The OP was mentioning latencies in the order of 200-250 ms. This is very high latency that would be very noticeable (and very annoying) in most use cases besides music playback. This amount of A/V desync is definitely unacceptable for any kind of video playback, unless the user manually compensates in the other direction using video player controls (assuming it provides such controls). The OP should ideally try to bring this down to 50 ms or less if he wants to support general use cases like video...
You seem to be referring to what the configurator calls "init time", which is indeed the time it takes to load the filters, not run them. Init time matters in terms of how long it takes to initialize an audio stream, but once the audio stream has been initialized it has no effect on latency or anything else. I have not looked what this latency value seen in editor actually means ... is it just calculated/approximated file processing time It is not processing time. It is an estimate of the delay introduced...
When the audio engine is running faster the audio stream is faster manipulated causing less audio latency No. That's not how this works. The internal buffer size of the Windows Audio Engine is 10 ms. Since this is real-time processing, this means the Windows Audio Engine (including any APOs) has a total "time budget" of 10 ms to process a 10 ms buffer (in reality slightly less because there is also some overhead downstream of the engine). This 10 ms budget is fixed - just because the buffer was processed...
AFAIK, the latency shown by EAPO does not relate to processing time, but to latency in signal terms, i.e. the time it takes (in samples, not in seconds) for an impulse at the filter input to show up at the filter output. In other words it is purely determined by what your filters are doing, not by how fast they run. For example, if you add a delay filter that delays the audio by 100 ms, then EAPO will show a latency of 100 ms, even though the filter itself runs in <1 ms. Obviously, better hardware...
I'm under the impression that the GraphicEQ command of Equalizer APO uses convolution Sure. I was just clarifying that one can use convolution without using GraphicEQ, by supplying their own filters (impulse responses). That begs the question of why using such elaborate filters. A bit overkill? Long filters are necessary for high accuracy in the bass region. Clever calibration packages will combine IIR filters in low frequencies (for computational efficiency) with FIR filters in high frequencies...
I don't think Equalizer APO can be multithreading. Certainly a channel per core isn't possible. There is nothing stopping an APO from creating its own internal threads and then distributing work over them. EAPO doesn't do that, though. Of course convolution (is this FIR?) or graphic eq as Equalizer APO calls it Convolution/FIR and "graphic eq" aren't the same thing. Convolution filters can be quite expensive if the filter is long (many taps). For example, DRC-FIR generates huge 65k-tap filters by...
The "steepness" of a Butterworth or Linkwitz-Riley filter is determined by its order value. In case of Peace, the order is entered in the Q value field (below a slider). There is some confusion here. "Order" and "Q value" are not the same thing. Q is a tradeoff between stopband attenuation and passband ripple. Filter order is a tradeoff between computational efficiency and filter sharpness. These are two completely separate parameters that are mostly orthogonal to each other.
WOA (windows on arm) should be able to use Prism to execute any x64 applications Equalizer APO is a special case because it is not an application - it is a plug-in DLL that gets loaded into a Windows system process (audiodg.exe). It could be that audiodg.exe is built as ARM64, not ARM64EC, which would mean it can't load x64 code. It's either that, or a bug in the Equalizer APO installer (perhaps it is confused about which architecture it's running on). I don't have a Windows ARM machine so I can't...
See https://sourceforge.net/p/equalizerapo/tickets/281/
I'm not sure I understand but it sounds like you are trying to use EAPO with WASAPI Exclusive mode? That's not going to work. WASAPI Exclusive bypasses APOs. APOs will only work with WASAPI Shared (and legacy equivalents MME and DirectSound).
Equalizer APO uses the REW export syntax. The REW help page describes these as: A 'Modal' filter type may also be offered, which is a peaking filter whose bandwidth or Q is adjusted by REW to match a Target T60 decay time. It is used to accurately counter a modal resonance whose decay time is known. I think this is just an EQ design thing and they are most likely ignored by Equalizer APO, which only cares about frequency, gain and Q, as described in the Equalizer APO docs. In other words the extra...
