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Jaakko Pasanen Matt Gore

How Is Headphone Surround Virtualization Even Possible and Why Do We Need It?

Installation

First, download and install the latest Version of Equalizer APO for your operating system architecture. A configurator will open for the APO setup and you are asked to select devices for which the APO is to be set up. Tick the box in front of your default device (see the Status column for that) and finalize the installation – but do not reboot! Now, download and run the HeSuVi setup. The installer will unpack HeSuVi and launch the GUI after everything is done. Click Actions → Restart Audio Service and Equalizer APO will now work for your device without needing to reboot.

• 7.1 Virtualization

Thank you for installing HeSuVi! The basic setup is now done and you should already hear a clear difference. Move the master volume slider and test if the loudness of sounds actually changes for you. If this is not working, then there is probably some kind of driver incompatability, check out Troubleshooting for help. Should the volume slider work, you might now want to follow the next steps for the best surround experience.

  1. Click Actions → Open Windows Sound Panel and select your default device there.
  2. Hit the Properties button in the bottom right corner and change the sampling rate to either 48000 Hz or 44100 Hz (at the highest supported bit depth) from the Default Format dropdown under Advanced. Save with OK.
  3. Configure your playback device to surround sound by clicking on Configure in the lower left corner of the Sound Panel window. Select 7.1 Surround (or 5.1) and follow through with the configuration untill the window closes (you can check each upcoming box, though they do not seem to have an effect).

If you have 7.1 Surround in the speaker configuration (5.1 Surround should also be enough), then you are done here. For additional information about the settings of HeSuVi see Usage of the Graphical User Interface.
However, if you can't setup surround, then your sound card won't support it. Practically all music, online videos and even many games are only in stereo so you'll get full benefits of HeSuVi with these. There is even an option to upmix stereo to 7.1 surround in the Additional tab. If you want to have full 7.1 surround sound experience without having a sound card which supports it, go read the next section(s) below for different workarounds.

• • Audio Repeater KS

Only take these steps if your sound card doesn't support 7.1 or won't work correctly with the normal setup.

This workaround has almost no increase in latency (see Audio Latency Measurements) by using the free Audio Repeater with Kernel Streaming (KS) to copy the binauralized audio from a 7.1 capable device to your stereo-only output. The 7.1 device can be any unused sound card as long as Equalizer APO installs fine, the drivers use WavePci and multiple pins can be opend on the KS filter. If you don't have one or don't want to try, we are just going to use VB Cable as virtual 7.1 source.

  1. Follow steps one to six of the VB Cable guide below.
  2. Switch to the Recording tab where you will find another VB Cable connection called CABLE Output. Deactivate this device because it wont be used.
  3. Download the latest version of Audio Repeater. Go into the zip archive and extract audiorepeater_ks.exe from the subfolder x64 or x86 depending on your operating system architecture to any place you like (preferably somewhere in Program Files).
  4. Launch audiorepeater_ks.exe. Most options should already be set to the optimum, you only have to set VB-Audio Point as Wave in and your sound card as Wave out. You could additionally increase the Pre-fill to, % to 70 (more headroom for the buffering) and change Bits per sample to 18 (very slight, but for normal humans undistinguishable better rounding when decreasing the volume of your device's output) before Starting the audio transfer.
  5. Now play sound from different sources and see if everything works without dropouts or crackling.

If everything works fine, you can minimize Audio Repeater KS to the traybar and launch it with Windows by placing a shortcut in the Autostart folder (shell:startup). Edit the shortcut's properties and run it Minimized and add after the target location: /Input:"VB-Audio Point" /Output:"<your sound card>" /BitsPerSample:18 /OutputPrefill:70 /AutoStart or your respective settings (check out the user manual for all commands).

• • VB Cable

Using VB Cable without Audio Repeater KS is possible but it will increase the audio delay (see Audio Latency Measurements). However, you can use this as a baseline.

  1. Download and install VB Cable. No need to reboot.
  2. Click Actions → Open Equalizer APO Configurator in HeSuVi and tick the connector CABLE Input of the device VB-Audio Virtual Cable.
  3. Hit Close but do not reboot. Use Actions → Restart Audio Service instead.
  4. Click Actions → Open Windows Sound Panel and select CABLE Input as default device there.
  5. Now do steps two and three of the 7.1 Virtualization guide above for CABLE Input.
  6. Select your normal device, open the Properties and tick both Exclusive Mode checkboxes from the Advanced tab. Save with OK.
  7. Switch to the Recording tab where you will find another VB Cable connection called CABLE Output.
  8. Hit Properties and change the sampling rate to either 48000 Hz or 44100 Hz with two channels at 24 bit from the Default Format dropdown under Advanced. Go to Listen as well and and Listen to this device from your original output device.
  9. Open the Virtual IO Control Panel from the start menu and match the internal sampling rate to the one you set in Windows Options → Internal Sampling Rate: 4XX00Hz. (You can try a smaller maximum buffer size like 2048 here as well.) Reboot if anything had to be changed.

