20 minute trial period.****
Hosting AU with BlackHole (BlackHole: Virtual Audio Driver. Setting up the EQ details for macOS are here.) or Soundflower can be used as a system wide AU plugin host.

EQ plugins include:
MFreeformEqualizer draw the equalization that you want and the plugin will make it happen.

Waves Q10 plugin as a PEQ solution.
Voxengo PrimeEQ is a parametric EQ plugin but is not free.
Fabfilter Pro Q3 is another parametric EQ plugin, regarding setting the Q values please refer to comment #305 and #308
LAConvolver plugin is a free convolver EQ which works with impulse response WAV files.
Hang Loose Convolver
EQE is a system wide parametric equalizer on iOS but requires jailbreaking.

Element is a VST/AU host and comes with quite a few built in effects as well.
SplitEQ parametric EQ with 8-bands and proprietary effects.
MathAudio add-ons Room EQ VST, VST3, AU and Foobar2000 component.
Rogue Amoeba SoundSource headphone profiles from headphones.com and Crinacle + others.
QRange 12 band EQ, each band can be used as peak, shelf and cut filter.
REW is free room acoustics analysis software for measuring and analysing room and loudspeaker responses.
foobar2000 is an advanced freeware audio player with EQ.
VLC is a free and open source cross-platform multimedia player w/10 band EQ.
CamillaDSP supported platforms: Linux, macOS, Windows.
Universal Audio Equalizer for Mac OS X
Boom 3D Desktop 31-band equalizer, 3D surround.
eqMac 10 band EQ.
Sonarworks Reference 4 calibrates your studio monitors and headphones.
Audirvana can do bit-perfect and exclusive access but can't do system level hosting.
Audio Hijack can host system level DSP, including those EQs.
ToneBoosters Equalizer 4 all-purpose dyamic equalizer with AI assist functionality.
Toneboosters TB Equalizer v3
Toneboosters Morphit hundreds of headphone profiles.
FabFilter Pro Q 3 up to 24 EQ bands.
oratory1990 is headphone specific equalization.
CanOpener Studio EQ with Crossfeed plugin.

AU Lab the download link is at the bottom of the page.
Boom3D and Boom2 10-band & 31-Band Advanced Equalizers.
HQPlayer PEQ, a convolver with impulse response files, cross-feed and multi-channel support/mixing/routing.
Soundsource Per-App Audio Effects with the built-in 10-band equalizer.
MEqualizer is an extremely easy-to-use and powerful 6-band equalizer.

iOS/iPadOS:
SoundID by Sonarworks, uses Reference 4 profiles.
foobar2000 is an advanced freeware audio player with EQ.
Neutron Music Player Audio player with EQ.
KaiserTone Audio Player +HiRes with up to 30 band EQ.
iPeng for IOS (iPhone, iPad, Apple watch support) as player for the squeezeboxserver/Logitech Media Server.
AUM Audio Mixer plugin host, recorder, and connection hub. Multi-channel interface support, busses, fx sends, built-in PEQs.
Toneboosters Morphit headphones correction plug-in with studio reference equalization.

Android:
SpotEQ31 31 Band Equalizer For Left & Right Side. More details ae here.
Neutron Music Player an advanced music player with audiophile-grade platform-independent 32/64-bit audio.
Wavelet is headphone specific equalization or use a 9 band EQ.
USB Audio Player PRO supporting USB audio DACs playing up to 32-bit resolution at any sample rate & MQA decoder, in app purchase available for PEQ!
Music Equalizer EQ 10 band equalizer.
Viper4Android a system-wide convolution based equalizer.
JamesDSP 10 Band Hybrid Equalizer.
Equalizer FX. Pro 5 band EQ with effects.

Neutralizer
Dolby Atmos
SoundID by Sonarworks, uses Reference 4 profiles.
Poweramp Equalizer based on Poweramp player.
foobar2000 is an advanced freeware audio player with EQ.
HiBy Music 10 band graphic EQ, lossless/lossy audio format support.
For Android, I use RE Equalizer. Still looking for something that works well on Google Chrome.
 

scribley0

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Excellent EQ APP list - much appreciate your hard work on that. Can I ask please, because I am a little confused with the buzzwords, how ASIO fits in with all this? I have a Topping DX7Pro feeding a pair of JBL306Mk2's. My main sources are FLAC files on a W10 PC + Spotify + in a fairly lively room. How best to tweek things and with which package?
 
OP
Doodski

Doodski

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Excellent EQ APP list - much appreciate your hard work on that. Can I ask please, because I am a little confused with the buzzwords, how ASIO fits in with all this? I have a Topping DX7Pro feeding a pair of JBL306Mk2's. My main sources are FLAC files on a W10 PC + Spotify + in a fairly lively room. How best to tweek things and with which package?
Install this PEQ package and then install this GUI for it. Then open Peace EQ and you'll be set. They are in the top of the list of the Windows PEQs. I am not sure what is going on with ASIO but that's for the DAC if memory serves me correctly.
 
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