Equalizer APO uses the REW export syntax. The REW help page describes these as: A 'Modal' filter type may also be offered, which is a peaking filter whose bandwidth or Q is adjusted by REW to match a Target T60 decay time. It is used to accurately counter a modal resonance whose decay time is known. I think this is just a filter design thing and they are most likely ignored by Equalizer APO, which only cares about frequency, gain and Q, as described in the Equalizer APO docs. In other words the extra...
Equalizer APO uses the REW syntax. The REW help page describes these as: A 'Modal' filter type may also be offered, which is a peaking filter whose bandwidth or Q is adjusted by REW to match a Target T60 decay time. It is used to accurately counter a modal resonance whose decay time is known. I think this is just a filter design thing and they are most likely ignored by Equalizer APO, which only cares about frequency, gain and Q, as described in the Equalizer APO docs. In other words the extra Modal...
In REW you can choose between different driver-types. When I choose "EXCL" (which is WASAPI) for the MCHstreamer every channel works. If I choose another type (which is not specified) I can only see 2 Channels. If you pick the non-EXCL option, REW uses Java Sound which is limited to stereo. In other words this is a REW limitation and is not evidence of something going wrong with your setup. I just checked right now and REW only gives me 2 channels on my 5.1 Xonar U7 if I pick the non-EXCL device...
This really sounds like your Windows audio device shared mode channel count is misconfigured. Please double-check your Windows audio control panel settings for the device.
This really sounds like your Windows audio device channel count is misconfigured. Please double-check your Windows audio control panel settings for the device.
I'm not sure about 20 channels, which is an extreme case that EAPO may never have been tested with. 8 channels should definitely work, though. Many people, including myself, use EAPO in a 5.1/7.1 setup. Is the device configured with the desired number of channels in the Windows audio settings? Also, what are you testing this with? Keep in mind ASIO drivers (with very few exceptions) bypass the entire Windows Audio Engine including APOs. It is normal and expected that EAPO will not process audio being...
I don't have access to a Windows ARM device so I can't say for sure, but I strongly suspect Equalizer APO will not work as-is on Windows ARM. APOs have to match the CPU architecture of the OS, because they are loaded as DLLs into the Windows Audio Engine audiodg.exe process. On Windows ARM I would naturally expect that process to be an ARM process. Thus, the APO DLL has to be ARM too. Unfortunately, the current version of Equalizer APO does not include an ARM APO DLL (AFAIK) - it only includes an...
I don't have access to a Windows ARM device so I can't say for sure, but I strongly suspect Equalizer APO will not work as-is on Windows ARM. APOs have to match the CPU architecture of the OS, because they are loaded as DLLs into the Windows Audio Engine audiodg.exe process. On Windows ARM I would naturally expect that process to be an ARM process. Thus, the APO DLL has to be ARM too. Unfortunately, the current version of Equalizer APO does not include an ARM APO DLL - it only includes an x86/x64...
If REW is exporting files with oct instead of Oct, you may want to report that as a regression to REW's author, as that is unlikely to be an intended change. It's unlikely EAPO will be fixed to accept oct anytime soon, but REW's author is usually pretty responsive and it would probably be a trivial one-line fix for him.
Problems like these are usually caused by the actual instance of the VST running in a different context (different user/permission/profile directories) when it's run as part of Equalizer APO itself, as opposed to being used in a normal application. Note "normal application" includes the Equalizer APO configuration editor too, so the behavior of the Equalizer APO configuration editor is not necessarily representative of the behavior of the VST when it's running inside the actual APO. For more information...
As long as your audio device shows up as a 5.1 audio device in Windows (which is a requirement to play multichannel content, anyway), Equalizer APO will work with it. In practice, you have the choice of either using DP/HDMI to some DAC (usually an AV receiver), or you can use the analog outputs of a 5.1 audio interface (USB, PCI, or integrated audio on the motherboard).
I was moving some files and changed the location of Equalizer APO, at first i was getting some errors about not being able to write/read configurations and libraries This is a bad idea. Just keep Equalizer APO in its default install location (i.e. in Program Files). Installing it in non-standard locations will greatly increase the chances of filesystem access permission issues which will prevent the APO from working.
Can you share the output of the powercfg /requests command? This will tell you exactly which app is preventing the display from turning off.
