volume change on reboot, distortion, wildly jumping volume with compressor preset

[atomGit]

EasyEffects Version

7.0.0

What package are you using?

Arch (easyeffects)

Distribution

Manjaro

Describe the bug

• output volume not rememberd on reboot
• distortion and wildly changing volume when using EasyEffects-Presets/LoudnessEqualizerPE.json at master · Digitalone1/EasyEffects-Presets

these are separate issues

when easy is enabled, the volume may be different after a reboot (louder for me) - adjusting the volume, even a tiny amount, causes the level to jump back to normal and all seems ok again

when using the compressor preset the problem is amplified many times - the volume can jump wildly when the volume slider is manually adjusted and there is severe distortion in the audio - this can be traced to the gate component; if the gate is disabled, all returns to normal

the common thread in these issues is the volume changing randomly

Manjaro KDE/Plasma
kernel 6.0.8
easyeffects 7.0.0 (arch repo)
pipewire 1:0.3.59 (arch repo)
alsa-ucm-conf 1.2.7.1 (arch repo - i can't upgrade due to this bug)

Expected Behavior

• volume should be remembered across reboot
• volume should not jump randomly when adjusted and compressor preset is in play
• distortion should not occur when gate component of compressor preset is in play

Debug Log

Debug Log

Paste your log here

Additional Information

audio distortion due to gate and system upgrade · Issue #11 · Digitalone1/EasyEffects-Presets

[wwmm]

volume should be remembered across reboot

EasyEffects isn't the one that should remember system volumes. This is the audio server (PipeWire) responsibility.

volume should not jump randomly when adjusted and compressor preset is in play
distortion should not occur when gate component of compressor preset is in play

These two plugins are essentially the same they were many months ago. Either this preset has something that is not playing nice with the latest EasyEffects release or something odd happened in your PipeWire install.

[wwmm]

I tried this preset here

"output": {
        "plugins_order": [
            "gate",
            "compressor",
            "multiband_compressor",
            "equalizer",
            "limiter",
            "bass_enhancer",
            "exciter",
            "autogain",
            "multiband_gate",
            "convolver",
            "crystalizer",
            "stereo_tools",
            "reverb",
            "delay",
            "deesser",
            "crossfeed",
            "loudness",
            "maximizer",
            "filter",
            "pitch"
        ]

Although this preset loads I think it needs to be updated to our current release. It is strange that all these plugins are in the list.

[atomGit]

These two plugins are essentially the same they were many months ago.

yes, and the problem started only after the last system upgrade in which a new version of easy (and other audio packages) was pushed - i'm not saying that easy is in fact to blame because i simply don't know, but what i do know is that disabling easy seems to fix the volume jump problems

Either this preset has something that is not playing nice with the latest EasyEffects release or something odd happened in your PipeWire install.

certainly possible, but in the issue i linked there seems to be another guy on Fedora having the same problem

if you have any troubleshooting suggestions, i'm all ears (i'm not super knowledgeable with this stuff, or Linux in general)

[wwmm]

if you have any troubleshooting suggestions, i'm all ears (i'm not super knowledgeable with this stuff, or Linux in general)

I still think that is strange to have so many plugins in this preset list. I tested it here and the sound was really weird.

[atomGit]

it's really weird for me too if the gate is enabled, but it was perfectly fine prior to the last system upgrade

i'm using the LoudnessEqualizerPE.json preset because i couldn't find any other for normalizing volume of movies that a) worked well and b) worked as an easy preset - if anyone knows of one, please share

[wwmm]

For example if the idea is normalizing audio why are plugins like deesser, pitch , delay, crystalizer, etc in the plugins list? When I did the test all of them were added to the pipeline. As this preset was created a long time ago and EasyEffects went through some changes related to presets in the last months I think this preset has to be updated.

[wwmm]

i'm using the LoudnessEqualizerPE.json preset because i couldn't find any other for normalizing volume of movies that a) worked well and b) worked as an easy preset - if anyone knows of one, please share

In most cases when I watch movies the autogain plugin is enough for me. You may try to combine it with the maximizer and the compressor plugins. But as the autogain plugin is right now I do not feel any need at all of using other plugins to normalize movies audio.

[atomGit]

i tried the autogain plug a while back, but i'll give it another shot - thanks

the compressor preset dev knows about this issue so maybe he can answer your other questions

[Digitalone1]

i'm using the LoudnessEqualizerPE.json

You don't have to use this. This is the one for the old PulseEffects on Pipewire using the previous Gate by Calf.

You posted the preset on the other issue and it's the same of mine, but not LoudnessEqualizerPE.json. Are you sure you are really using the preset intended to work with LSP Gate?

[atomGit]

yes, i was using LoudnessEqualizer.json - i just linked to the wrong one when i opened the issue - i corrected the link

however... i just removed that preset, so i'm using pure easyeffects with the plugins installed with it and the same thing happens when i load the gate plugin - the audio becomes very inconsistent - whenever there's a bit of near silence, the volume drops completely, then it takes maybe a 100ms or so until it comes back up again

lsp-plugins is v 1.2.3

[wwmm]

the audio becomes very inconsistent - whenever there's a bit of near silence, the volume drops completely, then it takes maybe a 100ms or so until it comes back up again

That is what gates do. If the audio level is below the threshold they will attenuate the signal. Depending on how much attenuation is being done and on the signal level you may get silence. Once the signal level is high enough again the gate will remove the attenuation.

In other words an approach based on gates will have results that will depend on the intensity of the signal getting to it. If you want to use them you will have to customize the gate threshold or the signal input level to your needs.

[Digitalone1]

@wwmm they were using the correct preset but, for unknown reasons, the values were not applied (saw that on the screenshot posted in the issue opened on my repo).

Don't know if it's a bug or whatever, but definitely not a bug with LSP Gate because if the correct values are applied, it "sounds good".

Update. The screenshot: Digitalone1/EasyEffects-Presets#11 (comment)

[ghost]

when easy is enabled, the volume may be different after a reboot (louder for me) - adjusting the volume, even a tiny amount, causes the level to jump back to normal and all seems ok again

when using the compressor preset the problem is amplified many times - the volume can jump wildly when the volume slider is manually adjusted and there is severe distortion in the audio - this can be traced to the gate component; if the gate is disabled, all returns to normal

And i've just encountered this issue, again. just like before:

Digitalone1/EasyEffects-Presets#11 (comment)

I think i'm having the same issue, occasionally. Force stopping easyeffect then restarting again fixes the issue, until it'll occur again randomly.
Sadly I just don't know how to reproduce, it seems to be too random. Maybe it's easyeffect's issue?

It's simply too random I can't manually reproduce it. I was listening to a music and all of a sudden the volume became very low, I touched the volume slider and it became normal again.

Edit: The music player is Lollypop (Flathub). And I've actually excluded it from EasyEffects yet distrortion and volume change still occurs, and goes away with easyeffect being force stopped. There were also times when EasyEffects still applies effects to Lollypop despite being excluded.

It seems more like pipewire / wireplumber bug triggered by EasyEffects?

[Digitalone1]

This seems a general issue not related to the preset. Open a ticket on EasyEffects repo.