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Topic: Using PC as pass-thru equalizer (Read 7149 times) previous topic - next topic
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Using PC as pass-thru equalizer

I need to equalize the sound in an existing audio system in a public hall that I use occasionally for showing films. I would therefore like to find a software equalizer that runs on Windows 7 and that allows me to connect my laptop between the existing DVD/CD player and the speaker amplifier. The laptop has an external USB soundcard (M-Audio Fasttrack Pro).

All equalizers that I can find seem to be built into music players, like foobar2000, and assume that the sound input comes from a file on the hard drive.

Does anybody know of a suitable "stand-alone"equalizer, or a way to connect the foobar input to the soundcard input stream?

Thanks

Using PC as pass-thru equalizer

Reply #1 –
Off the top of my head, you could try using a bare-bones VST host such as…erm…VSTHost, and a VST-based EQ such as (and this is by no means an exhaustive or representative survey, so feel free to search to your satisfaction): Kjaerhus Audio’s Classic EQ, one by Voxengo such as Marvel GEQ or Overtone GEQ (those are the free ones; paid ones are available too), or Magnus’ NyquistEq.

Non-VST solutions might be less or more common or useful; Googling real-time audio equaliser turned up this, and there are probably others.

Using PC as pass-thru equalizer

Reply #3 –
Is implementation just for stereo audio needed or becomes multicannel audio as well in question.

If you route audio through laptop but the film data goes straight path to the screen then you probably get 'lip-sync' issues because of some latency. Using S/PDIF I/O for input/output might help in this issue.

IMO, best software solution is low latency driver (ASIO, WDM/KS, WASAPI) compatible software and a VST EQ plugin as suggested already. Actually, there are plenty of possibilities then.

Juha

Using PC as pass-thru equalizer

Reply #4 –
many sound card drivers have basic equalizer effects that you can enable on your output.  Some soundcards may allow you to customize the effect If you right click on the sound icon in the system tray go to playback devices and right click->properties and can find an equalizer suitable to your needs, then all you'd need to do is set that output as your main output and on the input (right click on system tray icon -> recording devices, then right click on your input -> properties) there should be an option to listen to the input. I know my laptop's creative sound card allows me to set a custom EQ, so I could do this on my laptop, but my desktop internal doesn't have a customizable EQ, so I could only choose from presets.  It's all up to your sound card driver if this method will work.