ASUS Xonar U7 device switching
A system-wide equalizer for Windows 7 / 8 / 8.1 / 10 / 11
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All,
Been using Equalizer APO for about a week now. Great tool! Replaced (disabled) the APOs that came with the DAC/amp drivers for EAPO and works like a charm for both the headphones and the mic (really managed to clean-up the signal).
One thing though, the Xonar U7 has a button on it to toggle the output device used, either the speaker output or headphones output. During installation of the drivers it creates two audio output devices in Windows, one for the speakers, one for the headphones. Pressing this button removes one device in Windows and sets the other as default device. Pressing it again switches between devices by removing the other in Windows. Pretty simple.
However, for some reason EAPO works fine for the mic and headphones but doesn't apply any effects at all to the speaker 'device'. Any clue as to what might be wrong?
config.txt:
EqualizerAPO_in_mic.txt
# Input - Modmic v4 on Xonar U7 Device: Microfoon Xonar U7 {2aaca94e-9724-4f88-a2b0-26031ec98f4f} Preamp: 0 dB Filter: ON NO Fc 50 Hz Q 33.3333 Filter: ON HP Fc 100 HzEqualizerAPO_out_headphones.txt
# Output - AKG K612 Pro on Xonar U7 Device: Hoofdtelefoon Xonar U7 {92634dbf-ec97-4939-aa5a-d44b43d89de9} Preamp: 0 dB Filter: ON PK Fc 42 Hz Gain 1 dB Q 1.41 Filter: ON PK Fc 55 Hz Gain 1 dB Q 1.41 Filter: ON PK Fc 77 Hz Gain 1 dB Q 1.41 Filter: ON PK Fc 2000 Hz Gain -3 dB Q 1.41 Filter: ON PK Fc 12000 Hz Gain 1 dB Q 1.41 Filter: ON PK Fc 16000 Hz Gain 1 dB Q 1.41EqualizerAPO_out_speakers.txt
# Output - Creative Gigaworks T40 on Xonar U7 Device: Luidsprekers Xonar U7 {58058daf-5bdb-48c7-b93e-3cf8ca152457} Preamp: 0 dB Filter: ON PK Fc 10 Hz Gain 11.5 dB Q 1.41 Filter: ON PK Fc 21 Hz Gain 6.5 dB Q 1.41 Filter: ON PK Fc 42 Hz Gain 3.5 dB Q 1.41 Filter: ON PK Fc 166 Hz Gain -2.5 dB Q 1.41 Filter: ON PK Fc 333 Hz Gain -4.5 dB Q 1.41 Filter: ON PK Fc 577 Hz Gain -6.5 dB Q 1.64 Filter: ON PK Fc 1000 Hz Gain -7.5 dB Q 1.41 Filter: ON PK Fc 2000 Hz Gain -6 dB Q 1.41 Filter: ON PK Fc 4000 Hz Gain -4 dB Q 1.41 Filter: ON PK Fc 8000 Hz Gain -1.5 dB Q 1.41 Filter: ON PK Fc 16000 Hz Gain 1.5 dB Q 1.41 Filter: ON PK Fc 20000 Hz Gain 4 dB Q 2.99So I'm guessing I could've made my OP shorter by saying: effects are applied to one audio device (headphones) but not to the other (speakers).
A simple test confirms this: an empty config.txt with only a pre-amp at +20dB. Enabling/disabling doesn't have any effect on the volume of the speakers.
Last edit: Olivier Winters 2018-04-08
You could try to apply the effects in the Pre-mix stage (default is post-mix):
In the Configurator, you could try different combinations of the switches in the troubleshooting options. Uncheck "Use original APO" for both stages or uncheck "Install APO" for the post-mix stage. (instructions in the Wiki)
Will do. I was assuming that given it's one physical device (the Xonar U7) both devices in Windows would be pretty much the same.
When I installed EAPO I've unchecked the original APO for all devices I've installed it for.
UPDATE: That did the trick! I've added a stage line, checked the pre-mix and unchecked post-mix for the speakers. Where can I read up on what the difference of the stages is? And whether it has anything to do with the orders of filters I apply in EAPO? Still a little new to all this.
Last edit: Olivier Winters 2018-04-08
Hi Olivier,
Info on stages: https://sourceforge.net/p/equalizerapo/wiki/Configuration%20reference/#stage-since-version-09
Actually, if you unchecked "Install APO" for the post-mix stage, you don't even need the Stage command as E-APO will automatically use the pre-mix stage then (as the effects would not work otherwise).
So in conclusion, for some reason, the post-mix APO is not working for the speakers. I don't understand why that could happen but at least you have a working solution now.
Understood, thanks! I have a limited number of applications providing audio output (generally max. 2 at the same time) and a pretty high-end PC so I doubt I'll suffer from the increased processing capacity required to apply the filters on a per-source base before it is mixed.
In EAPO I've noticed that post-mix filters will be shown in the EQ curve but pre-mix filters won't.
Apart from the performance difference of per-source based filtering (pre) vs. filtering after mixing (post), are there any other disadvantages to pre-mix filtering? I take it it is never a good idea to apply the same set of filters pre-mix & post-mix as you would unnessarily apply the same effects twice?
Yes, if you add the same filters to both pre- and post-mix, they will be applied twice. By default, only the post-mix stage is used for an output device (if you don't disable the post-mix stage).
The main difference between pre-mix and post-mix filtering is that pre-mix filters can work on the original channels from the source (2 channels for a stereo source, 6 channels for a 5.1 source, ...) as the mixing has not happened yet. The post-mix stage will receive the mixed channels (e.g. always 6 channels for 5.1 output), so it can not apply different filtering based on the number of input channels. That's why you should use the pre-mix stage when you want to do upmixing. In most cases, the pre-mix stage does not have any disadvantages apart from the additional computation time needed, so you should not need to worry.
Jonas, for your information, I've uninstalled the EAPO for the speaker output device, rebooted, and reinstalled it (disabling original APO(s), as I always do). It now does work in the post-mix stage.
Given that a reinstall of EAPO for the device did the trick you might be looking at somewhat buggy behavior? I've got no clue. All I can say is I'm happy it now works without forcing the use of the pre-mix stage.
Hey! Great discussion on the topic I think solve this problem, I have an error into my Asus PC when i open the PC this error generate as well as asus pc link driver error 0x111 , please share proper solution for this error I am waiting for your solution.
Thanks a lot!