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wwmm

Member

From: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Registered: 2010-08-14

Posts: 28

PulseEffects - audio effects for stereo pulseaudio applications

project page: https://github.com/wwmm/pulseeffects
aur page: https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/pulseeffects

Pulseeffects builds a gstreamer pipeline that applies the following audio effects to an pulseaudio application output:

- fast lookahead limiter
- reverberation
- 10 bands stereo equalizer

It does not mess with Pulseaudio's configuration. A list of running audio applications is shown in the main interface where there is a switch to redirect/unredirect its output to/from pulseeefects gstreamer pipeline. Gstreamer presets for the equalizer and reverberation plugins can be selected on the interface. Current values are automatically saved and the presets can be tweaked in dconf.

Last edited by wwmm (2017-05-07 17:30:42)

ngoonee

Forum Fellow

From: Between Thailand and Singapore

Registered: 2009-03-17

Posts: 7,358

Re: PulseEffects - audio effects for stereo pulseaudio applications

Are you the author? The dependency on swh-plugins indicates you're using LADSPA plugins for the audio processing, why not use the parametric equalizer from fil-plugins?

Will be testing this out over the weekend (if I can get my bluetooth back in working condition).

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Allan-Volunteer on the (topic being discussed) mailn lists. You never get the people who matters attention on the forums.
jasonwryan-Installing Arch is a measure of your literacy. Maintaining Arch is a measure of your diligence. Contributing to Arch is a measure of your competence.
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wwmm

Member

From: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Registered: 2010-08-14

Posts: 28

Re: PulseEffects - audio effects for stereo pulseaudio applications

Hi!

I am the author. From Ladspa I am using the fast lookahead. Reverb and equalizer are from gstreamer. There was no special reason for not using a parametric equalizer besides the fact I do not know how to properly use one XD. I am not a musician but just a user that decided to to something when Pulseaudio's builtin equalizer stopped playing the right channel of everything I tried to listen. A parametric equalizer seemed a little too complicated for me when all I wanted was consuming music and not producing it.

I am a physicist and not a professional programmer. And is the first time I give something back to the community . If there is room for improvement both from the code as pkgbuild point of view please let me know.

Thanks for the interest in testing

ngoonee

Forum Fellow

From: Between Thailand and Singapore

Registered: 2009-03-17

Posts: 7,358

Re: PulseEffects - audio effects for stereo pulseaudio applications

Understood then. I see there's been quite some activity on this project, which is always good.

As with all open source things, scratching your own itch is the best I'll certainly be using this for a while to test it out, at least it definitely looks better than the default equalizer.

IF you're looking for suggestions (not demands), here's a few at this point:-
1. Equalizer presets (and reverberation too) should have a 'flat' or 'none' option.
2. If I open pavucontrol sometimes the inputs shown on your UI are duplicated. This seems random.

Regarding parametric equalizers, they provide much better control, but until now there's no UI for those on Linux that I know off, most just use them pre-set from a script after some hours spent testing. To be fair they're mostly used (as far as I can tell) by audiophiles to fine tune audio, so probably outside your scope. I've found this user guide[1] helpful on the topic of using them.

[1] - http://www.head-fi.org/t/413900/how-to- … a-tutorial

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Allan-Volunteer on the (topic being discussed) mailn lists. You never get the people who matters attention on the forums.
jasonwryan-Installing Arch is a measure of your literacy. Maintaining Arch is a measure of your diligence. Contributing to Arch is a measure of your competence.
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phw

Member

Registered: 2013-05-27

Posts: 318

Re: PulseEffects - audio effects for stereo pulseaudio applications

Nice, like it. What I like to have is a way in the equalizer to reset to all 0 easily (could just be a preset). Also saving ones own presets would be nice. Same for reverberation setting.

[edit]: One of my wishes just got fulfilled. Thanks a lot, that's awesome

Last edited by phw (2017-03-27 16:20:30)

wwmm

Member

From: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Registered: 2010-08-14

Posts: 28

Re: PulseEffects - audio effects for stereo pulseaudio applications

I am happy it is being useful! :-)

I have just added a flat preset for the equalizer. I agree that there should be a none option for the reverberation. I just do not know yet exactly how to do this. Does anyone know if setting all parameters of gstreamer freeverb plugin to zero is the same as applying no effect? If yes I can add a preset that does this. If it is necessary to remove the plugin from the pipeline I will need some time to learn how to do this...

