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Software equalizer for use with REW on Windows

126K views 232 replies 54 participants last post by  ja00 
#1 ·
Hi,
this post is about Equalizer APO, an open source equalizer for Windows. (as it is free, this should not be regarded as advertising)

I have been using Room EQ Wizard for some time together with a BFD and with the kX driver but could not find a system-wide equalization solution in software that just works on all sound cards. When I adopted Windows 7 as my primary operating system I noticed its integrated home theater effects, which are available with many sound card drivers but which do not include a parametric equalizer. As I found out, it is possible to develop custom audio effects since Windows Vista and so I began working on this missing feature. I call the result "Equalizer APO".

Equalizer APO is a system-wide parametric equalizer for Windows. It is implemented as an Audio Processing Object (APO) for the system effect infrastructure introduced with Windows Vista. The reason I post this in the REW forum is that Equalizer APO can use the filter settings from REW with minimal effort by just exporting the filter settings as a text file, which becomes a configuration file for Equalizer APO. In contrast to most hardware equalizers there are virtually no limits on filter count and channel count.

You can find more information at http://sourceforge.net/projects/equalizerapo and, of course, download the installer. I would really appreciate some feedback. If you have any questions or objections, please reply to this post.
 
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#196 ·
Updated PEQGUI-10MC to v. 0.60 (is a GUI for EqualizerAPO for realtime EQ work)

- bug fixes
- borderless gui w/ new look
- improved graphics display
- extended master volume control
- on top mode
- selectable RIAA, inverted RIAA and ISO908 (CD de-emphasis) filters (ON/OFF),
-- adjustable RIAA levels
- minimaze program to notification area
- export active channel as biquad coefficients (generic implemented ATM)
 
#198 ·
I have been trying to get EqAPO to work with my optical digital out on my notebook. Everything works fine in stereo mode but when anything switches the output to multichannel, EqAPO has no effect. I have tried playing with some settings in Shark007 Codecs. Everything works fine if I use the analog out, but I prefer, really prefer, to keep using the digital out. Any ideas?
 
#210 ·
Don't know if you still need this, but here is what I use. 1 virtual cable is free, after making a donation they send you a link for a second virtual cable.

Link...

Was also just checking out their other donationware products, ASIO Bridge, Voicemeeter, and Banana. Complete replacements of the Windows mixer with extensive routing and PEQ built in (sorry, Matrix86):bigsmile:

All are donationware - you pick the donation amount.
 
#204 ·
Well I had a play with JRiver, and yes it will do what I want but......

First of all with the system I have the latency needs to go up to much to avoid stutter and this would put the audio too far out of sync with the video for my liking. I don't feel like using JRiver for all my video needs so I guess it goes.

I am using the analog outputs from my notebook and it seems good enough but I am sure I will need to re-measure everything again and make new filters.
 
#205 ·
Well I had a play with JRiver, and yes it will do what I want but......

First of all with the system I have the latency needs to go up to much to avoid stutter and this would put the audio too far out of sync with the video for my liking. I don't feel like using JRiver for all my video needs so I guess it goes.
...
Hmm... have you rtied ReClock for the sync problems?
 
#206 ·
hi guys,

I would like to set my crossfrequency with APO-EQ. (2.1 Setup) I have a focusrite 8i6 and it has 4 outputs.
I would like to set like this: out1_left satellite
out2_ right satellite
out3_ SUB (l/r input)
out4_ SUB (l/r input)

I`m unable to set musicbee and my DAW to out3 and out4 with primary sounddriver. I already have read this thread, so I know im not the only one who has this problem. I didnt understand everything, so perhaps the solution has been posted here. My English is not the best but maybe someone could explain how to do this.


My Notes for testing:
Notes:
Channel: 1
Filter 3: OFF HP Fc 8.000 Hz

Channel: 2
Filter 3: OFF HP Fc 8.000 Hz

Channel: 4
Filter 3: OFF HP Fc 8.000 Hz

Channel: Sub
Filter 3: OFF HP Fc 8.000 Hz
 
#209 ·
Thanks!

I use an htpc with mediaportal and use mpc-hc as my external player. I want to add jriver like dsp effects, but I don't want to use jriver.

What I'd like to do is

1. Set variable crossover frequency for each channel. - My AVR only supports a fixed crossover for all channels. I use large floor standers for my fronts + rears, but my center only has quad 5.25" drivers so it needs a higher crossover.

2. Apply room correction for my main channels. - My AVR is pioneer Elite SC-LX87 with MCCAC, but I'm pretty sure that using REW with UMIK-1 can achieve a better room correction than the AVR.

3. Apply EQ for my subwoofer. - I use an inuke 3000dsp amp for my dual sealed subwoofers, but I'm pretty sure the HTPC can do better eq.

Q: Can I do above with EqualizerAPO? Is this the best directshow filter to use. I tried installing JRiver, but I'm not sure how to chase the filter properties outside of jriver. (I tried use graphedit plus, but there are no filter properties for DMO Audio Effects:pEQ filter).

Any hints would be much appreciated.

With thanks
Kiwi
 
#208 ·
I have REW but never read up on how to do it. Every time I try to adjust anything other than a standard EQ like I tried to do in JRiver I mess it up.
In REW do you essentially get the parameters of your room in it and it makes adjustments? If so, how do those adjustments tie into your system? Since it's not linked into my AVR in any way I didn't feel the need to learn it as I didn't see how it could apply.
 
