[gentoo-user] Audio Equalizer for a DAC ?

[gentoo-user] Audio Equalizer for a DAC ?

[tuxic]

Hi,

Finally I got a FIIO E10K DAC running with my Gentoo Linux and ALSA.

Alsamixer displays a volume slider for PCM only. I can play several
audio sources - so far so nice.

Then I installed media-plugins/alsaequal, which installs fine.

I changed my .asoundrc to:

ctl.equal {
	type equal;
}

pcm.plugequal {
    type equal;
	slave.pcm "plughw:0,0";
}

pcm.equal {
    type plug;
    slave.pcm plugequal;
}

(alsamixer displays the DAC as soundcard 0 - I have deactivated the
audio of the motherboard via BIOS settings) 


Starting for example 'alsamixer -D equal' results in an error:

ALSA lib /var/tmp/portage/media-libs/alsa-lib-1.2.2/work/alsa-lib-1.2.2/src/control/control.c:1379:(snd_ctl_open_noupdate) Invalid CTL equal
cannot open mixer: No such file or directory
[1]    5304 exit 1     alsamixer -D equal

...seems logical to me, since I have only a volume slider in
alsamixer.

The FIIO establishes this USB device:

Bus 005 Device 002: ID 1852:7022 GYROCOM C&C Co., LTD DigiHug USB Audio


Does anyone on this list uses a FIIO E10K / E10 with Linux and got
more than a simple PCM/volume slider with alsamixer ?

Is there any equaliser software available, which processes the audio
data instead?

Is my configuration still incomplete?

Cheers!
Meino

Re: [gentoo-user] Audio Equalizer for a DAC ?

[Mark Knecht]

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On Sat, Apr 18, 2020 at 5:56 AM <tuxic@posteo.de> wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> Finally I got a FIIO E10K DAC running with my Gentoo Linux and ALSA.

<SNIP>

> Is there any equaliser software available, which processes the audio
> data instead?
>
> Is my configuration still incomplete?
>

If you're looking for system wide equalization using Alsa then I don't know
of an answer.

If you're looking to play a CD or mp3 then look for an app with an
equalizer built in.

If you want system wide equalization then you'll want to investigate Jack.
Start with QJackCtl and build your audio path using whatever plugins
(equalizers, compressors, sprectrum analyzers, etc.) you are interested in.

I run Jack full time on my laptop using a Scarlett 2i2 3rd gen which is
somewhat like your USB device. I do not require any system wide
equalization on my system though.

HTH,
Mark

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Re: [gentoo-user] Audio Equalizer for a DAC ?

[tuxic]

On 04/18 07:24, Mark Knecht wrote:
> On Sat, Apr 18, 2020 at 5:56 AM <tuxic@posteo.de> wrote:
> >
> > Hi,
> >
> > Finally I got a FIIO E10K DAC running with my Gentoo Linux and ALSA.
> 
> <SNIP>
> 
> > Is there any equaliser software available, which processes the audio
> > data instead?
> >
> > Is my configuration still incomplete?
> >
> 
> If you're looking for system wide equalization using Alsa then I don't know
> of an answer.
> 
> If you're looking to play a CD or mp3 then look for an app with an
> equalizer built in.
> 
> If you want system wide equalization then you'll want to investigate Jack.
> Start with QJackCtl and build your audio path using whatever plugins
> (equalizers, compressors, sprectrum analyzers, etc.) you are interested in.
> 
> I run Jack full time on my laptop using a Scarlett 2i2 3rd gen which is
> somewhat like your USB device. I do not require any system wide
> equalization on my system though.
> 
> HTH,
> Mark

Hi Mark,

could suggest an equaliser for jack...whatever it may be?

Cheers!
Meino

Re: [gentoo-user] Audio Equalizer for a DAC ?

