One thing that perplexs me is the distinct lack of an audio EQ in linux. Is there some thing linux comes up against with audio hardware ?
I know I can run old code with pulseaudio and getto it into linux. Well I did that on ubuntu 16.10. Im on fedora now kernel is 4.9.11 or close to it but in the software app there is no EQ. Google there is no EQ…What gives with linux and audio ?
Pulseaudio Equalizer?
Or are you looking for something else? Iirc it’s in the default fedora repos, not at my laptop atm.
And still getting patched btw.
Bugger me … You are correct. I stuck my foot in my mouth then posted on the internet 
Thanks Baz
Carla is popular as a consumer-ease-of-use-orientated lv2 host these days. Not such a big fan myself because it doesn’t do anything jack couldn’t already do before, except present a new GUI maybe, but Kxstudio does have a bunch of marketing going on as if it were a commercial software product lol, which is OK since it’s open source so good fun, and it’s the best maintained audio-centric distribution package for the moment. It has a lot to do with some commercial hardware products specifically using the KxStudio tools and some IR-vendors selling specifically via KxStudio channels, but that can only be a good thing.
Carla adds a bit overhead though. You can make as much dummy audio adapters as you want in ALSA, so you can connect as many plugins through any jack host as you want and where you want them, without needing an extra GUI plugin host for that, because jack offers a GUI host already with jackcontrolgui. But carla does let users that don’t want to understand how it works use plugins.
Advantages of plugins? Professional audio tools, flexibility, more choice, and LV2 is a pretty efficient API for audio processing. Biggest advantage though is that LV2, jack and ALSA are stable, while pulseaudio is crap lol.
Carla you made me work for that Zoltan. Seems like 2013 software as well. I know an EQ is a pretty basic thing but modern software should have it in the mix…pun.
I guess its like software gamma, constrast,etc.
Well it has, there are just several different linux audio subsystems that coexist, and most distros prefer to let users expand the system of their choice rather than bloat the system from the get go lol.
It’s super fresh software though, look at the github page (GitHub - falkTX/Carla: Audio plugin host · GitHub), the source is last updated on March 2nd, which is yesterday lol.
If you’re into that though, which only you can decide for yourself, using a real-time plugin host opens the world of pro grade “boutique” equalizer emulations to your audio experience, plus, and this might interest you more maybe, allows for the use of plugin analyzers and deconvolution tools, to create a near 100% ideal rendering and soundstaging without spending 40k on gear. It’s pretty easy to use plugins, it’s even pretty easy to write plugins, the LV2 API is pretty good and it’s just C or C++, so pretty straightforward if you’re into that.
I know that it’s a different ballgame than bass and treble EQ knobs lol, but it costs nothing and the experience is high end craziness. Like I said, if you’re into that of course. But I would certainly suggest trying it out.
Users who are not into corksniffing audio, can benefit from using a real-time plugin host for two things in my opinion:
1- If you watch multimedia, especially movies, you can use custom compression to really make the sound alive and to even out the volume. The deprofessionalisation of multimedia production because of the consumerization of multimedia production tools has lead to roughly 90% of all multimedia online (including that from big classic studios) to be badly mastered, and all different kinds of compression only make it a lot worse. A dynamics plugin that sounds good to you, which is a matter of taste, is an easy and very good fix.
2- The listening experience of modern multimedia is not so good. It’s like HDR photography, exciters, EQ’s and other plugins are added without good monitoring or without crosschecking on different renderers, compression codecs then add transient peaks which resolution conversion or variable bit rate compression then amplifies and things starts to sound really nasty. To listen to one song like that is bad enough, but it won’t kill you, but to listen for a longer time like that, will be headache or at least fatigue inducing, and that “digital” sound character is nothing but transient unresolved peaks that clip away as if there was no tomorrow. Those might not be individually resolved by your brain in a recognizable manner, but they do pound your ears and cost your brain extra to blend them out. Using a dithering plugin with some clever dynamics shaping, makes for a 1000% better listening experience in long listening sessions, but also just to make the best of the content, even if the content is not so professionally mastered. An example of this is upsampling in audacious with the simple plugins there. The actual plugin will dither the signal while upsampling, mitigating digital noise, and the result will be a far better listening experience. Of course upsampling is not adding actual audio information, the source doesn’t get any better, but the listening experience is, because digital audio recording is one hell of a compromize in comparison to analogue, because if you look at it in a temporal way, less than 1% of the time of rendering, you’re actually being given actual signal, the rest is basically fill, extrapolation, smart extrapolation, but extrapolation nonetheless, and in those 99% of virtual audio, a lot of crap is hiding, and this crap is not super evident, but it degenerates the rendering enormously, so even the slightest mitigation, like dithering with added white noise for instance (which is nothing but adding a couple of bits of entropy, which dramatically improves the “digital” transient problem), is a huge improvement, especially for long listening sessions.
had to make an account just to agree with you, pulse audio is bloody awful.
james dsp as well, just does weird stuff, i don’t even know what im tweaking after a while…this has been doing my head in…however…
thank you, Carla is exactly what i need in my life. I haven’t started making tunes again yet since switching to Linux…but when I do, obviously this, or something similar, will sort everything out.
I’ve only glanced at its github after reading your post, but I take it I can use plugins for my system audio.
I’m running a tinny little speaker that needs to be pumped and squashed and red lined, to make it short lol…so will try - camelfat (all paramaters zeroed, just using for the limiter as its always been my go to), the fab filters multiband compressor (cant remember the name, then an old skool dac emulator for a little bit of that tasty dirt in the mix.
will do some experiments now. nice one
Some of us miss Zolan
i don’t think anyone mentioned it here so far, EasyEffects is another option. Does do the trick, doesn’t get in the way…
I’m going down the rabbit hole here with trying to get my CORSAIR Virtuoso XT headset to sound decent. Speakers sound great and always have under any distro, but these wireless cans sound super trashy in Linux (and to be fair, they sound like crap in Windows as well without the “Atmos” plug, app trash). I’m trying to figure this easyeffects thing out and I’m not having any luck getting anything to sound decent. Any help / suggestions?
– EDIT –
Ooo, I found this! AutoEq - I’m so proud of myself… my google-fu is strong tonight. 
And OMFG! it sound so much damn better! Ty for the easyeffects suggestion!
And for that ‘easy’ setup for surround sound for headsets: virtual-surround-manager is where it’s at.
Thats cool, they follow the Bose school of audio, using the trashiest hardware imaginable and fixing its sound profile in software