Sadly, VB Cable doesn't support volume controling, but you could resort to Volume² or EarTrumpet.

You could also try HiFi Cable with ASIO4All as an alternative to VB Cable.

• • Digital Out with 7.1 Surround Sound

C-Media CMI8788 cards (many Xonar PCI(-E) models) or similar allow for the usage of 7.1 Sound in Windows even with a stereo-only PCM S/PDIF connection. You should prefer this method if you have a capable card because it doesn't need any additional tools and doesn't add latency.

  1. Click Actions → Open Equalizer APO Configurator in HeSuVi and tick the analog device of your sound card (probably called "Speakers").
  2. Hit Close but do not reboot. Use Actions → Restart Audio Service instead.
  3. Click Actions → Open Windows Sound Panel and select your analog output as default device there.
  4. Now do steps two and three of the 7.1 Virtualization guide above for this device.
  5. Open the Xonar Audio Center or the C-Media Audio Panel and activate the digital S/PDIF output with PCM.

HeSuVi will now work with virtualized 7.1 (8 channels) for your stereo DAC. The sampling frequency can be different than what you have selected in Windows but using the same 44100 / 48000 Hz is probalby best, the DAC can then decide what to make with it. Some X-Fi cards might behave similar but no guarantee for that.

Only use this if you really need multiple inputs and outputs for something like streaming. VB Cable (with Audio Repeater KS) should be prefered due to better reliability and full range of functions.

  1. Download and install Voicemeeter (or the Banana version). Don't reboot.
  2. Open Virtual IO Control Panel from your start menu and set internal sampling rate to the same as your device (48000 or 44100 Hz) from Options → Internal Sampling Rate: 4XX00Hz. Don't reboot.
  3. Open Voicemeeter from start menu and set preferred main sample rate to the same as above in Menu → System settings / Options → Preferred Main SampleRate. Also make sure that WDM Input Exclusive Mode is set to Yes.
  4. Hook volume controls to Voicemeeter from Menu → Hook Volume Keys (for Level Output A1) and set Voicemeeter to start with Windows from Menu → System Tray (Run at Startup).
  5. Select your speakers as Voicemeeter's output device by clicking A1 button in HARDWARE OUT section and selecting WDM: Speakers (Sound card).
  6. Set Voicemeeter Input as your default device in Windows Sound Panel (should be done automatically).
  7. Open Voicemeeter Input Properties in Windows Sound Panel and set Voicemeeter sampling rate to to the same as above from the Default Format dropdown under Advanced tab. Save with OK.
  8. Configure Voicemeeter to use surround speaker setup by clicking Configure in Windows Sound Panel and selecting 7.1 Surround, follow through the configuration untill the window closes (you can check each upcoming box, though they do not seem to have an effect).
  9. Open Properties of your Speakers in the Windows Sound Panel and select both checkboxes in Exclusive Mode under Advanced tab.
  10. Open HeSuVi and click Actions → Open Equalizer APO Configurator, select Output A1 there and close the window.
  11. Reboot now.

If you encounter any problems like lot's of distortion / static / crackling, look here.

• Updating Equalizer Profiles

New equalizer profiles are added to the AutoEq source quite frequntly and occasionally old profiles are updated. AutoEq Github page contains a Zip file with all the newest equalizer profiles for HeSuVi.

That Zip file contains a folder called "eq" just like HeSuVi's installation folder has. The HeSuVi's eq folder can simply be replaced with the one from the Zip. Only thing to consider is that the Zip doesn't contain "Custom" folder so that needs to be copied back in afterwards.

You can udpate the equalizer profiles in HeSuVi with these steps:
1. Unselect current equalizer profile in "Equalizer" tab by selecting the top row which has the file path
2. Shut down HeSuVi
3. Move the current eq folder C:\Program Files\EqualizerAPO\config\HeSuVi\eq to Desktop
4. Download the Zip file
5. Extract the eq folder from the Zip to C:\Program Files\EqualizerAPO\config\HeSuVi\eq
6. Copy "Custom" folder from Desktop backup to HeSuVi's new eq folder
7. Start HeSuVi
8. Select the correct profile from "Equalizer" tab in HeSuVi

Usage

• Usage of the Graphical User Interface

• Usage of the Command Line

Troubleshooting

Tutorials

• Apply HeSuVi to Any Audio File for Mobile Usage

• How-To Record Impulse Responses Digitally

Updating, Uninstalling & Changelog

The "installation" of HeSuVi is just an unpacking operation and no files or registry keys will be written outside Equalizer APO\config\HeSuVi and the start menu folder. New versions can thus be unpacked above an existing installation (just use the update function in HeSuVi) and your settings will (ideally) be remembered (reload your profile with the manager if settings are wrong). For an uninstallation you can just delete the HeSuVi folder inside config and start menu. The changelog can be found in the readme.

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