MEqualizer 16.08 - EQ curve not visible in EqualizerAPO 1.3

[augustenz]

Hi all,

I've been using MEqualizer with EqualizerAPO in Windows, to globally change the sound for all Windows apps/games, as it is an awesome EQ, with a very low latency, low CPU impact, transparent sound and lovely GUI.

Only problem is that after version 15, which was working flawlessly, the 16 version doesn't show the EQ curve anymore. It is still processing the sound though and the nodes can still be set, but blindly, the only visual reference left is the curve shown by EqualizerAPO.

I tried changing the settings under "GUI & STYLE", actually disabled everything, also tried a few styles, but the curve is still not being shown. Also tried the button "Clear window settings cache" and the "Tablet mode" option, but those did not help either.

Is there anything else I could try?

Greetings,
August

[vectorwarrior]

Did you try the different graphics acceleration modes? You can try disabled or compatibility mode. Not sure why the behaviour would change with v16, but one of my PCs did need this changed for some reason.

[augustenz]

Hi vectorwarrior, thanks, that is good advice, it crossed my mind too, that maybe the GPU acceleration is the problem, so I did try it out, but it did not help.

The problem though exists apparently only when using MEqualizer with EqualizerAPO, so I suppose it is EqualizerAPO that is not working correctly with the new MEqualizer version 16.

In Cubase Pro 12, the EQ curve is shown correctly.

Both PCs are Windows 10 64-bit, the desktop has an Asus Nvidia GTX 750Ti, the laptop an Intel Graphics 520, but both have the same problem with the EQ curve missing in EqualizerAPO.

Just tried with MDynamicEq (licensed) and it behaves the same, so it must be some global change in version 16 regarding the drawing of the EQ curve that EqualizerAPO can't handle correctly.

It is a pretty specific problem I guess and definitely not Melda's fault, if there is no other setting that might help, I guess I'll just keep version 15 installed for EqualizerAPO, draw the EQ curve there and then just transfer the settings to the new version 16.

Greetings,
August

[MeldaProduction]

Hmmm, weird, I don't think GPU is the problem, seems more like the host is not really letting the plugin process anything - perhaps doubling it and transferring settings between the duplicates, or some other weird sh**

[augustenz]

Hmmm, weird, I don't think GPU is the problem, seems more like the host is not really letting the plugin process anything - perhaps doubling it and transferring settings between the duplicates, or some other weird sh**

Hi @MeldaProduction, awesome, thank you for chipping in!

Well, the host is letting the plugin process the sound, it is just the eq curve that is missing from the GUI in the new plugin version 16.

But I suspect that it has to do with some limitations that exist because of EqualizerAPO's design, specifically plugins in EqualizerAPO are not able to display live data, so meters etc. do not show anything, even though the sound is being processed.

There is a post by EqualizerAPO's main developer Jonas Thedering (https://sourceforge.net/p/equalizerapo/ ... 6b74/#c19c) that explains it in detail:

Jonas Thedering - 2019-06-16

I can see that the main problem with VSTs is that the user interface and the processing is running separately. This is the concept of Equalizer APO and its Configuration Editor, but VSTs are made to run in a single application and under the normal user account.

I have started work on a VST bridge, a separately running program that will host the VSTs and run under the normal user account. The audio data will be sent from Equalizer APO to the bridge via some kind of IPC and the user interface will be shown inside the Configuration Editor by seamlessly embedding a window that is created by the bridge.

This should greatly increase compatibility but will also have some overhead because of the communication between Equalizer APO and bridge, so the current mode will still be available for simple VSTs to allow for best performance. The bridge will also allow to use 32 bit VSTs under 64 bit Windows, which is currently not possible as 32 bit DLLs can't be loaded in 64 bit applications.

There remains some work to be done before I can release this functionality, however, so you still have to wait a bit. One problem is that normally a new VST instance is created after each configuration change, so VSTs will have to be reused somehow so their GUI can be kept.

So what I suspect has happened, but may be wrong of course, is that some (maybe all) Melda plugins in version 16, have moved some elements from being only in the GUI to the plugin's processing which in turn are then returned to the GUI, which can't be shown in EqualizerAPO as the dummy GUI instance of the plugin can't communicate with the actual "process" instance of the plugin.

You are completely right that there is some doubling/settings transfer going on and that is most probably also what is causing this behavior!

Cheers,
August

[ystmrk]

Is the source of the graph setting other than Input?

MEqualizer graph settings are not compatible with other source settings that have sidechains, such as MFreeformEQ and MDynamicEQ.
The settings were misaligned.
I had a little trouble with that, but I redid the settings in each tool.

I am using DeepL translation for this message.

[dighawaii1]

Just ran into this myself. Any chance there's a fix?