[tbritton]

(odd repeat posting of my previous post... how do you delete a post???)
 
I know it is somewhat sacrilege at this point to alter anything, but I have Ultrasone Proline 750's which are capable of very deep bass, and so tried out the subwoofer and "allow low freqs (only for BIG systems)" features. Here is my config chain file if you want to try it. Very deep bass comes through nicely for electronica - haven't taken it through its paces on other music yet.
foobar2000.EQ.Presets-RPGWiZaRDTerryNew.fbcp
 
(See this post to read about/get the Chain Config plugin or the main page for the [size=14pt]DSP chain serialization helper[/size])
 
Terry

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

Don't feel shy about providing configs, this is not some "one-guy's" show, the more configs provided the more options and interesting the thread gets as the point of this thread is to get as great dolby headphone listening experience as possible for all people out there. I tried it out and noticed the very faint added deep bass but I also noticed how it slightly "muted" the rest of the frequency range a bit as well in bassheavy passages using the Realtek onboard chip which is a hint of the weakness of the output for it but there were no signs of that on my Audigy 2 ZS (or if using ZO Personal Subwoofer amp).
 
Also there were slight hint of distortion of the bass here and there in my ears. To counter this you could simply lower the gain for the EQ setting (lower the whole curve without modifying the shape of it).
 
I also want to stress the point of the default "balanced" EQ setting was to provide roughly the same bass quantity/strength as not using the Dolby headphone plugin. So if you feel that there might be slightly less bass with that EQ config vs using stock foobar settings, I may opt to adjust it a little so that there's a little more bass by default.

 

[musicreo]

Do you always close the equalizer-window or do you minimize it? For me it only crashes when I switch between different dsp presents which contain the eletric-Q VST. For me there are no crashes when I choose different equalizer settings. 

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

Quote:

Do you always close the equalizer-window or do you minimize it? For me it only crashes when I switch between different dsp presents which contain the eletric-Q VST. For me there are no crashes when I choose different equalizer settings. 

Yea it's the same here. Like previously discussed it seems to cause issues when loading presets 2 times in a row or more with a preset containing Electri-Q VST while you can switch back n forth with either the "stock foobar2000" or one of the bottom 3 ones that doesn't use Electri-Q VST and a preset with Electri-Q how many times you want and it won't crash.
 
The VST adapter is only in beta stage still, been a while since Yegor released this version so hopefully there will be an update soon.
 

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

I tweaked/fineadjusted most of the EQ presets a little as well as added a new "Electronica" preset.
 
I've also tried bunch of different freeware VST EQs besides Electri-Q posihfopit edition but seems like Electri-Q at least in my ears bring the best sound quality but it distorts rather easily which is usually the nature with minimum phase EQs so careful tweaking is necessary.
 
I'm probably at the point I've got a hard time improving the config now at least.

 

[tbritton]

Cool! I can't wait to give the new settings a try (especially electronica!)
 
Terry

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

Well it's that much different from previously really. I noticed I forgot to change electronica preset rear volume tho, would probably use 1.31 - 1.32 or so default for this genre instead of 1.29 it's set to currently.
 
EDIT: There I updated the config to use Electronica channel mixer rear volume set to 1.32 compared to 1.30 for the "default" preset as well as adjusted the EQ curve very minorly. As a realtek user you'll probably get best result around 1.39 as usual anyway.
 
EDIT2: Made some further adjustments to the EQ setting for electronica, very satisfied now. OK Should be fine now after lots of small adjusting here and there to get bass vs midrange levels appropriate. Since dolby headphone adds quite a lot of bass I have to take that into account as well.
 
EDIT3: Actually rear volume 1.32 works very great with this EQ setting for the electronica preset for songs in that genre after having spent listening from the realtek onboard sound for a half hr or so, no need to further increase it IMO for that chip either.
 
EDIT4: Tweaked presets a little more, mostly trying to remove a little distortion from some of them.
 
Electronica preset:
 

 
 

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

I've updated the channel mixer plugin to a newer version as I found out the thread I was following in foobar2000 forum was outdated. I think it may possibly sound a little cleaner but not sure. If you've used my preconfig you can download the newer plugin from the homepage http://skipyrich.com/wiki/Foobar2000:Channel_Mixer or you can download the updated preconfig from the usual folder https://skydrive.live.com/#!/?cid=87ed83e2c9fd453c&sc=documents&uc=1&id=87ED83E2C9FD453C%21272
 
Also did some minor tweaking to presets as well as changed load order of the EQ plugin to be on top as it seems it might lower the distortion level of maybe ~0.5dB or so but any improvement is always an improvement!  

 

[zowki]

Thanks for your work RPGWiZaRD. I am really enjoying your presets! Its a shame that it crashes whenever changing presets though.

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

Quote:

Thanks for your work RPGWiZaRD. I am really enjoying your presets! Its a shame that it crashes whenever changing presets though.

You can avoid the crashing by doing the workaround one of the guys here found out, when you want to load another preset ALWAYS load the "Custom: Stock foobar2000" config or one of the bottom 3 presets "Hph: " first and then load whatever preset you want to load. This way you can load presets how many times you want without crashing, it's just a shame you don't get the instant-change comparision between two different presets.
 
I can also add that I contacted the author for the VST host adapter plugin and he said it's an issue with the very buggy coded Electri-Q VST EQ plugin and not cuz of his VST host as he was actually also using Electri-Q at first and that he hasn't figured out any working solutions and didn't sound too enthusiastic about it that he ever will either as he ended up changing to another VST EQ plugin in the end. 
 