I will think about a way for users to save presets but there is one thing you can do now. All presets values are stored using gsettings. This means that they can be edited in dconf. Just open dconf and go to com/github/wwmm/pulseeffects. After clicking on the preset it will be shown a window where you can choose to load the default values or tweak them with your own.

wwmm

Member

From: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Registered: 2010-08-14

Posts: 28

Re: PulseEffects - audio effects for stereo pulseaudio applications

The duplicated UI controls are happening to me too. I think I have located the source of the problem. I am thinking about a solution

Nicodonald

Member

Registered: 2015-05-24

Posts: 2

Re: PulseEffects - audio effects for stereo pulseaudio applications

Very nice, are you considering a compressor ?

wwmm

Member

From: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Registered: 2010-08-14

Posts: 28

Re: PulseEffects - audio effects for stereo pulseaudio applications

I am considering adding the sc4 compressor from swh-plugins. I just don't know exactly where to put it yet. I am thinking about putting it at the beginning of the pipeline and moving the limiter to the end to avoid saturating pulsesink. But I did not have time to make tests yet.

ngoonee

Forum Fellow

From: Between Thailand and Singapore

Registered: 2009-03-17

Posts: 7,358

Re: PulseEffects - audio effects for stereo pulseaudio applications

Something for your consideration - https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta … eutralizer

I just started using this app for balancing my headphones on my phone. The basic feature is that it plays pink noise at the appropriate frequencies and allows the user to adjust each band of the equalizer to achieve similar/identical perceived volume.

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Allan-Volunteer on the (topic being discussed) mailn lists. You never get the people who matters attention on the forums.
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wwmm

Member

From: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Registered: 2010-08-14

Posts: 28

Re: PulseEffects - audio effects for stereo pulseaudio applications

Wow! I didn't know this app! Very interesting idea. But are they really using a pink-noise? I tried this on my machine:

gst-launch-1.0 audiotestsrc wave=pink-noise ! pulsesink

and it sounds totally different

ngoonee

Forum Fellow

From: Between Thailand and Singapore

Registered: 2009-03-17

Posts: 7,358

Re: PulseEffects - audio effects for stereo pulseaudio applications

Well I guess you can call it pink 'sound'. They use a single tone, but it's raw volume is scaled by frequency to match human loudness sensitivity.

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Allan-Volunteer on the (topic being discussed) mailn lists. You never get the people who matters attention on the forums.
jasonwryan-Installing Arch is a measure of your literacy. Maintaining Arch is a measure of your diligence. Contributing to Arch is a measure of your competence.
Griemak-Bleeding edge, not bleeding flat. Edge denotes falls will occur from time to time. Bring your own parachute.

wwmm

Member

From: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Registered: 2010-08-14

Posts: 28

Re: PulseEffects - audio effects for stereo pulseaudio applications

I took a look at the waveform of their tone and it is quite similar to the interference pattern of two sine waves http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hb … /beat.html. It is probably scaled by frequency as you said. In the latest PulseEffects version I added a test tone generator that allows the production of an amplitude modulated signal at each equalizer band frequency. The amplitude of the two sine waves used to produce the interference pattern is scaled by frequency. I have been using it to personalize the equal loudness presets for my ears. So far I am pleased with the results.

Last edited by wwmm (2017-05-07 15:52:57)

skeevy420

Member

Registered: 2017-03-13

Posts: 35

Re: PulseEffects - audio effects for stereo pulseaudio applications

I'd like to say thanks for this because it has made everything so much more enjoyable due to the compressor and equalizer.  Games, videos, audio, all of it.

I'm just curious if you plan on supporting greater than stereo?  Outside of greater than stereo support, the only feature I could ask for would be Impulse Response Sample (like Viper4Android\Windows).

Keep up the great work.

P.S.  Not requesting anything here, just wanted to show my gratitude.

wwmm

Member

From: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Registered: 2010-08-14

Posts: 28

Re: PulseEffects - audio effects for stereo pulseaudio applications

Hi :-)

I searched for a gstreamer or ladspa plugin for stereo enhancement some time ago but I could not find any. About the impulse response I think it should be possible with this gstreamer plugin audiofirfilter. But it does not seem to be as straightforward to use as the other plugins. So I have no plans of using it for now. Maybe in the future.

wwmm

Member

From: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Registered: 2010-08-14

Posts: 28

Re: PulseEffects - audio effects for stereo pulseaudio applications

Hi fellow Archers! I am posting here just to let you know that Gstreamer parametric equalizer is now fully exposed in PulseEffects. Frequencies and quality factors can be tweaked by the user :-)

Rickrock

Member

From: The Netherlands

Registered: 2014-11-23

Posts: 46

Re: PulseEffects - audio effects for stereo pulseaudio applications

I have installed it to see (and hear) how it runs, but the equalizer part is giving me, well, no equalizer, just a black empty panel.
I activated it while running Clementine.

Oops, I have to click the word instead of the switch, confusing.

Last edited by Rickrock (2017-12-02 15:07:57)