Equalizer APO doesn't work

[Samuel Taboga]

Hello, i just installed Equalizer APO and I have an issue with it: In Microsoft Teams it doesn't work at all but if I use it on Discord it does work. Is tehre any way i can fix this problem?

[Peter Verbeek]

Perhaps Microsoft Teams uses a different Windows way of doing audio. Are there audio settings available?

[Rene Wagler]

i use EAPO for many years and im very happy.. but now i have to go deeper: 2 problems.

First Problem: inpuchannelcount == 2 dosnt work on my machine when i play normal mp3 via windows mediaplayer etc.. it works only when i try inpuchannelcount == 6 but this dosnt makes sense, my mp3 is stereo. i need it to upmix stereo sources to 5.1 which leeds me to the

second problem: C=0.5L+0.5R isnt a good deal!!! On Center Channels i will not have the Sum of Left and right instead i want the eqals of L and R. How is that possible?

for example:

Voice from the Left only = no mix to cente
Voice from the right only = no mix to center
Voice from both both L and R = Mix the Voice to the center and cut it out from L and R

[Juha]

Have you checked (log) if inpuchannelcount == 2 is recognized as a condition command ... as like what Peter suggests below, UG suggests synthax inputChannelCount.

[Peter Verbeek]

The inputChannelCount variable needs a stage command before it:

Stage: pre-mix
If: inputChannelCount == 2
    # do something
EndIf:
Stage: post-mix

I guess you meant to write with the asteriks:
C=0.5*L+0.5*R
Then the center has equal amounts of the left and right. Btw. 0.5 factor can be set higher or lower depending on the volume you need.

In principle you could do this:

Stage: pre-mix
If: inputChannelCount >= 2
    Stage: post-mix
    Copy: C=0.5*L+0.5*R
    Copy: L=0 R=0
EndIf:
Stage: post-mix

but this doesn't filter out the voice of course. It accounts for the whole audio signal.

[Rene Wagler]

i know this, i dont postet the whole config but this dosnt work. The ifroutine will not become active when i play stereo sources

but when i do "inputChannelCount >= 2" it will also try to upmix 5.1 sources right? Thats not what i want i want only upmix stereo sources (from Kodi) to 5.1 where the center only plays the voice (normaly the proportion of equal ) from left and right channel and cutted out from the Left and Right Channel (like Pro Logic I does)

[Peter Verbeek]

As you've noticed it isn't failproof. That's why I advised my Peace users to just switch between configurations (equalizations) when the audio source is changing. I know switching is difficult to do when using the Configuration Editor.

Perhaps what you're asking is a bit difficult to accomplish. Is the voice on a separate channel or do you need to filter the voice out of the audio of a channel? So is this voice a podcast or so?

Of course the >= 2 is an example. It all depends what you need. Perhaps it should be == 2 in your case.

[Rene Wagler]

its not only the voice i want to mix to the center. Do u know Pro Logic? If i watch a Soap in TV and the actors speak, in stereo the voice cames out of the left and right channel but i want to mix it only to the Center and delete it from the L R.. i dont know how to discribe.

In simple: on the Left Channel i have a 1kHz sine and a 3kHz sine and on the right channel i have a 1kHz sine and a 8kHz sine. Now i awnt only the 1kHz sine mux to the center (which is the equal of L and R) and cut out the 1kHz Sine from the L and the R Channel

[Peter Verbeek]

In the case of watching a soap it's just:

 Copy: C=0.5*L+0.5*R
 Copy: L=0 R=0

where L=0 and R=0 mutes the stereo channels completely.

To filter things out and put it on a different channel, this is an example of filtering frequencies below 1 kHz and put it on the center and filtering the left and right above 1 kHz:

Copy: VC=0.5*L+0.5*R
Channel: VC
Filter 1: ON HS Fc 1000 Hz Gain -20 dB
Copy: C=VC
Channel: L R
Filter 2: ON LS Fc 1000 Hz Gain -20 dB

VC is a virtual channel. You can use any name you like.

Taking your example to filter 1 kHz specifically one could do:

Copy: VC=0.5*L+0.5*R
Channel: VC
Filter 1: ON BP Fc 1000 Hz Q 2.905
Copy: C=VC
Channel: L R
Filter 2: ON PK Fc 1000 Hz Gain -30 dB Q 2.905

The Q values determine the bandwidth around the 1 kHz.

