[Cya|\|]

Is there a way to have a graphical interface to adjust the eq?

 

[Kodhifi]

Quote:

There is a software called roomeq that is a gui, and among many wonderful things it can do a gui for EQ and write out a text file for you to use.
 

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[YouReadNames]

Wow, this is really awesome. It works great, isn't that hard to use, is lightweight, doesn't have a clumsy interface, and is applied to everything. That's a win for me.

 

[patradio]

Hi - I'm hoping if you can help me.  I have a lot of recordings consisting of interviews against lots of background noise, so I need to come up with some settings on Equalizer APO which will make the vocal frequencies louder in relation to all the non-vocal frequencies so that the vocals are easier to make out.  I can't achieve this same end by converting using Audacity or something, because there are squillions of files to play, and hundreds of people who will be playing them.
 
I've used the parametric equalizer on Goldwave and come up with settings that seem to work, as follows:
 
Band 1: cf  60 Hz, width 60, gain -70
Band 2: cf  250 Hz, width 250, gain -20
Band 3: cf  1000 Hz, width 1000, gain 21
Band 4: cf  3500 Hz, width 3500, gain 10
Band 5: cf  11000 Hz, width 11000, gain -10
 
But when I copy those across to Equalizer APO as this:
 
Filter Settings file

Room EQ V5.01
Dated: 29.02.2012 20:04:50

Equaliser: Generic
No measurement
Filter  1: ON PK      Fc    60.0 Hz  Gain   -70.0 dB  Q  60.00
Filter  2: ON PK      Fc    250.0 Hz  Gain   -20.0 dB  Q  250.00
Filter  3: ON PK      Fc    1000.0 Hz  Gain   21.0 dB  Q  1000.00   
Filter  4: ON PK      Fc    3500.0 Hz  Gain   10.0 dB  Q  3500.00   
Filter  5: ON PK      Fc    11000.0 Hz  Gain   -10.0 dB  Q  11000.00   

... it makes little or no difference to the sound.  Any idea why?  I'm on Windows 7.  (NB: if I enter extreme numbers, it does make a difference to the sound, so my syntax seems to be correct)
 
I notice that the "Q" settings in your example seem very low numbers.  Do they not correspond to the "width" settings in Goldwave?  In my numbers above, the "width" figure of 60 means that the band covers 30 Hz in each side of the centre frequency.

 

[Kodhifi]

Q is width, the lower the number ,the wider the range of frequencies affected.
 
For point of reference I listed out some common ones in octaves. To give you an idea of what a typical graphic EQ would use it would be + or - 10db with a Q of 10. This results in pretty narrow boosts or cuts. A Q of 1 on the other hand would be a very large boost or cut affecting several khz worth of frequencies in either direction.
 
Those Q numbers you chose, 60 or 70 are insane, and would result in incredibly narrow cuts, like 59.90 to 60.90 hz, barely enough to even make a difference. You need to use a much lower Q, like 1-10.
 
 
That said, I don't think this software is what you should be using to fix up some audio recordings, this is more for an 'always on' set and forget EQ for music and movies, games, etc.
 
If you want to fix your sound recordings you can use Audacity, it's free and includes several editing tools that will help including an equalizer.
 
To bring out vocals I would set the following, *NOTE* This is for intelligibility, not what I would use for vocals in a piece of music
 
 
1. Normalize to 0db
2. Add an noise gate/filter, select some of the noise that is just noise, no speech, before using audacities tool so it knows what to remove.
3. Use the EQ to cut everything from 20-200hz, and from 4500hz to 20,000hz. This will leave a narrow bandgap of 200-4500 for voice which should make for enhanced vocals. You might also forgo the EQ and use a high pass and low pass filter leaving the aformentioned gap open in between.
4. Re-normalize to 0db
5. Apply a dynamic compressor, this will bring up the volume of quiet sounds, and lower the volume of loud sounds which will make the speech appear even louder with respect to the background noise, and without clipping.
 

 

[patradio]

Thanks, that's cleared up a bit of a mystery for me.  I assumed the bigger the "Q" number, the more difference it would make, but apparently not!
 
I note your remarks about Audacity; however, there are reasons why I need to alter the sound on the fly like this (but see below).  So I'm trying to come up with settings that will optimize the voice.  Effectively, I'm trying to create a bandpass effect using a parametric equalizer.   I'm not too sure what I'm doing here, but I'm able to achieve a reasonable effect using these numbers:
 
Filter  1: ON  PK       Fc    20.0 Hz  Gain  -40.0 dB  Q  1.00
Filter  2: ON  PK       Fc    30.0 Hz  Gain  -20.0 dB  Q  2.00
Filter  3: ON  PK       Fc    40.0 Hz  Gain  -20.0 dB  Q  2.00   
Filter  4: ON  PK       Fc    1800 Hz  Gain   22.0 dB  Q  2.76   
Filter  5: ON  PK       Fc    2500 Hz  Gain   -20.0 dB  Q  4.00   
Filter  6: ON  PK       Fc    3500 Hz  Gain   -40.0 dB  Q  4.00
 
Question is, do you think those are anything like the BEST numbers?  Since I'm not very familiar with all this, I could fiddle around for ever without hitting upon the optimal numbers. 
 