[Mark Knecht]

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On Sat, Apr 18, 2020 at 7:34 AM <tuxic@posteo.de> wrote:
>
> On 04/18 07:24, Mark Knecht wrote:
> > On Sat, Apr 18, 2020 at 5:56 AM <tuxic@posteo.de> wrote:
> > >
> > > Hi,
> > >
> Hi Mark,
>
> could suggest an equaliser for jack...whatever it may be?
>
> Cheers!
> Meino
>
>

Not recommending, just identifying a Pro Audio products I do use once in
awhile

https://x42-plugins.com/x42/x42-eq

https://www.kvraudio.com/product/xt-eq-equalizer-by-harrison


I wonder if you've seen this page which suggests a way to add an equalizer
to alsmixer?

https://askubuntu.com/questions/772543/audio-equalizer-software-in-ubuntu-16-04

Mark

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Re: [gentoo-user] Audio Equalizer for a DAC ?

[tuxic]

On 04/18 07:51, Mark Knecht wrote:
> On Sat, Apr 18, 2020 at 7:34 AM <tuxic@posteo.de> wrote:
> >
> > On 04/18 07:24, Mark Knecht wrote:
> > > On Sat, Apr 18, 2020 at 5:56 AM <tuxic@posteo.de> wrote:
> > > >
> > > > Hi,
> > > >
> > Hi Mark,
> >
> > could suggest an equaliser for jack...whatever it may be?
> >
> > Cheers!
> > Meino
> >
> >
> 
> Not recommending, just identifying a Pro Audio products I do use once in
> awhile
> 
> https://x42-plugins.com/x42/x42-eq
> 
> https://www.kvraudio.com/product/xt-eq-equalizer-by-harrison
> 
> 
> I wonder if you've seen this page which suggests a way to add an equalizer
> to alsmixer?
> 
> https://askubuntu.com/questions/772543/audio-equalizer-software-in-ubuntu-16-04
> 
> Mark

Hi Mark,

thanks for the links!

for the first I want to avoid propietary / closed software if
possible.

The problem, which I tried to mention in my initial post was, that
alsamixer displays a control for pcm volume only. I also reffered
to the suggestion to run alsamixer -D equal, which fails on my
side - which was the reason for my initial posting.

I need a equaliser, which -- as said -- processes the audio data
and implements the equaliser functionality by itsself.

Cheers!
Meino

Re: [gentoo-user] Audio Equalizer for a DAC ?

[Mark Knecht]

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On Sat, Apr 18, 2020 at 8:03 AM <tuxic@posteo.de> wrote:
<SNIP>
> Hi Mark,
>
> thanks for the links!
>
> for the first I want to avoid propietary / closed software if
> possible.
>
> The problem, which I tried to mention in my initial post was, that
> alsamixer displays a control for pcm volume only. I also reffered
> to the suggestion to run alsamixer -D equal, which fails on my
> side - which was the reason for my initial posting.
>
> I need a equaliser, which -- as said -- processes the audio data
> and implements the equaliser functionality by itsself.
>
> Cheers!
> Meino

Meino,
   Sorry. It's Saturday morning and I'm probably not reading as deeply as I
should.

   If the Ubuntu alsa equalizer doesn't work for you then Jack is probably
your best (only?) solution. That said I never do system wide equalization
and Jack audio generally isn't easy for beginners so be prepared to do some
heavy lifting to get your system running the way you want.

   I wish you the best of luck!

Cheers,
Mark

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Re: [gentoo-user] Audio Equalizer for a DAC ?

[tuxic]

On 04/18 08:21, Mark Knecht wrote:
> On Sat, Apr 18, 2020 at 8:03 AM <tuxic@posteo.de> wrote:
> <SNIP>
> > Hi Mark,
> >
> > thanks for the links!
> >
> > for the first I want to avoid propietary / closed software if
> > possible.
> >
> > The problem, which I tried to mention in my initial post was, that
> > alsamixer displays a control for pcm volume only. I also reffered
> > to the suggestion to run alsamixer -D equal, which fails on my
> > side - which was the reason for my initial posting.
> >
> > I need a equaliser, which -- as said -- processes the audio data
> > and implements the equaliser functionality by itsself.
> >
> > Cheers!
> > Meino
> 
> Meino,
>    Sorry. It's Saturday morning and I'm probably not reading as deeply as I
> should.
> 
>    If the Ubuntu alsa equalizer doesn't work for you then Jack is probably
> your best (only?) solution. That said I never do system wide equalization
> and Jack audio generally isn't easy for beginners so be prepared to do some
> heavy lifting to get your system running the way you want.
> 
>    I wish you the best of luck!
> 
> Cheers,
> Mark

