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

[Doodski]

@AudioScience Enthusiast most peeps on MacOS use this. I'm not sure if it has what you need but it might. There is a 20 minutes trial on it. If the trial period ends then restart and you get another 20 minutes etc etc...

SoundSource - A Superior Sound Control

Access your Mac's audio devices, control per-app audio, and much more, all from the menu bar.

rogueamoeba.com

 

[antcollinet]

The first post of this thread explains better than I can, about system hosting and exclusive modes. Is that what you are asking?

Not as far as I can see - it mentions them but without explanation.

I also have used sound source - it can host a plugin that equalises all system sound - or you can associate the plugin with particular apps so only they are equalised - is this what you mean by system and exclusive?

 

[theREALdotnet]

Having used EQ and convolution plugins in Roon and Audirvana on the Mac for a while I’m now using Element (open source) as system-wide host. It is stable and low latency, and supports all AU and VST plugins I’ve ever encountered including Dirac Live Processor. All music apps (Roon, Audirvana, Music, Safari, etc.) use Blackhole as virtual audio device, which is the first node in the Element chain. Output is to a USB DAC, which I make “exclusive” by not giving it to any other app to use

This seems like the most versatile, cost-effective and manageable approach to me.

 

[AudioScience Enthusiast]

@AudioScience Enthusiast most peeps on MacOS use this. I'm not sure if it has what you need but it might. There is a 20 minutes trial on it. If the trial period ends then restart and you get another 20 minutes etc etc...

SoundSource - A Superior Sound Control

Access your Mac's audio devices, control per-app audio, and much more, all from the menu bar.

rogueamoeba.com

@Doodski thanks for the SoundSource recommendation, I will certainly test it to see whether it can be combined with an exclusive mode of Tidal so my DAC can see what bitrate is being fed.

 

[AudioScience Enthusiast]

Having used EQ and convolution plugins in Roon and Audirvana on the Mac for a while I’m now using Element (open source) as system-wide host. It is stable and low latency, and supports all AU and VST plugins I’ve ever encountered including Dirac Live Processor. All music apps (Roon, Audirvana, Music, Safari, etc.) use Blackhole as virtual audio device, which is the first node in the Element chain. Output is to a USB DAC, which I make “exclusive” by not giving it to any other app to use

This seems like the most versatile, cost-effective and manageable approach to me.

This "Element" app sounds intriguing, I will check it out!

One immediate question though, since Roon (which I am on Trial now to test out) has a very capable EQ feature and it does exclusive mode too, what is it about Element that beats Roon? Is it the simplicity? Also, I can see how system-wide hosting makes it one stop for all EQ other on apps like Amazon and Apple Music too.

 

[theREALdotnet]

This "Element" app sounds intriguing, I will check it out!

One immediate question though, since Roon (which I am on Trial now to test out) has a very capable EQ feature and it does exclusive mode too, what is it about Element that beats Roon? Is it the simplicity? Also, I can see how system-wide hosting makes it one stop for all EQ other on apps like Amazon and Apple Music too.

Roon doesn’t support AU or VST plugins. It has its own PEQ and convolver built-in. If you would like to use things like Dirac or any other kind of plugin you have to go external. In that case you might as well do it all with an external tool and gain the benefit of system-wide (instead of Roon-only) coverage.

 

[smale]

Now as SpotEQ is history, guess there ain't any options left for some sort of EQ on iOS (for streaming content)?

 

[bd_heart]

Hello guys,

I have Superlux HD668B headphones, plus ordered Shure SRH440 and Sennheiser HD560S. Also ordered E1DA 9038D6K. They all will be delivered soon.
I am planning to buy UAPP for my Android based smartphone too (unless you recommend a better alternative).

My question is: is the UAPP EQ fine or I should also install a separate app for EQ?
Also, I would like to try some good presets for my headphones, should I search for EQ presets specifically for UAPP or I can manually configure it using the same values specified for other EQs? (Not sure if the values are identical and fully interchangeable between EQs)
Can you advice where I can get the best options for EQ presets for my headphones? I guess I should try best presets for Harman curve and a couple of others, considered as the best.

Thank you.

P.S. Does anyone know why Oratory's page does not work?

 

[bd_heart]

One more question, concerning channel mismatch, that's an individual issue for each pair of headphones, right? What Amir had tested has nothing to do with my headphones of the same model, right?
How can I check and correct big mismatch without using any special equipment?

 

[gorman]

I would suggest using Wavelet for Android.

It even offers a way to import personalized curves in addiction of the whole AutoEQ database.