It's a shame really cuz in my ears this EQ provides the best sound quality among the freeware versions I've tried as well as IMO several non-freeware EQ plugins as well. It's certainly not the most distortion-free EQ due to the nature of a minimum phase EQ but the sound quality as long as you won't run into any distortion is great though. Even if compability is lacking I still feel the sound quality is worth keeping this EQ. Any1 know of another perhaps "minimum phase" freeware EQ that might be able to stand up to Electri-Q?

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

OK, requesting your assistance yet again. Tweaked around with the Default preset setting mostly due to very slight hint of distortion in some badly recorded tracks with both heavy bass and lots of stuff going on at the midrange at the same time. At the same time I tried improving that preset as when comparing with balance of stock foobar2000 settings I did think there were still some room for improvements to be made balance-wise. I've tried doing it several times before though by lowering gain by 1.0 ~ 1.5dB or so but I thought it resulted in worse sound quality but this time I'm hearing a rather convincing (still relatively small) improvement though by the small tweaks when distortion is put aside as well.
 
EDIT: Made some minor adjustments to the EQ setting
 
Link: foobar2000.EQ.Balanced.(Default)-RPGWiZaRD (.fbcp DSP chain preset file, check my first post in the EQ settings section in "Manual Install" part to see how to load it in case you're a newcomer reading this post)
 
Before
 

 
After
 

 
Changes
 
- Adjusted gain so it would remove the very slight distortion present in a few tracks
- Bumped ~10kHz area slightly to make cymbals less muted as when comparing to stock foobar2000 and overall less "grainy" sounding
- Adjusted ~2kHz area to make it very slightly less nasal sounding, more in-line with stock2000 foobar settings
- Gave 70 ~ 150Hz range a very tiny bit boost to make drums sounding slightly less "soft", now more in-line with stock foobar2000 settings
- Overall should sound more closer to stock foobar2000 setting but with the greatly enhanced soundstage of Dolby headphone
 
Sounded great with all headphones and both Audigy 2 ZS and especially Realtek onboard chip. Would be nice with some comments comparing to especially to the old "default" setting and stock foobar and overall if you find it better or worse. You'd be suprised how tiny changes can make differences, you really have to have patience finding the right settings though as all variables (filter type, frequency, gain and BW for the bands) all affect the result. I might update the config to use this EQ setting by default soon (to my opening post).

 

[Connormgs]

Is this supposed to make the music sound a lot different or is the difference supposed to be subtle?

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

Quote:

Is this supposed to make the music sound a lot different or is the difference supposed to be subtle?

You're talking about the whole Dolby headphone config or was that a reply to my last post?
 
Dolby headphone-wise I think I provided a quite good answer in the FAQ section, it's supposed to change soundstage quite heavily and very minor changes to everything else.
 
Quote:

Q: What's the goal of this foobar2000 Dolby Headphone config?

 

A: The goal is to enhance the "out-of-box" experience, make recordings sound more "live"-like with as realistic and clear positioning as possible while maintaining sound quality as close to the original signal as possible. Also it makes the sound a bit more "forward" sounding for more engaging experience that makes you wanna tap to the rythm or dance along with the music as well as having vocalist standing almost within reach to you while background instruments may sound like they'd be coming far from the background or to the sides for a more dynamic and wider listening feeling like you would forget you're wearing any headphones!

 
If talking about the EQ setting change, it should be rather subtle difference to what it has been before.
 

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

Updated the first post to include the new EQ default setting, tweaked the EQ presets slightly more (especially changed a few normal "peak" filters to "peak (orfanidis)" filters that provide better/cleaner SQ in the treblerange. Also added a "Custom: No EQ" preset so you can quickly compare between a EQ preset and how it would sound with dolby headphone without any EQ tweaks, since this preset won't have Electri-Q plugin in the list it won't crash if you load this preset in-between the others.
 
Comments welcome regarding the presets.

 

[Joe Bloggs]

RPGWizard,
 
You can easily avoid all distortion by keeping the whole curve below the 0dB point.  You can do this by adding a control point, right clicking it and selecting Basic->Gain only.  This effectively turns it into a preamp setting, lower it below the 0 point until the top of your graph just touches 0dB.  This way your output should never distort unless later parts of the DSP chain causes signal boost or your source files are not properly ReplayGained in the first place.  (or well, it's a badly recorded sound with distortion baked in)
 
Plus you could go to foobar2000's preferences->playback and dial in a negative setting for the Preamp "with RG info" and "without RG info".  I usually dial in -3dB for "without RG info" as mp3s not properly ReplayGained may go well past 0dB, resulting in clipping when decoded even without any DSPs.
 
Finally, I add the Peak Meter visualization to the foobar toolbar.  A black square appears to the right whenever the output clips, so you know to dial in more negative preamp (or to apply ReplayGain on the files).
 
Anyway, I tried your settings but found Dolby Headphone too heavy-handed with the sound modification no matter what I tried (and I consider myself very pro-DSP).  Plus foobar crashed whenever I tried to import any .e-q preset files using your choice of VST loader.  This doesn't happen when I use George Yohng's VST wrapper, but then you can't load DSP chain presets in foobar and have the EQ change automatically like you have it now.
 
I would like to have a setting where the channel mixer only outputs to front left and right speakers, but have them be spaced further apart so that Dolby Headphone would simulate a wider soundfield.  Would "stereoimage width" be what I want?
 
Anyway, right now I'm using this simple crossfeed plugin
http://www.naivesoftware.com/software.html
 
with ok results on default settings (there's not many settings to tweak either

).  It offers a moderate improvement in soundstage (instruments moving forward from the middle of my head) for me without modifying the sound character noticeably or narrowing the soundstage left-to-right too much.