It seems extremely unlikely Equalizer APO would have anything to do with this. Are you sure it's not a coincidence with something else? For example if you're using Steam, it has an infamous bug that prevents the display from going off, even while Steam is minimized. This bug only occurs when a video happens to be playing in the Steam store homepage, which is why you may not have noticed it until now. Another known issue with screen/standby timeouts not working is if you have a game controller (e.g....
It should work as long as you keep your config files inside the Equalizer APO config directory. Equalizer APO will not watch for changes outside of that directory.
does Equalizer APO support Windows Spatial audio (object-based audio on Windows)? Like Dolby Atmos/DTS? Equalizer APO does not support encoded audio (bitstreaming) in general. You will need the player to decode and render to standard PCM first before Equalizer APO can do anything with it.
But you could use a VST plugin. I strongly doubt that will work. Equalizer APO will not negotiate a spatial audio format, so it won't receive spatial audio in the first place, let alone pass it to a VST.
I have not been able to get any vst plugs that have 'moving (dynamic) graphics' to display in equalizer APO, it only seems to display static graphics This is expected and is due to a limitation of how Equalizer APO works at a fundamental level. The Equalizer APO Editor doesn't actually see the audio flowing through the APO, therefore the VST running in the editor can't see it either - it doesn't get any actual signal. There is another instance of the VST running inside the APO itself to actually...
Yes, it's right here: https://sourceforge.net/p/equalizerapo/code/
When I add a -5db compensation at 100Hz, does the software implement that with a slope up/down (and if so, what are the starting and ending frequencies?) or do I get a "spiked" boost only at 100Hz? The former. It has to - it is mathematically impossible to perfectly "spike" a frequency like you're describing with any kind of practical filter. More specifically, Equalizer APO parametric EQ filters are of the very standard IIR second-order biquad type, with coefficients given by the (also very standard)...
I don't know why the GUI would crash (probably some incompatibility between Equalizer APO and that particular VST), but: The analysis panel shows that the plugin is making a change but it is not audible. If the VST is not actually being applied to the audio signal, it might be because that VST does not except to be run inside the Windows Audio Service and is misbehaving as a result.
Obligatory reminder that Windows 7 extended support ended 3 years ago, which means you will not get any security updates and are therefore at heightened risk for malware and various other attack vectors. Connecting a Windows 7 machine to the Internet is a danger to yourself and others.
I don't see SUB channel name defined there in documentation The original versions of Equalizer APO only recognized the channel name "SUB", not "LFE". Back in 2016 I asked the developer to change it to LFE, and he did, while still preserving compatibility with the old name to avoid breaking existing configs. So, basically, the "SUB" channel name is technically deprecated and obsolete, which is likely why it's not mentioned in the current docs.
@Etienne Dechamps Isn't it better to first low filter the L, R, etc. and then feed them onto LFE? Or it doesn't matter if it's done afterwards on LFE like Janez did? Ah, this is a subject of much debate in LFE discussions. Basically, there are 4 possible approaches: Lowpass the LFE channel at the same frequency as the crossover. Lowpass the LFE channel at some higher frequency (typically 120 Hz, which both ITU-R BS.775 and Dolby suggest as the highest reasonable frequency for LFE content) Don't lowpass...
@Etienne Dechamps Isn't it better to first low filter the L, R, etc. and then feed them onto LFE? Or it doesn't matter if it's done afterwards on LFE like Janez did? Ah, this is a subject of much debate in LFE discussions. Basically, there are 4 possible approaches: Lowpass the LFE channel at the same frequency as the crossover. Lowpass the LFE channel at some higher frequency (typically 120 Hz, which both ITU-R BS.775 and Dolby suggest as the highest reasonable frequency for LFE content) Don't lowpass...
@Etienne Dechamps Isn't it better to first low filter the L, R, etc. and then feed them onto LFE? Or it doesn't matter if it's done afterwards on LFE like Janez did? Ah, this is a subject of much debate in LFE discussions. Basically, there are 4 possible approaches: Lowpass the LFE channel at the same frequency as the crossover. Lowpass the LFE channel at some higher frequency (typically 120 Hz, which both ITU-R BS.775 and Dolby suggest as the highest reasonable frequency for LFE content) Don't lowpass...