Hello guys,

I have Superlux HD668B headphones, plus ordered Shure SRH440 and Sennheiser HD560S. Also ordered E1DA 9038D6K. They all will be delivered soon.
I am planning to buy UAPP for my Android based smartphone too (unless you recommend a better alternative).

My question is: is the UAPP EQ fine or I should also install a separate app for EQ?
Also, I would like to try some good presets for my headphones, should I search for EQ presets specifically for UAPP or I can manually configure it using the same values specified for other EQs? (Not sure if the values are identical and fully interchangeable between EQs)
Can you advice where I can get the best options for EQ presets for my headphones? I guess I should try best presets for Harman curve and a couple of others, considered as the best.

Thank you.

P.S. Does anyone know why Oratory's page does not work?

 

[bd_heart]

I would suggest using Wavelet for Android.

It even offers a way to import personalized curves in addiction of the whole AutoEQ database.

Good point about possibility to simply import presets from an existing wide and good DB.
But as I remember Wave is a graphical EQ tool, I thought parametric is preferred type. Am I wrong?

 

[gwur]

Does anyone know of a free macOS option that can do parametric EQ (and ideally import from a text file generated from REW) like Equalizer APO?

I have heard that SoundSource can do this, but it costs $41USD.

I found that BlackHole and AUNBandEQ can be used as per this guide or this post and are free but when I try to put in the filter parameters the Q value is in 'octive' so then I would need to convert the Q value into 'octive' using this table?
View attachment 248328
(I also got confused by this discussion and if 1,40845 was pertinent to me)
The BlackHole / AUNBandEQ method also seems semi cumbersome but if that is the only free way to get these filters up and running on a mac then I guess its worth figuring out the Q to octave conversion.

Does anyone have other free ideas?
Or thoughts on how change from specific Q values from REW generated filters to the needed 'octive' scale?

Thanks!

Have you tried BlackHole with CamillaDSP? The links: BlackHole (https://github.com/ExistentialAudio/BlackHole), CamillaDSP (https://github.com/HEnquist/camilladsp), CamillaDSP GUI (https://github.com/HEnquist/camillagui-backend).

Same question for @AudioScience Enthusiast .

This is somewhat involved but gives a lot of flexibility that comes from CamillaDSP. Here is an example of a setup:

You'll need homebrew or Anaconda (miniconda is a decent option) to install python3, pip3, and git for the GUI. Then you'll need websocket_client, aiohttp, jsonschema, pycamilladsp, pycamilladsp-plot : that is explained on the GUI github page.

Here is an example config for CamillaDSP GUI (camillagui.yml). This config includes a couple of filters in the signal pipeline/path as an example. Change directory paths as needed and create configs and coeffs directories:

---
camilla_host: "127.0.0.1"
camilla_port: 5001
port: 5002
config_dir: "~/camillagui/configs"
coeff_dir: "~/camillagui/coeffs"
default_config: "~/camillagui/config/Default.yml"
active_config: "~/camillagui/config/active_config.yml"
active_config_txt: "~/camillagui/active_config.txt"
log_file: "/Users/gwur/camillagui/logs/camilladsp.log"
update_config_symlink: false
update_config_txt: false
on_set_active_config: null
on_get_active_config: null
supported_capture_types: null
supported_playback_types: null

Here is a simple CamillaDSP Default.yml config file that goes into configs directory:

devices:
  adjust_period: 10
  capture:
    change_format: false
    channels: 2
    device: BlackHole 2ch
    format: S32LE
    type: CoreAudio
  capture_samplerate: 96000
  chunksize: 1024
  enable_rate_adjust: true
  enable_resampling: true
  playback:
    change_format: false
    channels: 2
    device: MacBook Pro Speakers
    exclusive: false
    format: S32LE
    type: CoreAudio
  queuelimit: 4
  rate_measure_interval: 1
  resampler_type: BalancedAsync
  samplerate: 96000
  silence_threshold: 0
  silence_timeout: 0
  stop_on_rate_change: false
  target_level: 0
filters:
  highpass 1:
    parameters:
      freq: 1
      q: 0.707
      type: Highpass
    type: Biquad
  lowpass 1:
    parameters:
      freq: 22000
      q: 0.707
      type: Lowpass
    type: Biquad
mixers:
  stereo:
    channels:
      in: 2
      out: 2
    mapping:
    - dest: 0
      mute: false
      sources:
      - channel: 0
        gain: 0
        inverted: false
        mute: false
pipeline:
- channel: 0
  names:
  - lowpass 1
  - highpass 1
  type: Filter
- channel: 1
  names:
  - lowpass 1
  - highpass 1
  type: Filter

