Questions[equalizer](ubuntu)

I ran

:~$ apt install pulseaudio-equalizer

An important detail, no icon was included in the Gnome Applications menu. I think it is important to fix it. So, I ran

:~$ qpaeq

and I received the error messages

Warning: Ignoring XDG_SESSION_TYPE=wayland on Gnome. Use  QT_QPA_PLATFORM=wayland to run on Wayland anyway.
There was an error connecting to pulseaudio, please make sure you have the pulseaudio dbus module loaded, exiting…

I ran

:~$ pulseaudio

and I received the message

E: [pulseaudio] pid.c: Daemon already running.  
E: [pulseaudio] main.c: pa_pid_file_create() failed.

So, I loaded the modules that were missing

:~$ pactl load-module module-equalizer-sink  
:~$ pactl load-module module-dbus-protocol

and the equalizer opened and it didn't work (the sound wasn't changing).

Another important detail, why do theses modules are not loaded by default? I think this is another thing to be fixed.

I created the file ~/.config/pulse/default.pa with the lines

load-module module-equalizer-sink  
load-module module-dbus-protocol

and I restarted to check. After the Gnome login the computer start to "freeze" by some seconds. In this condition, if I run

:~$ pactl list modules short | grep module-dbus-protocol

the terminal stops until I do Crtl+C.

If I try to load some module (module-equalizer-sink or module-dbus-protocol) I received an error message. So strange...

I restarted the computer again and the "freezing" happened again. So, in this way I deleted the file ~/.config/pulse/default.pa to come back to the early situation. I restarted and the "freezing" didn't happened again.

I tried another solution. I installed

:~$ apt install pulseeffects

and the equalizer was not working. Looking the pulseeffects FAQ,

https://github.com/wwmm/pulseeffects/wiki/FAQ

I found a solution, to run

:~$ apt install lsp-plugins

Delete the folder ~/.config/gstreamer-1.0 (if it exists)

After to close the pulseeffects (if is opened) and run

:~$ dconf reset -f /com/github/wwmm/pulseeffects/

In this way, the equalizer of the pulseeffects worked.

I have a rather specific issue and can't solve it on my own.

As explained in this Question, I have set up a system-wide volume control for my single USB audio card (M-Audio Fast Track). Now, I would also like to add a system-wide equalizer (libasound2-plugin-equal) to it, while keeping the volume control intact.

So far, I was able to get everything working correctly only in ALSA-programs.

With the following /etc/asound.conf, both the volume-control via softvol and the equalizer settings work at the same time:

pcm.!default {
        type plug
        slave.pcm "softvol"
}

ctl.!default {
        type hw
        card Track
}

pcm.softvol {
        type softvol
        slave {
            pcm "hw:Track"
        }
        control {
            name "Master"
            card Track
        }
}

ctl.equal {
        type equal;
}

pcm.plugequal {
        type equal;
        slave.pcm "plug:softvol";
}

pcm.!default {
        type plug;
        slave.pcm plugequal; 
}

Source: https://docs.slackware.com/howtos:hardware:sound_problems_on_slackware

There seems to be some redundancy, but this is the setup that works currently.

The issue that remains now is that PulseAudio apparently skips all of this setup and directly outputs to my sound card, so the equalizer works in programs that support ALSA-output (not Firefox, etc.) and JACK, since the output device can be specified.

Does someone know how to isolate PulseAudio in such a way that it will only output to the plugequal ALSA-device and not be connected to my sound card directly?

Unfortunately, PulseAudio doesn't list plugequal as an output device, just my hardware sound card.

I have uninstalled PulseAudio at the moment, since it disables the EQ and volume control when it is connected to the sound card.

I'm using Ubuntu 18.04 for 3 weeks right now, and I don't have much knowledge installing apps and adding ppa sources.
I was searching for some equalizer software and it ends up by finding PulseEffects, but I don't find anywhere how to install it on Ubuntu 18.04.

Could anybody help me and show me step by step the installation procedure?

Is there any build in Equalizer in Ubuntu 18.04 or a third party program that works with this version best?

Previous I have never used rhythmbox by default because it seemed to be lacking in features to me. Just my personal opinion.

With rhythmbox back in 12.04 will ubuntu give it some attention to give it some usability one thing that was majorly missing on my last use of rhythmbox was an equalizer which is the most basic of requirements for an audio player let alone a preamp.

I have searched and found that on the rhythmbox website the plugin is available but in the plugins menu of rhythmbox it is not there.

I searched google and there are many guides from 2009 trying to install the equalizer. there is nothing recent and one would assume this would be a default plugin, there is no point after all searching for cover art if your music doesn't sound right.

How can I easily install the equalizer in 12.04?