@Etienne Dechamps Isn't it better to first low filter the L, R, etc. and then feed them onto LFE? Or it doesn't matter if it's done afterwards on LFE like Janez did? Ah, this is a subject of much debate in LFE discussions. Basically, there are 4 possible approaches: Lowpass the LFE channel at the same frequency as the crossover. Lowpass the LFE channel at some higher frequency (typically 120 Hz, which both ITU-R BS.775 and Dolby suggest as the highest reasonable frequency for LFE content) Don't lowpass...
In general, when the Q value of a filter is not given, it is usually safe to assume by default that the filter follows a Butterworth characteristic, because Butterworth is the most boring, least surprising, most widely used filter characteristic (it is the fastest possible IIR filter that does not ripple, making it a good default choice for most applications). Butterworth filters are defined by Q=1/sqrt(2), i.e. 0.7071. It would therefore be reasonable to assume Equalizer APO uses a Q of 0.7071 by...
@Etienne Dechamps Isn't it better to first low filter the L, R, etc. and then feed them onto LFE? Or it doesn't matter if it's done afterwards on LFE like Janez did? Ah, this is a subject of much debate in LFE discussions. Basically, there are 4 possible approaches: Lowpass the LFE channel at the same frequency as the crossover. Lowpass the LFE channel at some higher frequency (typically 120 Hz, which both ITU-R BS.775 and Dolby suggest as the highest reasonable frequency for LFE content) Don't lowpass...
Your config looks close to correct. I'd just suggest a couple of improvements: The standard crossover frequency is normally 80 Hz, not 100 Hz. Going higher than 80 Hz runs the risk that the listener will be able to locate the sub. Just making sure you're aware of this potential problem. The filters that Equalizer APO provides are second-order filters. More specifically, if you use the default Q/BW, they are Butterworth second-order filters. Therefore what you have set up is known as a "Butterworth...
What ended up working is copying over the L and R channels over to LFE. But its still a mystery why the configuration that worked for so long suddenly decided to stop. What seems to have happened here is that, previously, something else was doing bass management for you ("bass management" is the technical term for "redirecting main channels bass frequencies to the sub channel" - something has to do it, it doesn't happen magically), but then at some point that something else stopped doing that, so...
What ended up working is copying over the L and R channels over to LFE. But its still a mystery why the configuration that worked for so long suddenly decided to stop. What seems to have happened here is that, previously, something else was doing bass management for you ("bass management" is the technical term for "redirecting main channels bass frequencies to the sub channel" - something has to do it, it doesn't happen magically), but then at some point that something else stopped doing that, so...
What ended up working is copying over the L and R channels over to LFE. But its still a mystery why the configuration that worked for so long suddenly decided to stop. What seems to have happened here is that, previously, something else was doing bass management for you ("bass management" is the technical term for "redirecting main channels bass frequencies to the sub channel" - something has to do it, it doesn't happen magically), but then at some point that something else stopped doing that, so...
What ended up working is copying over the L and R channels over to LFE. But its still a mystery why the configuration that worked for so long suddenly decided to stop. What seems to have happened here is that, previously, something else was doing bass management for you ("bass management" is the technical term for "redirecting main channels bass frequencies to the sub channel" - something has to do it, it doesn't happen magically), but then at some point that something else stopped doing that, so...
If by "activate an FFT spectrum" you mean you are trying to visualize the signal from within the Equalizer APO Editor, then yes it won't work and that is a limitation of Equalizer APO. The Editor does not actually have access to the signal; it just writes the config and has no visibility into what happens afterwards. The VST in the editor runs with no signal; the VST only gets a signal when it runs inside the APO itself, which is hidden from view.
I disabled the "Allow applications to take exclusive control of this device" checkbox on the Windows sound menu. That doesn't really matter in this case. Somewhat counter-intuitively, you can end up bitstreaming even outside of exclusive mode. Game Intro theme > bypasses Equalizer APO Game Menu theme > Processed by Equalizer APO Game Loading theme > Processed by Equalizer APO Actual gameplay > bypasses Equalizer APO That can be explained if the "Game Intro" and "gameplay" audio use surround and therefore...