Here is a terminal script to start CamillaDSP. It uses tmux, which is a utility to help run things in the background (oversimplified explanation of tmux). Tmux makes the whole experience easier, and can be installed from anaconda/miniconda or homebrew:

#! /bin/zsh
tmux new-session -d -s cdsp './camilladsp ./configs/Default.yml -p 5001 --logfile ./logs/camilladsp.log'
tmux new-session -d -s cgui 'python main.py'
sleep 1
tmux capture-pane -pt cgui -S -1
tmux list-sessions

To stop CamillaDSP:

#! /bin/zsh
tmux send-keys -t cdsp C-c
tmux send-keys -t cgui C-c
sleep 1
tmux list-sessions

After starting CamillaDSP with above configs go to http://0.0.0.0:5002/gui/index.html and select Fetch from DSP to make sure the settings displayed in GUI are up to date. After that you can change what you need via GUI.

Set audio output from any audio application to be BlackHole 2CH and the audio will go via CamillaDSP and out the speakers. To have the audio output elsewhere change the CamillaDSP playback device in the configuration.

 

[gorman]

Good point about possibility to simply import presets from an existing wide and good DB.
But as I remember Wave is a graphical EQ tool, I thought parametric is preferred type. Am I wrong?

With the amount of bands it uses, the difference is negligible.

I distinctly remember seeing an example of a modified FR chart with parametric and Wavelet. I searched for it now but I cannot find it, sorry.

 

[User420]

Is there any easy to follow tutorial for EAPO for beginners?
Also another issue is when I clicked on

this graphic equalizer button, the sound will become just constant cracking till i reset by clicking

equalizer default.

 

[Erici]

Is there any easy to follow tutorial for EAPO for beginners?
Also another issue is when I clicked on View attachment 255814 this graphic equalizer button, the sound will become just constant cracking till i reset by clicking View attachment 255815 equalizer default.

Here is a link to the EAPO documentation:

Equalizer APO / Documentation Wiki / Documentation

sourceforge.net

I highly recommend the Peace interface for EAPO. In my experience it's much more user friendly:

Peace Equalizer, interface Equalizer APO

Download Peace Equalizer, interface Equalizer APO for free. System-wide PC Audio Equalizer and Effects app for Windows 7 to 11. Peace equalizer is a Windows PC interface for Equalizer APO http://sourceforge.net/projects/equalizerapo. Besides an system-wide audio equalizer on your Windows PC...

sourceforge.net

 

[User420]

Here is a link to the EAPO documentation:

Equalizer APO / Documentation Wiki / Documentation

sourceforge.net

I highly recommend the Peace interface for EAPO. In my experience it's much more user friendly:

Peace Equalizer, interface Equalizer APO

Download Peace Equalizer, interface Equalizer APO for free. System-wide PC Audio Equalizer and Effects app for Windows 7 to 11. Peace equalizer is a Windows PC interface for Equalizer APO http://sourceforge.net/projects/equalizerapo. Besides an system-wide audio equalizer on your Windows PC...

sourceforge.net

thanks installed peace, is it alright to skip the room measurement for now, as I do not have a decent mic or audio interface right now.

 

[Erici]

thanks installed peace, is it alright to skip the room measurement for now, as I do not have a decent mic or audio interface right now.

Without a Mic you are flying blind. You can use Peace to edit the frequency response of your speakers, but it will be very hard to get a good frequency response..
Here is a link to a good Mic that many of us use:

UMIK-1

The UMIK-1 is an omni-directional USB measurement calibrated microphone providing Plug & Play acoustic measurement. From speaker & room acoustic measurement to recording, this microphone provides low noise and accurate results you can rely on.

www.minidsp.com

 

[Doodski]

thanks installed peace, is it alright to skip the room measurement for now, as I do not have a decent mic or audio interface right now.

Go ahead and fine tune the PEQ in Peace to your ears' taste and then later when you get a UMIK-1 you can get technical.

 

[johnp98]

FWIW: Equalizer APO + Peace with a mic (Umik-1or2) and REW has for sure been the best audio investment I have ever made... And the only thing you have to pay for is the mic! Amazing!

 

[Svperstar]

I never bothered with EQ software before but I since I got the RME ADI-2 I looked into it instead of spending all the time it would take to set up EQ profiles on the RME.

I'm using Equalizer APO and I wish I did it a lot sooner. I got AutoEQ profiles for all of my cans. My Sennheiser HD590s didn't have a profile but I just used measurements I found online and some software to generate my own.

I have Peace installed but I am not using it. I have all of my headphone profiles in the Configuration Editor. I might eventually try peace but its working fine for me without it.

Wish I had tried Equalizer APO years ago.