Secondly, on your suggestion about using Audacity, we won't be able to edit files manually because of the sheer number, but it would be fantastic for us if we could set up a sort of mechanism whereby all files that come in are automatically processed in such a way that optimizes the voice and makes the words easier to hear.  This process could include normalization, bandpass, compressor, and whatever else might be useful.  Normalization and bandpass I should be able to handle myself, but would you be able to advise on suitable settings for the compression? 
 
The important point is that whatever settings we use have to be one-size-fits-all, clearly not ideal, but necessary.
 
Incidentally, this is for commercial purposes, so I'm feeling I really ought to be offering you some sort of financial thank-you.  Since you seem to be so well-informed, do you offer a professional consultancy service?

 

[jthedering]

Quote:

I should have been clear. Yes i followed the basic instructions, along with trying all kinds of other things but still nothing.

 
As I read, you have been trying to get Equalizer APO working for some time, when version 0.6 was the current version. Did you also try using version 0.7? If your sound device didn't show up in the Configurator application, it might appear with "can be installed (experimental)" since version 0.7.

 

[Br777]

Quote:

 
As I read, you have been trying to get Equalizer APO working for some time, when version 0.6 was the current version. Did you also try using version 0.7? If your sound device didn't show up in the Configurator application, it might appear with "can be installed (experimental)" since version 0.7.

thanks, but still nothing
 
oddly, i just tried plugging my headphones directly into my computer, reconfigure my audio settings to play audio that way, and then reconfiguring the eq apo to run that way, and STILL nothing.
 
what the heck...   one would think that a former IT manager could figure out a program this simple, but apparently i am either doing something incredibly obviously dumb, or this thing just doesnt work on my computer at all...
 
ugg!

 

[Hutnicks]

Quote:

This person who made this software really needs a medal or something. Of course would be convenient with a GUI but maybe that comes in the future, EQing in a txt file feels so odd. But yea maybe in the future, if not him, some1 else maybe makes one.

http://www.hermannseib.com/english/vsthost.htm
 
You might want to have a look at the above link. It works with asio but I have not tried it with wasapi.

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

Quote:

http://www.hermannseib.com/english/vsthost.htm
 
You might want to have a look at the above link. It works with asio but I have not tried it with wasapi.

 
Yea I've tried VST host + VST EQ's method, it works fine with WASAPI but I find it a bit of a hassle, this EQ app automaticly starts and runs in the background.

 

[jthedering]

Quote:

i just tried plugging my headphones directly into my computer, reconfigure my audio settings to play audio that way, and then reconfiguring the eq apo to run that way, and STILL nothing.

1. This means, you couldn't even get it to run with regular onboard sound? Did you reboot after using the Configurator to install the APO to the sound card?
2. If it's onboard sound, it will likely have APO effects that can be accessed using the enhancements tab of the sound device in the control panel. You could try and see if these are working.
3. If the integrated APO effects are working, you could do this to see if Equalizer APO is actually run:
   
   Open regedit.exe and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\EqualizerAPO, there set the value EnableTrace to true. Then play some sound. After that, see if the file "C:\Windows\ServiceProfiles\LocalService\AppData\Local\Temp\EqualizerAPO.log" exists and if it does, look at its content or send it.
4. Make sure that you use an audio application that uses normal Windows audio output methods (e.g. DirectSound), not ASIO, WASAPI, etc.
5. If nothing works, you could use regedit.exe to export the contents of the registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\MMDevices\Audio\Render to a file and send it to me

 

[Br777]

Quote:

1. This means, you couldn't even get it to run with regular onboard sound? Did you reboot after using the Configurator to install the APO to the sound card?....

well thanks buddy, you inadvertedly solved my problem.
 
the problem is that i did not understand what apo meant.  actually i still dont, however the issue was that under the "enhancements" tab you referred to, i had the "turn off all enhancements" box checked, which is obviously referring to all apo based enhancements, not just limited to the list in the tab.
I did not know that this tab or this check box had any to do with this equalizer working, since it is not mentioned in the instructions, and honestly, i thought i had actually tried this before.
 
anyway as soon as i unchecked the turn off enhancements box and hit apply, the volume dropped significantly, which prompted me to check the eq config file which i had last saved with a -10db  value.  Sure enough i saved it again with a -1 drop and the volume returned.  
 
 
YEAH!!!   Time to get cracking on the eq settings!  FINALLY!!!!
 
it never ceases to amaze me how much i DONT know about computers, despite how much more I know than most. 
 
thanks again! 

 

[jthedering]

I'm glad to hear that it works for you now. That the solution was so simple reminds me to add a "Troubleshooting" section to the documentation wiki.

 

[Slombovia]

So, I am stuck on XP at work and need something like this. Any suggestions?
 
What I need most is treble boost for my hearing loss that affects any software (including soft telephone).
 
Thanks a lot for any tips.

 

[wiinippongamer]

Confirmed working on ODAC. Great find!.
 
Does it support shelving filters? if so anyone know the syntax?  I didn't see it mentioned on sourceforge and I don't want to install java (yuck) just for REQ wizard.