I disabled the "Allow applications to take exclusive control of this device" checkbox on the Windows sound menu. That doesn't really matter. Somewhat counter-intuitively, you can end up bitstreaming even outside of exclusive mode. Game Intro theme > bypasses Equalizer APO Game Menu theme > Processed by Equalizer APO Game Loading theme > Processed by Equalizer APO Actual gameplay > bypasses Equalizer APO That can be explained if the "Game Intro" and "gameplay" audio use surround and therefore bitstream...
whenever I change the game's audio setting to "Home Theater", Equalizer APO gets bypassed Equalizer APO works if I play any other media (like an youtube video) while the game is running Dolby Decoder using the "Dolby Access" app to enable Surround sound through "Dolby Atmos" (otherwise Windows only allows Stereo) It seems like you are bitstreaming (also known as passthrough) encoded Dolby content. Equalizer APO fundamentally cannot work in this case because it can only operate on PCM (raw) audio,...
Equalizer APO does still function when the setting is turned off. That is surprising, I would expect Equalizer APO to be bypassed if you uncheck that box. It's possible my understanding is out of date and something changed in recent Windows versions.
Your request doesn't make sense because "Windows Audio Enhancements" are the term Windows uses in its UI to refer to APOs. You can't use Equalizer APO with "audio enhancements" disabled, because Equalizer APO itself is one of these "enhancements"! Windows Audio Enhancements appears to be gradually fading the volume in and out depending on what sound is currently playing. Have you tried unchecking "Use original APO" in the "Troubleshooting options" of the Equalizer APO Configurator? This will disable...
Your request doesn't make sense because "Windows Audio Enhancements" are the term Windows uses in its UI to refer to APOs. You can't use Equalizer APO with "audio enhancements" enabled, because Equalizer APO itself is one of these "enhancements"! Windows Audio Enhancements appears to be gradually fading the volume in and out depending on what sound is currently playing. Have you tried unchecking "Use original APO" in the "Troubleshooting options" of the Equalizer APO Configurator? This will disable...
Does Equalizer APO function without the Windows Audio Enhancements functionality enabled? When Equalizer APO is installed on a device, Equalizer APO is the "audio enhancement" ("audio enhancements" is the term Windows uses in its UI to refer to APOs). If you disable audio enhancements on a device where Equalizer APO is installed, then you end up disabling Equalizer APO itself.
This is tracked in ticket #23 which I opened… 7 years ago. As Peter said, the project has been in limbo for quite some time now.
I've been using Windows 11 since it came out. Equalizer APO works just fine with it. On Windows Updates, especially major ones, it is typical for Equalizer APO to disappear from audio devices - you have to install it again using the Configurator. Have you tried that?
In my experience some Windows Updates do tend to reinstall audio devices from time to time. They're supposed to be transparent as Windows will automatically re-apply most audio settings after the update so you don't realize what happened, but sadly that doesn't include APOs. This is likely why you have to reconfigure Equalizer APO on some updates. Sadly, this is a fact a life and can't be helped, unless someone comes up with some kind of automation to detect this situation and automatically reinstall...
Can you please explain to me how Equalizer APO is executed when Windows starts up? I cannot figure it out. After the intial Install of Equalizer APO it does not seem to be started anywhere - it is obviously not in the Windows START Folder. Is this program somehow imbedded in the Windows sound system after installation? Yes. APOs are loaded automatically by the Windows Audio Engine, they do not need to be started independently. Also: Also, does "APO" stand for some class or type of program? I cannot...
What do you mean by the sub channel not working? In Equalizer APO the "sub" channel is incorrectly named - it's really the LFE channel, which is related, but is not the same thing, as the subwoofer channel (see also "bass management"). Are you aware of the difference? It is normal for the LFE channel to be silent when playing an audio stream that does not include LFE data - that does not mean the subwoofer is silent.
A 32-bit Equalizer APO will not work on a 64-bit system. This is because, at the end of the day, Equalizer APO, just like any other APO, is a DLL that gets loaded into the Windows Audio Engine. On 64-bit Windows, the Windows Audio Engine is a 64-bit process (audiodg.exe). It is not technically possible to load a 32-bit DLL in a 64-bit process - the architecture has to match exactly. The logical conclusion is that a 32-bit APO cannot be loaded on 64-bit Windows.
not enough usb controller resources This looks like a hardware USB issue, which has nothing to do with Equalizer APO.
