Help with Upwards Compression

[Alex]

When listening to Zoom calls on my external computer speakers, I'm trying to boost quiet voices of people who have bad microphones, while not increasing the volume/gain of Zoom speakers who have good microphones.

So I'm looking for a VST plugin, Autohotkey script, or standalone program to put a minimum floor on the gain level of audio. Ideally, the upward compression would only effect sounds in the range of the human voice while speaking (85-255 hz).

Any ideas? I've seen plugins (like Waves Vocal Rider) which can do this, but only if one uses a Digital Audio Workstation. I want something simple that can either work with Equalizer APO or something else which doesn't use a ton of computer CPU.

Also, the sound card on my HP Pavilion laptop apparently doesn't let me use "loudness equalization" in the Realtek driver.

Thanks in advance for any assistance!!

[Peter Verbeek]

You could experiment with the loudness command of Equalizer APO. Access it by using the Configuration Editor: Click green + button -> Advanced filters -> Loudness correction.
I don't quite understand how to use it. Internally in Equalizer APO (looking at its code) it uses a filter which is dynamically altered according to the sound (sample) input.

[Fabo W]

Loudness correction is not what he is looking for. it's an "equalizer" that corrects for changing equal loudness contours with diferent loudness levels.
in short: it wont do anything like he is looking for

[Peter Verbeek]

Thanks, Fabo. To be honest I don't understand the purpose of the loudness command of Equalizer APO.

[Fabo W]

the name is confusing. it is genraly called loudness compensation. recievers in the 70ies and 80ies had a loudness button you would enable when listening at low volume. modern loudness compensation is a much more sofisticated version of this

[Peter Verbeek]

Yes, I had that loudness button on my amplifier. I don't know if it was just a basic bass and treble boost to compensate the low volume when enabled. Or if it was more sophisticated so "measuring" the levels. It was probably not. Anyway, it would be nice to have it in Equalizer APO. The feature Alex proposes/needs is a good example.

[Fabo W]

check the recent part of the discussion on this topic https://sourceforge.net/p/equalizerapo/discussion/general/thread/9f26ef40/

[Alex]

Thank you Peter and Fabo. It does seem like this is a fairly common problem.

The best solution I've found so far is to use Peter's outstanding Peace, and then save pre-set equalization settings which help to boost quiet voices.

But in this era when so many are conducting meetings remotely, it's stunning that no one has scripted something which will automatically boost quiet voices so everyone can hear.

[Peter Verbeek]

But in this era when so many are conducting meetings remotely, it's stunning that no one has scripted something which will automatically boost quiet voices so everyone can hear.

Well, I couldn't agree more. It should be a part of Zoom and the other apps. Does Zoom have the ability to add plugins?

And talking about 'this era', why doesn't Windows have a 'total' support of audio. There shouldn't be a need for my Peace app. Windows should have an equalizer and effects interface by now. On Windows and other OS's we still live in the nineties audio-wise speaking. The graphic abilities and interfaces of our computers did progress.

[Alex]

Peter,

Zoom does allow plug-ins. But I don't see a single audio plug-in that has been developed for Zoom.

And the only suggestions I've found for improving Zoom audio involve a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) plus other software.

[Peter Verbeek]

That's bad. At least a few handy ones should have been developed.

[Fabo W]

one solution for implementation would be this https://github.com/jiixyj/libebur128

personaly I would request implementation with Zoom developers

[Alex]

Fabo, thank you, but I've never used github. Stupid question: How do I RUN the lieber128 project after I've cloned its files to my PC? (Sorry to be such a newbie)

[Fabo W]

unfortunatly I have no clue. I used it on Linux, and not even the library directly as it was implemented into another software. but it can do what you want. you would set it to react to short term LUFS.
this is probably more of a thing that Peter could include into his software. not sure it can be used directly

[Peter Verbeek]

Fabo, I guess you're saying to include it into Equalizer APO which isn't my project. But the code is open source so for some programmers it shouldn't be that difficult to implement. For me, it is as I'm not particularly good at programming with c++.

[Fabo W]

afaiui you are the PEACE dev? since you are more responsive/experimental than EPO-APO dev I actualy sugested implenting it to PEACE.
A shame that c++ issue

[Peter Verbeek]

I wish I could implement Equalizer APO into Peace but that's a huge task looking at my lack of experience of c++. Besides, I rather implement virtual audio devices like VoiceMeeter is doing. Potentially that could be a better way of moving forward. But again that needs c++.

[Alex]

Hi Peter,

Is there a way to increase preamplification in Peace by40 db, instead of just 30 so I can try Matt's suggestion here: https://sourceforge.net/p/equalizerapo/discussion/general/thread/9f26ef40/ ?

[Peter Verbeek]

Yes, there is. Go to the Settings -> Sizes and Amount settings -> Change Maximum dB to 40 dB. Btw. It's set to 30 dB as higher dB's might cause some issues like distortion or even blowing up ones headphones or speakers. But in this case causing the distortion is the goal :)

[Alex]

Thanks, Peter!!