Author Topic: Equalizer Customisation  (Read 13951 times)

Wolf

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I've been using MusicBee as my main music player for longer than I can remember and lately I've been fiddling with EQ. Adjusting EQ in MB is deeply flawed for what I'm trying to achieve though because of the lack of control over the frequencies where you adjust gain. My headphones for example have two peeks, 50Hz apart, at 2200K and 2250K. The closest frequency I can adjust is 1.9K and doesn't really solve the issue. With streaming music being ever more popular, this community is growing nicher by the day, so I'm sure a lot of people using MB have or do use EQ. Can we please get control over what frequencies we can adjust gain on?

hiccup

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Can we please get control over what frequencies we can adjust gain on?

Yes we can.
Search the forum (and/or the web) on VST plugin and VST equalizers.

Wolf

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Ok, cool. I'm just surprised it's not part of the base app.

hiccup

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Ok, cool. I'm just surprised it's not part of the base app.

I'm surprised you consider something like this a base requirement.

All kidding aside, let us know how you fare using a VST eq. for this?

sveakul

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You could try the free TDR Nova (https://www.tokyodawn.net/tdr-nova/) which I can confirm works with the MB VST host.  Be sure you are using the 2.4.1 bass_vst.dll from the latest MB 3.3 patch, and have the currently posted MB VST host plugin installed (https://getmusicbee.com/addons/plugins/16/vst-effects-support/) .

Wolf

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It took a few tries to find a good VST Equalizer, there's a lot out there. In the end I chose ReaEQ, it is very simple but has the essentials. It has allowed me to get a far more accurate EQ and has changed my music for the better. I might look into doing a system wide EQ in the future, but for now this will do.

For anyone who finds this, here are the installation instructions:

1. Go to the VST plugin page and download it
2. Now place the file in this directory: C:\Program Files (x86)\MusicBee\Plugins
3. Next go to the ReaEQ download page, download the suite in 32-bit and install it
4. You can now open MusicBee and go to 'Edit Preferences' (ctrl + O)
5. Select 'Plugins' and under 'vst host' you will see 'source folder for the VST plugins', paste C:\Program Files (x86)\VSTPlugins (ReaEQ install location) in the bar beneath
6. Finally, restart MusicBee and go to the EQ/DSP. Enable ReaEQ and then double click it. You can now start adjusting ReaEQ but make sure to have the built-in EQ disabled before playing music.

Ok, cool. I'm just surprised it's not part of the base app.

I'm surprised you consider something like this a base requirement.

All kidding aside, let us know how you fare using a VST eq. for this?

While it only took 15 mins for me to learn about VST and find a good plugin, others might find it overwhelming and difficult. That's why I would like to see it be a base feature. Anyway, thanks for pointing me in the right direction.

You could try the free TDR Nova (https://www.tokyodawn.net/tdr-nova/) which I can confirm works with the MB VST host.  Be sure you are using the 2.4.1 bass_vst.dll from the latest MB 3.3 patch, and have the currently posted MB VST host plugin installed (https://getmusicbee.com/addons/plugins/16/vst-effects-support/) .

What exactly is bass_vst for?

sveakul

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What exactly is bass_vst for?

It's the extension that enables the use of VST plugins with the BASS audio library, which means it is required for use of the MB VST host that Steven wrote.

Please feel free to continue discussion and personal experiences with VST plugins in the "VST Effects Plugin" forum thread here: https://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=13022.0 .  Not all VST plugins work as expected with MB, so your own input is always valuable.
Last Edit: October 12, 2019, 12:11:51 AM by sveakul

hiccup

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While it only took 15 mins for me to learn about VST and find a good plugin, others might find it overwhelming and difficult. That's why I would like to see it be a base feature.

Thanks for the great write-up.

A base feature in my opinion is MusicBee's already well-functioning 10 or 15 band graphic equalizer.
The fine-tuning you desire as explained in your example relates to the difference in frequency of roughly two keys on a piano keyboard.
Using wordings like 'deeply flawed' in relation to that seems a bit of an exaggeration to me.
And such fine-grained control doesn't seem a base requirement for the vast majority of MB users to me.

But,
having an option in MusicBee to select between a graphic and a parametric equaliser would be very nice to have indeed.
But building a parametric equaliser with a very good sound quality and a nice interface is no easy matter.

theta_wave

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While it only took 15 mins for me to learn about VST and find a good plugin, others might find it overwhelming and difficult. That's why I would like to see it be a base feature.

Thanks for the great write-up.

A base feature in my opinion is MusicBee's already well-functioning 10 or 15 band graphic equalizer.
The fine-tuning you desire as explained in your example relates to the difference in frequency of roughly two keys on a piano keyboard.
Using wordings like 'deeply flawed' in relation to that seems a bit of an exaggeration to me.
And such fine-grained control doesn't seem a base requirement for the vast majority of MB users to me.
In the headphone world, a parametric EQ is a must for some. Luckily there's Peace+EQAPO that works with Windows audio stack (including WASAPI shared), but it will be nice to have a built-in parametric equalizer as shown in Roon. For some, setting up Peace+EQAPO is not a trivial matter.

Roon EQ for the Hifiman Arya headphone: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NJf5PwMM_Q

hiccup

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I see that both on the bass website and in the accompanying txt file of the bass download there there are some references to parametric equalising. So it might be doable.

theta_wave

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I see that both on the bass website and in the accompanying txt file of the bass download there there are some references to parametric equalising. So it might be doable.
Nice. A native parametric equalizer would be great.

Holbytla

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I'm not very knowledgable about these things but I just started using Equalizer APO alongside MusicBee and it makes all the difference. I find my music sounds bad without it now...