Do you think it's rights issue (as usual)? Is the DLL loading successfully in the Configurator, but not loading properly in the APO? If so, then yes I would follow the usual procedure to try to understand what's going on when the DLL is being loaded inside the APO. It could be that the APO cannot access the DLL itself, or cannot access one of its dependencies.
there isn't way to know why the LoadLibraryW() returns an error Process Monitor can give you some clues as to what LoadLibray() is trying to do (in particular, which paths it's trying and whether it managed to read the DLL file and its dependencies) which often helps determining the cause of the failure. Otherwise, API Monitor can show you the call to LoadLibrary() itself, the parameters to it and the resulting error code. And of course, since Equalizer APO is open source, you can always use "printf...
I see the EQ graph in REW created with EQ APO (eq'd my iLoud Micro Montitors), which is good. But I wonder, are the APO and REW both equalizing at the same time? Sounds like it's just once with the REW. REW is an audio measurement suite. It also has facilities to help you design EQ filters. It will not apply EQ for you - that's not its job. If you design a set of EQ filters with REW, all you end up is a set of filter parameters - the filters are not actually running anywhere. This should be fairly...
I see the EQ graph in REW created with EQ APO (eq'd my iLoud Micro Montitors), which is good. But I wonder, are the APO and REW both equalizing at the same time? Sounds like it's just once with the REW. REW is an audio measurement suite. It also has facilities to help you design EQ filters. It will not apply EQ for you - that's not its job. If you design a set of EQ filters with REW, all you end up is a set of filter parameters - the filters are not actually running anywhere. This should be fairly...
I see the EQ graph in REW created with EQ APO (eq'd my iLoud Micro Montitors), which is good. But I wonder, are the APO and REW both equalizing at the same time? Sounds like it's just once with the REW. REW is an audio measurement suite. It also has facilities to help you design EQ filters. It will not apply EQ for you - that's not its job. If you design a set of EQ filters with REW, all you end up is a set of filter parameters - the filters are not actually running anywhere. This should be fairly...
What is most likely happening is that the VST plugin is unable to access the head tracker hardware from within the APO due to the environment it's running in. It could be that there are ways to make hardware devices such as these visible to the Windows Audio service so that APOs can use them, but I'm really not sure how easy or feasible that would be. I would start by looking at what the VST plugin is trying to do and go from there. (Cool stuff, by the way. I had no idea technology had progressed...
"Contacted" ip addresses doesn't mean they are indeed contacted. VirusTotal can't detect this unless it really installs an app (and it doesn't for obvious reasons). So the ip addresses listed are "alleged" as being contacted. This is false. VirusTotal does run the executable, it just does it in a thoroughly isolated "sandbox" (basically a VM) to prevent the executable from causing any actual damage. This can be seen on the behavior tab of the analysis which shows various sandbox types that were used...
IIRC, APOs are automatically unloaded if no audio stream is being played through them after about 5 seconds. It's not Equalizer APO that's doing this - it's Windows itself automatically unloading the APO if it's not needed to free system resources. This could very well explain the OP's confusion. You can keep an audio stream running at all times by using something like Sound Keeper (for alternatives, Google "silent stream bug fix").
The S-1-15-3-1024-1065365936-1281604716-3511738428-1654721687-432734479-3232135806-4053264122-3456934681 SID is a well-known capability SID. The fact that it doesn't show up as a "friendly name" is normal. See this Microsoft article, which also stresses that such ACLs entries should NOT be removed and cannot be added back!
The S-1-15-3-1024-1065365936-1281604716-3511738428-1654721687-432734479-3232135806-4053264122-3456934681 SID is a well-known SID. The fact that it doesn't show up as a "friendly name" is normal. See this Microsoft article, which also stresses that such ACLs entries should NOT be removed and cannot be added back!
the plugins look for the license information in Local Service AppData. I used a workaround and it seems to be working. I copied the license files in C:\Windows\ServiceProfiles\LocalService\AppData this has resolved the issue. Yes, this is a proper fix. If you want to get clever you can also make the VST data folder inside LocalService a link back to your personal folder. This way, you don't need two copies and any change you make in one place is automatically reflected in the other. I'm not sure...
