this post was submitted on 19 May 2024
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Hey guys, I made the switch to Linux about a week ago and have mo complaints so far. Except maybe this: I can't seem to find a way in Linux to get proper loudness equalization like I got on windows.

My issue is that I have a bunch of media, especially shows and movies, that are suffering from way too loud gunshots, explosions, music and so forth and really quiet dialogue. I know this is because sound engineers make the audio fit for cinemas and not my living room, it is a problem nonetheless.

Under windows there is a simple toggle in even the most basic sound cards and settings called loudness equalization, that corrects those perceived differences quite effectively, which Linux is lacking. A bit of web search led me to the term ReplayGain, which seems to be the proper name for it, and I enabled it for my media from within the player apps. However it doesn't really work like i am used to.

Sounds and language constantly change volume mid sentence, which is very irritating to me. ReplayGain also doesn't really help avoiding those sudden bursts of loudness, I still blast awake my neighbors on accident when watching a move later at night.

Is there some way to get at that windows audio codec or whatever they use, that works so much better?

Thanks for reading

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[–] hollyberries@programming.dev 5 points 6 months ago

I don't have an answer for the windows audio codec.

Perhaps EasyEffects with the auto gain plugin would help in the meantime?

Screenshot is mine:

AI Generated alt-text: A screenshot of EasyEffects. The layout is divided into sections. On the left, there are controls for "Loudness" and "Autogain", each collapsible. There is also a setting for the "Output Device". The central panel titled "Controls" contains settings for "Target", "Silence", "Maximum History", "Reference", and "History". Each has adjustable parameters like decibel levels and time settings. The right panel, titled "Loudness", has sliders for various loudness metrics such as "Momentary", "Short-Term", "Integrated", "Relative", "Range", "Loudness", and "Output Gain". All sliders are currently set to zero. Below, there are simple input and output level meters displaying "0,0 dB". At the bottom left corner, it shows the audio properties: "48,0 kHz, 0,0 ms 0 0 dB". The bottom right corner indicates the software is "Using libebur128".

[–] tal@lemmy.today 4 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

I haven't used it, but it looks like there's a program called pulseeffects that can do some real-time processing for PulseAudio, including that:

https://www.maketecheasier.com/improve-linux-pc-audio-with-pulseeffects/

EDIT: For more-generally applying effects, there's also a Linux "audio effect plugin" standard called LADSPA, large library of those, and I know that I've seen ways to apply it to streams in realtime.

googles

https://askubuntu.com/questions/43950/how-can-i-apply-a-ladspa-plugin-to-a-pulseaudio-stream

If you wanted to do something like reverb or pitch-shift all the audio being played back, I expect that that'd let you do that.

[–] christopher@programming.dev 3 points 6 months ago
[–] GregorGizeh@lemmy.zip 2 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Appreciate the replies! I will try the effects apps when I get home later. For vlc, that is actually what I am currently using to watch my media, and where I enabled the replaygain function to unsatisfactory effect. I will try and tinker with the range some more, perhaps I configured it wrong.