[Rene Wagler]

but i only want to filter out the 1kHz sine if its on both Left and right speaker - not when its only on one of them

or again with other words:

i have one audio file and send it to APO:
if i send it only to the left: only the left plays it
if i send it only to the right: only the right plays it
if i send it only to left AND right: only the CENTER plays it

i think For this, EAPO must be able to exract the difference signal between left and right channel.. e.g. VC=L-R or something

but the biggest problem atm is that EAPO dosnt realy know the inputChannelCount.. i play a 2 channel source and it dosnt execute the if routine..

this is my config:

Stage: pre-mix
If: inputChannelCount == 2
Include: Dolby_ProLogic_(5.1_augmented)_convo.txt
EndIf:

Channel: SUB
Filter: ON LP Fc 70 Hz
Preamp: -3 dB #-3

Channel: L R
Filter: ON HP Fc 30 Hz
Delay: 10.0 ms

Channel: C
Preamp: 6 dB
Filter: ON HP Fc 50 Hz
Delay: 10.0 ms

Channel: RL RR
Preamp: 6 dB
Filter: ON HP Fc 50 Hz
Delay: 20.0 ms

[Peter Verbeek]

The problem is when inputChannelCount == 1 you don't know if it's the left or the right channel. Equalizer APO doesn't have the proper variables for us to use. Therefore I see as only options switching between different configs. This is also the solution to the inputChannelCount == 2 issue. Btw. a minus sign in front of a channel identifier means a 180 phase shift. It would be nice to have it like your idea also. But we really need an input signal detection variable, well if it's full proof.

[Rene Wagler]

i cant constantly switch the configs.. i use kodi for Live TV e.g. and if i switch channel there are some with stereo and some with 6ch.. and the kodi build in upmix is crap like RL=L RR=R and C=L+R... its not real like win10 "Speaker Fill" witch works perfect in my opinion but i dont have this option with nvidia hdmi audio

[Peter Verbeek]

Yes, that would be very inconvenient. It's unfortunate that Equalizer APO can't offer the solution. I'm not sure why the inputChannelCount variable isn't always correct. I guess that's because the channels of input audio source aren't always the same as the actual channels.

[Rene Wagler]

i think the problem is that EAPO sits behind the audio renderer and not in front.. so it always sees the 6channel layout and dosnt know incoming channels from the music/video playin

as a workaround a kodi 19 addon wich can controll EAPO would help ^^ Kodi knows the channel layout of the video or music and autoedit the config or load multible configs.. that would be a nice thing

[Juha]

Hmm... you can test if inputChannelCount returns its result from audio stream (try various channel mappings in system audio mode settings (mono, stereo, 5.1 etc.)):

If: inputChannelCount == 1
    Preamp: 1 dB
ElseIf: inputChannelCount == 2
   Preamp: 2 dB
ElseIf: inputChannelCount == 6
   Preamp: 6 dB
Else:
   Preamp: -5 dB
EndIf:

What do you get with stereo mp3 audio ?

[Rene Wagler]

i know it returns always 6ch input. if i select stereo in windows then it always returns 2ch.. but thats not what i want/need. I actualy try to solve this problem over Kodi i hope it is able via addon to switch EAPOs configs

[Juha]

Yes, in this case it's hard to find out a solution with EqualizerAPO tools if inputChannelCount is taken from audio settings instead of audio stream ... .
There's registry reading option available but dunno if you can find the key holding needed info ... .

[Rene Wagler]

There's registry reading option available but dunno if you can find the key holding needed info ... .

mmmm sounds interesting.. tell me more and how to link EAPO to that key variable?

[Juha]

Not very broad usage example in documentation ... https://sourceforge.net/p/equalizerapo/wiki/Configuration%20reference/#expression-commands-since-version-09 , but you get the idea ...

[Rene Wagler]

i will take a look at Process Monitor

[Rene Wagler]

hey! i searched the entire registry - yesterday by exporting it completely once while playin stereo and once on listening to 5.1. After i comared the registries with Notepad++ and FOUND NOTHING THAT MATTERS :(((((

So my othersolution was to let switch kodi EAPOs config once it plays stereo and once plays multichannel - it works like a charm.

if someone is interestet my solution is here: https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=353852&pid=2992825#pid2992825 post #104

[Peter Verbeek]

That's great solution. Certainly if no registry change is detected to initiate a config change.

[Juha]

Aren't channels 1 & 2 same on both formats, stereo and 5.1?
If that's the case, why not let re-do the 5.1 even with 5.1 sources?

EDIT:
When you start playing audio, if log feature is enabled, EqualizerAPO writes some startup lines into the log file. There are lines regarding checking out if the the audio type is supported by hardware (IIRC) ... so, there might be all functionality already available to rip the needed information you need for your issue ... but this needs little coding of course.

[Rene Wagler]

Aren't channels 1 & 2 same on both formats, stereo and 5.1?
- nope! Situation: in a movie the people speaks in Front:
stereo: the voces came from the left and the right speaker both - wich sucks and sounds unnaturaly
in real 5.1: only the center speaker plays the voices and left right channel is for ambient or for people speaks loft or right vom the middle of the screen

[Juha]

If I red the source code properly, inputChannelCount should return the channel count value which you have set in Configurator Editor (Channel Configuration list box) so, ... your issue regarding conditional selection between stereo and multichannel has a solution if you come along with manually changing the "Channel Configuration" to "Stereo" when playing music files and to 5.1/5.1Surround when streaming multichannel movies.