,,Auto Volume Level,, disabling ?

[None]

Lieber Jonas, Dear Jonas,

first, my compliments to your development, software ! Its a really fantastic piece of lightweight software.
Please, let me ask a question and rely on your support :

Im using in office PC your APO EQ (latest version) on Windows 10 64-bit, with old (but Gold :D) external soundcard made by Creative, model Live! 24-bit external. I just want to make my job better, with some good music :)
My setups are only custom EQ, and additional GAiN (after installing the Creative SoundCard driver for Windows 10, the output volume from extremely decreased. With stock driver plays the output on ,,normal-stock.default,, volume, but after update is the sound level even on Windows 100 volume output very low).
It doesnt matter if i use the GAiN function or not, after setting up the custom EQ with higher BassBoost (cca 10-15db, low cost speakers for office) the result should be good (just silent without GAiN), but i hear something like ,,AUTO LEVELING,, or ,,CLiP,, function which automaticaly adjust the volume and it brokes tottaly down the result. The track volume is fading up and down...If the track plays without drums-bass line (just only vocal in chorus) then is the output volume much higher, as the other part of track where drums-bassline plays. Its something like auto volume leveling or something like that... If i turn off the EQ, then is the track-whole song volume the same. Even on the vocals, chorus, and drums part. But with EQ ON drops the volume down immeadiately drums begin to play (which are high boosted). Can i somehow disable the auto leveling, clip function ? I want to setup manually only the EQ depending on speaker possibilities.

Thank you very much !

Grusse, Ron

[Jonas Dahlinger]

Hello Ron,
unfortunately I can't just tell you how to disable the "auto leveling" function as there is none in E-APO. E-APO will just adjust the gain as it is specified in the configuration, regardless of clipping or other problems that might occur in the output signal. Therefore you normally do not just add gain to some frequencies but you also add a preamp that reduces the overall output level so that no clipping occurs (which of course would not be what you want).

I guess that the problem is in your sound card drivers. As you reported the reduced playback level compared with using the stock driver, some processing must be applied to the audio before it is output. Maybe there is some limiter or automatic gain control enabled, which is set to a low output level. You could for example open E-APO's Configurator, select the audio device, open the troubleshooting options and disable the original APO to see if there is an APO supplied by the sound card driver that causes the problems with the output level. Otherwise you could just open all the additional utilities supplied with the audio driver (my Audigy 2 sound card e.g. has an "EAX console" which does much more than its name says) and try to find the malicious setting.

[None]

Thank you very much for your reply ! Yes, it is possible, that driver makes ,,things,, like that, but the problem appears only if i set up the EQ (it not depends if i use GAiN also, or not). LiVE 24-bit has also preferences option (in Sound Preferences, no extra Control Panel), but there is only list of preferences (Bass Management, Room Management, but no Auto Leveling or so...) but no configurable options. I think its because i use 2.0/1 setting. Maybe on 5.1 setup are the options there, but for my config are useless. On onboard Sound Card (,,classic,, Realtek HD) is the Realtek option in Control panel with configurable EQ, so on this option i doesnt need APO, but we dont need to talk about output quality between this two cards :) Therefore im searching for a solution. If i good understand, you are also using a Creative Sound Card. Have you noticed also problem like this ? It would be a pity thing, not to find a ,,reason why,, and not to use the better Sound Card :(

[Jonas Dahlinger]

With "the problem" you mean the varying volume? I guess this might be a reaction of the sound card driver to the increased gain in the lower frequencies. The parts of a song that contain much bass will result in a higher amplitude than the parts without, so to prevent clipping, the sound card driver might reduce the volume of the parts with bass.

I know that you are trying to use E-APO to increase the playback volume, but could you please try what happens if you add sufficient negative preamp so that the resulting gain in the lower frequencies is not higher than the original gain? You could attach the configuration file here if you want. Then I can tell you what you need to change.

In the end, it might not be possible to use E-APO to fix your low volume problem, which seems to be caused by the sound card driver. Normally you use E-APO only for equalization without increasing the overall volume.

Another option would be to use the stock driver for the Creative sound card instead of the one from Creative. That way you might lose some options but the output quality should still be better than from the onboard sound card. Unfortunately, alternative drivers like the kX drivers do not work with your sound card.