The simple solution to the problem would be to allow Audio Service to have access to all the files located in MY AppData (C:\Users\wealstarr\AppData) this is where the license+setting are and this is the place from where the editor is reading too. It might be where the Editor is reading them, but are you sure it's where the APO (running inside the Windows Audio service) is reading them? I'm willing to bet it's not. Again: the APO itself does not run with the same value for %APPDATA% as the Editor....
The simple solution to the problem would be to allow Audio Service to have access to all the files located in MY AppData (C:\Users\wealstarr\AppData) this is where the license+setting are and this is the place from where the editor is reading too. It might be where the Editor is reading them, but are you sure it's where the APO (running inside the Windows Audio service) is reading them? I'm willing to bet it's not. Again: the APO itself does not run with the same value for %APPDATA% as the Editor....
The simple solution to the problem would be to allow Audio Service to have access to all the files located in MY AppData (C:\Users\wealstarr\AppData) this is where the license+setting are and this is the place from where the editor is reading too. It might be where the Editor is reading them, but are you sure it's where the APO (running inside the Windows Audio service) is reading them? I'm willing to bet it's not. Again: the APO itself does not run with the same value for %APPDATA% as the Editor....
The simple solution to the problem would be to allow Audio Service to have access to all the files located in MY AppData (C:\Users\wealstarr\AppData) this is where the license+setting are and this is the place from where the editor is reading too. It might be where the Editor is reading them, but are you sure it's where the APO (running inside the Windows Audio service) is reading them? I'm will to bet it's not. Again: the APO itself does not run with the same value for %APPDATA% as the Editor. Are...
Attempt 2: I tried adding LOCAL SERVICE to the folder containing the license, this didn't work either. The best way to understand what's going on is to use Process Monitor on the audiodg.exe process (you'll want to restart the Windows Audio (audiosrv) service to force the APO to reload). There will be a lot of irrelevant noise in the Process Monitor output, but you should be able to find relevant file access attempts (e.g. if you look for the names of VST-specific folders). Most likely you will see...
I tried running EqualizerAPO.dll as LOCAL SERVICE to no avail EqualizerAPO.dll (more specifically audiodg.exe which is the process EqualizerAPO.dll is loaded into) already runs as LOCAL SERVICE. That's precisely the cause of the problem. I tried to add the object "Audiosrv" in the permissions for EqualizerAPO.dll It makes no sense to do that. The Windows Audio Service already has permissions to load EqualizerAPO.dll, otherwise Equalizer APO itself wouldn't work. (More generally, LOCAL SERVICE typically...
Have you tried the suggestions described in this very similar thread? It looks like you're having the same problem with the same symptoms and it could be solved in a similar way. In particular, when you say: License and settings are stored in the same folder either in %APPDATA% or in %LOCALAPPDATA% which EqualizerAPO reads correctly. All settings are read and altered correctly from EqualizerAPO's editor. License insertion and retrieval is also correctly read and parsed by EqualizerAPO. That might...
See this post. I doubt anything can be done about it unless someone adds some kind of automatic reinstaller to Equalizer APO that can detect this situation.
The plugin might use some files located in folders to which Equalizer APO has no right to read. This would only prevent the APO from working. I don't think that would crash the configuration editor, which runs with the normal user rights.
If you clip the output of the Windows audio engine then you will definitely trigger CAudioLimiter, which is a limiter filter that Windows automatically inserts at the end of every audio output path. CAudioLimiter "hides" digital clipping and modifies its sound to make it less obvious/unpleasant. It is quite likely that CAudioLimiter is what you thought sounded like a "compander".
If you hit clipping in the Windows audio engine then you will definitely trigger CAudioLimiter, which is a limiter filter that Windows automatically inserts at the end of every audio output path. CAudioLimiter "hides" digital clipping and modifies its sound to make it less obvious/unpleasant. It is quite likely that CAudioLimiter is what you thought sounded like a "compander".
I regularly observe a similar phenomenon but only on some Windows updates. These Windows updates have a tendency to reinstall audio drivers, leading to Equalizer APO being thrown out. I suspect this would especially affect audio devices that use the standard Microsoft audio drivers (e.g. generic USB Audio, Bluetooth), as these drivers might be frequently updated with each Windows build. Assuming you have the same problem, then I doubt anything can be done about it aside from adding a feature to Equalizer...
