Possible solution to the problem that Graphic EQ and Convolution cannot work...
A system-wide equalizer for Windows 7 / 8 / 8.1 / 10 / 11
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An issue has been bothering me for a long time is that when I play music on a Bluetooth speaker in Windows 11, once I turn on the Graphic EQ and Convolution of Equalizer APO, the sound becomes very distorted. After browsing various posts, I happened to find that a version of Windows update merged the stereo mode and the "hands-free" mode of Bluetooth audio devices into one mode. This may cause the Equalizer APO to install incorrectly so that Graphic EQ and Convolution don't work normally.(Because Windows10 I ever used did not have this problem, after upgrading Windows 11 this problem occurs.)
Windows Update Description
The solution is also for turning off Hands-free mode for Bluetooth audio devices. A side effect is that you can no longer use the microphone tied to your Bluetooth audio device.Here's a way to turn off the hands-free mode once and for all:(This is what I learned by referring to this postHow to PERMANENTLY disable Handsfree Telephony for a bluetooth device in Windows 11?)
1.Open registry editor.(Win+R type "regedit" and run)
2.Navigate to Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Bluetooth\Audio\Hfp\AudioGateway
Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Bluetooth\Audio\Hfp\HandsFree
Set both Enabled = 0
As always, be very careful when modifying the registry (do a backup first if you feel the need)
3.Delete and reconnect your Bluetooth audio device, and reinstall Equalizer APO to your Bluetooth device.
After that, you will find that Graphic EQ and Convolution work properly. Hopefully, developers will fix this bug in Bluetooth audio devices, or let Windows 11 Bluetooth devices restore the Stereo mode and Hands-Free mode separation like Windows 10
I just created account to thank you brother! My bluetooth headphone had distortion problem at below 20hz and using parametric eq to fix those frequencies were soo tiresome! When eq'ing below 20hz, also above 20hz frequencies effected because how low Q value i had to use when reducing gain below 20hz.
I'm under the impression that the distortion wasn't related to this as it is also present on former Windows versions (7, 8 and 8.1) and on different audio devices then Bluetooth. But you might have found one source of the distortion of Graphic EQ. And that's just nice. Odd is, when using biquad filters (peak, etc.) this distortion isn't present. So EQ-ing is not a problem when using these filters. But the combining by Windows of the 2 Bluetooth device modes into 1 does present an issue. In other words you solution is also a good way to go generally speaking.
About the developer creating a fix: Unfortunately he isn't very active on his Equalizer APO project. It could be that it takes a long time. The number of tickets for instance is approaching 300 and many of them aren't solved or even addressed.
Perhaps I could make a small tool for this so users don't have to change the registry by themselves.
Thanks for your reply.It seems that the problem of distortion of Graphic EQ is a relatively difficult historical problem to solve. In addition to the solution mentioned above, I have also found another solution that can be done without changing the settings for Bluetooth audio, which is to install VoiceMeeter, Download Pagethen install EAPO on this device instead of the Bluetooth device, and then specify the output channel of VoiceMeeter to the Bluetooth audio device. Tested on my Windows 11 computer, it worked perfectly, but note that EAPO should be installed as LFX/GFX mode. Hopefully, this method will be seen by more people.
Thanks for your VoiceMeeter solution. This can be a discussion/topic about solutions for Graphic EQ distortion. Anyway, the VoiceMeeter way it's one I advice too when all troubleshooting options don't work for a device. But I didn't know about the LFX/GFX setting. It means that the VoiceMeeter devices are still using the Windows Vista APO architecture and that's just fine as Windows 10 and 11 support this and probably will in the future for backwards compatibility.
Also my Bluetooth headset is experiencing distortion on Graphic EQ. I probably didn't noticed this before as I'm always using biquad filters in Peace as a default, just to avoid any distortion. So I can't say if this issue was here before or it only appears on Windows 11.
After some experimentation I just need to disable the "AudioGateway", not the "Handsfree". To me this seems odd. I was under impression that Audio Gateway was the one doing the audio transport, not the telephone (handsfree) part. So I reckoned I needed to disable "Handsfree" but the opposite is true.
Please try the new version 1.4.2 of Equalizer APO. It contains a fix for Bluetooth audio on Windows 11 when multiple audio devices are merged into one.
The problem was that graphic equalizer and convolution were not working correctly when the maximum frame count specified during initialization differed from the actual frame count during processing. Now it will work in this case if the frame count at least stays constant for all process calls.