Hi Mark,

no problem! :::)))

Here it is Saturday 5:00 PM...sorry I forgot about timezones...

I will check, whether jack is the way to go!

Have a nice weekend!
Cheers!
Meino

Re: [gentoo-user] Audio Equalizer for a DAC ?

[Mark Knecht]

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On Sat, Apr 18, 2020 at 8:28 AM <tuxic@posteo.de> wrote:
>
> On 04/18 08:21, Mark Knecht wrote:
> > On Sat, Apr 18, 2020 at 8:03 AM <tuxic@posteo.de> wrote:
> > <SNIP>
> > > Hi Mark,
> > >
> > > thanks for the links!
> > >
> > > for the first I want to avoid propietary / closed software if
> > > possible.
> > >
> > > The problem, which I tried to mention in my initial post was, that
> > > alsamixer displays a control for pcm volume only. I also reffered
> > > to the suggestion to run alsamixer -D equal, which fails on my
> > > side - which was the reason for my initial posting.
> > >
> > > I need a equaliser, which -- as said -- processes the audio data
> > > and implements the equaliser functionality by itsself.
> > >
> > > Cheers!
> > > Meino
> >
> > Meino,
> >    Sorry. It's Saturday morning and I'm probably not reading as deeply
as I
> > should.
> >
> >    If the Ubuntu alsa equalizer doesn't work for you then Jack is
probably
> > your best (only?) solution. That said I never do system wide
equalization
> > and Jack audio generally isn't easy for beginners so be prepared to do
some
> > heavy lifting to get your system running the way you want.
> >
> >    I wish you the best of luck!
> >
> > Cheers,
> > Mark
>
> Hi Mark,
>
> no problem! :::)))
>
> Here it is Saturday 5:00 PM...sorry I forgot about timezones...
>
> I will check, whether jack is the way to go!
>
> Have a nice weekend!
> Cheers!
> Meino
>

No problem. If nothing else just as a learning experience give QJackCtl a
try and make it work. You might decide in the end not to use it but if you
like it then you can build audio processing chains as deep and complicated
as you want.

Good luck,
Mark

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[gentoo-user] Re: Audio Equalizer for a DAC ?

[Ian Zimmerman]

On 2020-04-18 14:56, tuxic@posteo.de wrote:

> Then I installed media-plugins/alsaequal, which installs fine.

[...]

> Starting for example 'alsamixer -D equal' results in an error:
> 
> Invalid CTL equal
> cannot open mixer: No such file or directory
> [1]    5304 exit 1     alsamixer -D equal

I have used alsaequal for a number of years, and I even wrote some
tooling around it.  If I remember correctly my work had to do with the
fact that on Debian, which I was using at the time, the alsaequal
settings had to be per-user and not global due to the permission scheme
used for mpd(1).  Or maybe the other way around.  If you're curious, and
lucky, google may still find it.

Then at some point, and possibly at the point of switching to Gentoo, I
started getting an error, and I think it looked just like your error.  I
traced it down to the guts and it looked like an incompatibility between
alsaequal (which was already unmaintained for years at that point) and a
change in the LADSPA API.  Looked hopeless.

I played with the idea of a JACK based equalizer just like the
suggestions you are getting here, but never really followed through
because I only need an equalizer for my personal music listening anyway,
so it is natural to do in the music player.

In any case, alsaequal should be removed from Gentoo.  It is broken, and
it seems nobody knows how to fix it.

-- 
Ian