How to install the PulseAudio equalizer which works

Tips, Tricks and Tutorials Tried & Tested
#17

I'm aware of PulseEffects and I remember it didn't work out-of-the-box, just after setting it to the right direction. I examined every option of it and concluded it was a copy and paste of what we find in the Realtek High Definition Audio drivers for Windows.

If your hear it closely, this equalizer adds a bad 'static' to the sound acoustic, distorting the original audio. It does not provide a quality overall output, it is very poor.
It's useful if you wanna play around with the ambient effects, but it's the same as using a cheap set of speakers.

Now, the LADSPA EQ has a tremendous quality.

It doubles the power of your speakers! Has a perfect distribution of channels, every detail and nuance of the audio has definition, clarity and potency without any artificial layer.
I gotta say, undoubtedly, that only through this piece of software, you'll have a better audio than several so called audiophile and expensive speakers.
It's the cornerstone of my HTPC.

It must never die. :monitor:

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#18

So tiox, are you a fan of Bach? :laughing:

bachmann

You seem like a notorious and assiduous contributor to this community, inherited from the composer.

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#19

Guys, I'm so sorry. I don't have time to research right now. I managed to successfully install old PAEQ after much issues with missing legacy GTK2 libraries which were not in Eoan's repos.

In the next day or two, I'll have the good stuff for y'all. But it's going to be a lot to fetch.

#20

Fifteen packages.

Fifteen packages?!

Fifteen packages!

Holy O'Connell is that a whole lot of packages! But I figured it out, yet again for the benefit of the three people here who give a damn.

If you encounter the 500 server error issue because you're hammering the Ubuntu Packages website a little too much with requests, use Google; begin a search with site: and the URL you want to access, you'll bypass the 500 for a few minutes, anyway and be able to download all of the packages you need. But that's ridiculous. This is getting out of hand.

Can someone more experienced than I rebase and recompile this for GTK3?

#21

Added archive with all Eoan deps to keep Rhonda from fielding multiple 500 issues for Ubuntu Packages; https://github.com/Hebgbs/Hebgbs.github.io/raw/linux/ladspa-eq_amd64.tar.gz

#22

PulseEffects made it to the debian main repo.
It can be installed with sudo apt install -y pulseeffects.
However, in order for the EQ to work, you have to install lsp-plugins as well (sudo apt install -y lsp-plugins).

Pulse effects equaliser not working in 20.04lts
#23

It's still not the same. That, and for me it crashes. Lack of good presets also kind of suck.

See, there are major issues with any solution that isn't dead-simple and bulletproof. It isn't that I want just an EQ, I want one that doesn't demand a lot of attention, or require an audio engineering degree to purpose easily configure.

This works in that way. When PE is up to snuff and doesn't demand too much from me I'll try it again.

#25

@tiox Thanks for putting this together. I didn't get anywhere (on 19.10) with the standard pulseaudio-equalizer, nor with pulseeffects. Following your method above, I've got the equalizer working as I used to have before upgrading!

Now, I did have one problem with the archive you've shared:

$ sudo apt install ./*.deb
Reading package lists... Error!
E: Invalid archive signature
E: Internal error, could not locate member control.tar.{zstlz4gzxzbz2lzma}
E: Could not read meta data from ./libbonobo2-0_2.32.1-3_amd64.deb
E: The package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened.

I had to download a fresh version from https://packages.ubuntu.com/disco/amd64/libbonobo2-0/download and it all worked from there.

#26

Interesting. Can you reproduce these errors in a live session?

#27

... in a live session?

@tiox Not sure what you mean by "live session". What I'm suggesting is that the archive you've provided needs to be updated with a fresh download of libbonobo2-0. Thanks again, it's been incredibly useful.

#28

Using your installation media, to run a temporary instance via its Syslinux menu option Try Ubuntu MATE without installing.

#29

Great tiox,

Did you check the situation on Focal Fossa?

We have an incoming LTS edition that matters the most.

#30

Focal is going to be very important. Either PulseEffects shapes up to be more end-user friendly (that is, including idiot-proof defaults for dumb babies) and not be so prone to crashing on some end-user's machines which had prior issues or somebody needs to do some recompiling of the LADSPA solution my guide presents for ease-of-installation with the latest LTS.

#31

Updated OP to be thematically consistent with the rest of my more recent submissions on here.

#32

Replaced the care package for Eoan / Fossa, should work just fine now. If it doesn't complain via direct message — That should catch my attention. Also overhauled some portions of this guide after a brief investigation into available packages for different systems from the WebUpd8 repository.

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#33

tiox,

Cosmic, Disco and Eoan packages are discontinued by packages.ubuntu.com and no longer available to download.

I recommend using launchpad instead, when it's a very reliable source that will hardly be erased.

https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/pygtk/2.24.0-6

(pick your processor's build)

https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/pygtk/2.24.0-6/+build/16950431

Following your guidance for 'Focal' I downloaded

python-gtk2_2.24.0-6_amd64.deb
python-glade2_2.24.0-6_amd64.deb

and merged with ladspa-eq_amd64.tar.gz you compiled.

Running a

sudo apt install ./*.deb

on the folder does the job nicely,
and alternatively we can use

sudo dpkg -i *.deb
sudo apt --fix-broken install

So I confirm that adding

sudo add-apt-repository -n ppa:nilarimogard/webupd8
sudo apt-get install pulseaudio-equalizer=2.7.0.2-5~webupd8~xenial0

will finish the installation with

The following NEW packages will be installed:
  ladspa-sdk libgsm1 pulseaudio-equalizer python-gi python-gobject swh-plugins

and remain fully operational for 'Focal Fossa' without the need to edit the repository list.

I strongly recommend using

sudo apt-mark hold pulseaudio-equalizer

afterward, to avoid accidentally updating it to Ubuntu's repo bad version.

Sweet, sweet EQ =)

Great work.

#34

I think I am just going to fix up information for Focal / DIsco and republish a compiltion of packages with the new ones you need for Groovy.

Man, honestly maintaining this is a right pain in the tuckus, why doesn't someone with more time and expertise simply build the GTK3 version available from AUR? Surely that requires less deps right?

#35

Hi, feel free to download the following links below.
Focal
Bionic

I've managed to get the ladspa EQ source from github to run on Linux Mint 20 (Focal based) and Mint 19.3 (Bionic based).
Focal:
sudo dpkg -i ./pulseaudio-equalizer-ladspa_3.0.2-1~eoan_all.deb
sudo apt install -f -y
Bionic:
sudo dpkg -i ./pulseaudio-equalizer-ladspa_3.0.0pre-1~bionic_all.deb
sudo apt install -f -y

I have not tested them on any other Ubuntu variants. Hope at least one of them will work. Thanks.

#36

Fantastic! I'll check those out in due course.

If your software works out, I'll gladly tell people to just straight-up ignore this guide if using Focal / Groovy and use this instead.

#37

So how about the frontend?

The EQ itself isn't the problem. The frontend is what's killing the whole thing, which is what users are typically wanting to interact with. So what about pulseaudio-equalizer-gtk?

Are the packages for Groovy sufficient for compiling it? Can it be compiled with less packages even if it were not made for Groovy? If we can figure that out and reduce the package count so a care package isn't necessary, then that would be the best thing ever.