Yes. Although initialization is not done when "loading Windows". APOs are loaded when an audio device is first used by an application. It is then unloaded if no applications have used the audio device in the last 5 seconds (IIRC). In other words, the init time is basically how long the first audio application has to wait for its audio stream to initialize.
Yes. Although initialization is not done when "loading Windows". APOs are loaded when an audio device is first used by an application. It is then unloaded if no applications use the audio device for more than 5 seconds (IIRC). In other words, the init time is basically how long the first audio application has to wait for its audio stream to initialize.
does that have any implications on audio quality? No.
I'm not sure about the internals of that software but as far as I'm aware, there is no (visible) license file involved. It gets activated online, so , probably something happening at registry level. Since you already have a line of communication with the developer, you might want to ask them where the activation info is located. You can explain to them that you need the Windows LocalService user to be able to access the activation data in order to use the VST in Equalizer APO. That might even compel...
It could for some reason that the Fiio DAC uses ASIO I would be very surprised if a FiiO DAC only supported ASIO and did not show up as a standard Windows audio device as well. That's almost certainly not working as designed. Another issue might be similar if this DAC uses WASAPI exclusive mode An audio device cannot by itself "use WASAPI exclusive mode". Which mode to use is a decision made by the application, not the audio hardware/driver. Basically: if an audio device shows up in the Windows audio...
Do you know how activation works for that plugin? Is it looking for an "activation file" or registry entry somewhere? If so, you might to make sure that the plugin can get to the activation data when running under the context of the APO (LocalService user).
Regarding the VST plugin folder: the main risk of putting VST plugins in a different location is that the APO might not have the right permissions to access the plugin. But that really depends on where you put the plugin - the APO has access to some folders but not others. You might just have been lucky.
I've definitely seen faulty audio drivers/hardware with non-functional Windows volume control. But that has nothing to do with sAPOs. Windows will still insert a software volume control APO (if there is no hardware volume control) even if a sAPO is used, including Equalizer APO (this is something I personally observed). This makes sense because system effect sAPOs are not responsible for volume control. I guess it's theoretically possible that there is some kind of undocumented API that no-one knows...
I don't see how a system effects APO could possibly have any effect on the Windows volume control. If the driver doesn't support hardware volume control, then Windows automatically inserts its own software volume control APO, but that is not a system effects APO, so it should be able to coexist with Equalizer APO just fine. If there is a way for a system effect APO to replace the standard Windows volume control, then that would be the first time I hear of it (and would definitely be interested to...
Ah, right, I guess there is some confusion here… You are correct, the code runs the child APO first, and Equalizer APO after. I failed to notice that this is indeed precisely what the OP wants! I just assumed they wanted to do the opposite of whatever the current behavior is. @bobtk As Peter rightly pointed out, Equalizer APO already runs the original device APO before it applies its own filters. Therefore it seems like there is nothing to fix here and Equalizer APO already behaves the way you w...
Ah, right, I guess there is some confusion here… You are correct, the code runs the child APO first, and Equalizer APO after. I failed to notice that this is indeed precisely what the OP wants! @bobtk As Peter rightly pointed out, Equalizer APO already runs the original device APO before it applies its own filters. Therefore it seems like there is nothing to fix here and Equalizer APO already behaves the way you want?
I think it's only possible to first get the audio stream for processing and then give it the device APO. Once given to the device APO Equalizer APO can't get to it back That's not true. Equalizer APO simply wraps the original APO (called "child APO" in the code); it has full control over it and could technically decide to do whatever it wants with the audio after it has been processed. Running the child APO after Equalizer APO could be as simple as swapping the two process() calls that I linked to,...
Also when browsing through my Windows registry I see a lot more audio devices than I have in my Device manager. It includes some duplicates also. I'm not sure why Windows does this. The registry retains the entire history of all devices you ever installed, even if they are not plugged in anymore. This is so that Windows can remember the device settings in the event one of the devices gets plugged in again. As you said, Windows sometimes treats a device plugged into a different port as a new device....