#211 ·
Has anyone had success in using VB virtual cable to enable EAPO to work with 5.1 DD or DTS output through a Realtek Optical output. I'm trying but can't work it out.

I have unlocked Realtek drivers outputing DTS 5.1 over spdif in shared mode, with VB cable input as the default playback device and VB Cable output set to listen on the Realtek optical output.

However I am still only getting 2 channel output to the AV processor. Do I need multiple VB virtual cables to get 5.1 output?
 
#213 · (Edited)
Hmm... I tried this type connection with VB-Audio's Voicemeeter Banana, integrated VIA 1828S audio chip, E-MU 0404 USB, WMP + WMA 5.1 surround sound format audio file.

Connections:
- Voicemeeter Input set as system default output device
- Voicemeeter Virtual (VAIO) set to use A1 as output port
- S/PDIF interface (MME) set as Voicemeeter A1 output device (with WDM EqualizerAPO did not work so i quess it's working in KS mode which bypasses APO features)
- optical cable connected from VIA 1828S optical out to E-MU optical input
- Headphones (stereo) connected to E-MU
- WMP set to use system preferred device for output
- on VIA control panel DTS 16-bit/48kHz was enabled (source file format)
- E-MU set to use equal samplerate (48kHz)

Signal path: WMP --> VAIO:A1 --> VIA S/PDIF (MME) --> E-MU --> Headphones

Both DTS presets found in VIA control panel and other related settings worked well but, as E-MU does not decode Dolby it was just 2 channel audio I could hear.
I tried by changing the Preamp: command in EqualizerAPO config.txt and it changed the level as indended. I could test only FL/FR channels because of stereo playback setup.

I suppose if the output from VIA could have been connected to a receiver which supports AC3/DTS decoding everything could have worked correctly but, would the EqualizerAPO have worked for all 6 channels because of it's encoded/compressed signal in question?
 
#212 ·
Each VB Cable will carry up to 8 channels. It might help to open up the VB Cable Control Panel - a shortcut to it should have been installed on your desktop at installation. The program was installed at

"C:\Program Files\VB\CABLE-A\VBCABLE_ControlPanel.exe"

on my machine. There you can see the signal levels on each of the 8 channels, number of channels connected, bit rate and depth, all in real time.
 
#219 ·
There is a new EqApo v1.00 since yesterday with a convolver engine.
i would like to try it to equalize my 5.1 system but I need some help.
with the old system, i use the Copy command to listen each speaker one by one (ex : Copy: RL=0. L=0. R=0. C=L RR=0. SUB=0. for listening only the center) made my filters with REW and use it with the Channel: command (Channel C: in this case) . At the end, I have 6 set of filters and all is good.
With the convolver engine i have two questions (for the moment)
- can i make one file per channel and use it with the channel command or have I to merge it in one file ( and in this case in what order)
- if a understand well the files have to be build with the export of the impulse response in wav. but what parameters have i to use (normalise , apply IR, export min phase).
Is my method the good one ?
thanks in advance
 
#220 ·
With the convolver engine i have two questions (for the moment)
- can i make one file per channel and use it with the channel command or have I to merge it in one file ( and in this case in what order)
Yes, the convolution will only happen on the channels specified in the channel command. You can have 6 separate files, one for each channel:
Code:
Channel: L
Convolution: ir_l.wav
Channel: R
Convolution: ir_r.wav
...
You can also have stereo files, each for two channels:
Code:
Channel: L R
Convolution: ir_front.wav
Channel: C SUB
Convolution: ir_c_sub.wav
...
If you have a file with multiple channels, the order of these channels must match the order of the channels of the output device, which you can see in the documentation. For 5.1, it is L R C SUB RL RR.

- if a understand well the files have to be build with the export of the impulse response in wav. but what parameters have i to use (normalise , apply IR, export min phase).
Is my method the good one ?
thanks in advance
The normalization can be useful, but you can also use a preamp to get the correct volume. I'm not sure about the IR window. When E-APO generates the impulse response in the GraphicEQ command, it also applies a window, but I don't know if it is needed. You should definitely export the minimum phase version of the IR, otherwise you will have latency.

Anyway, that you understand: If you export the impulse response of your measurement and use it, you will not correct the response of your speakers, but you make their response worse. You need to invert the frequency response in REW before you export it to create an impulse response for correction. The only way I see to do this is to use the trace arithmetic in the "All SPL" panel.
And another warning: The inverted response might contain very high gain values in the lowest and highest frequencies, which might not be what you want. I don't see a way to edit the response in REW to fix this.

Maybe, a better approach is to use the GraphicEQ command. In the new Configuration Editor, you can import frequency responses in CSV format. Unfortunately, the text export format of REW contains a phase column and is therefore not directly compatible. You can open it in a spreadsheet application first and remove the phase column and the header lines. I will add direct support for this format in the next release of E-APO. When you have imported the response in the Configuration Editor, you can use the invert action to invert the response and you can edit the problematic parts (e.g. low frequencies). Note that you can zoom in using the scroll wheel.
 
#222 ·
Yes, this may be possible in the future. Actually, another user just told me that he has implemented a filter that does exactly this. It's implemented as a separate filter type however, not as normal parametric filters that you as a user configure.

So, this will not come immediately but it likely won't take long until you can use it.
 
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