Poweramp Equalizer App not working (Pixel 7 Pro)

[Enrique Araujo]

HI, I recently bought a Pixel 7 Pro and have been trying to make the Poweramp EQ App work with no luck. I want to note that I also have the PA EQ App on my Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra running Android 13 on the same media Apps I have in the Pixel and the S22 Ultra works flawlessly every single time.

I have given Dump Permission, Notification Listener Permission, enabled Player Tracking, enabled the player apps in Known Players and still won't work properly.

I have noticed that after a reboot, if I use Tune In Pro, the equalizer works most of the time but then if I try to use Retro for music it not only won't work for Retro but if I try to come back to Tune In Pro it won't work anymore and have to reboot to have it working again.

For now I have opted to use the PA EQ App for all the other apps except Retro and use the Poweramp music player and its built in equalizer for music and works most of the times but would be nice to have it working flawlessly like it still works on the S22 Ultra running Android 13 too.

Finally, another issue I would like to report is Bluetooth DVC won't enable when I use the Soundcore Liberty 3 pro bluetooth earbuds. Again, I have tested on my S22 Ultra and Pixel 7 Pro, with the Soundcore Liberty 3 and Senheiser HD4.50HD and the Senheiser works fine in both which leads me to believe it is a Soundcore Liberty 3 issue.

Thank you for your help.

[maxmp]

@Enrique Araujo some specific players won't work properly and require Player Tracking. Players may do weird stuff, such as activate, advertise as equalizable one AudioTrack and play through another hidden one, and that all requires per-app specific handling. Generally, if equalization doesn't work out of box - player devs do not want their player equalized (Tidal), or player devs do not know about Android equalization feature (users never requested that for them).

Also please be more specific what "don't work" means exactly for you (player not detected; player detected, but not equalized; player equalized but something else doesn't work, etc.). There is no any specific issues with Pixels generally and Pixel 7 pro specifically.

EDIT: I tested Tune In Pro and it works with Equalizer in Advanced tracking mode. Retro is another story. You can try to use Multi-session per-player option in Poweramp Equalizer settings for Retro, but it still may fail at some time.

Spoiler

Multiple bugs regarding Android equalization. This player sends incorrect session id (==0) to the system (Equalizer ignores that, but other layers may not). Also this player changes session ids, usually on track change (but not always). Sometime it does it in delayed manner, so Poweramp intercepts initial session id and applies equalization to it, but player changes it and uses another one with some delay. (There is no need to change session ids at all.). It also creates/destroys multiple audio tracks sometimes during track change. This overloads Android audio system as it has some hardcoded limits on number of effects it may handle at given time, and equalization may stop for all apps until reboot.

Spoiler

16281  10244  code.name.monkey.retromusic

   02-15 00:15:25.977 AT::add       (0xb4000077dcd8ddb0)          85     no  16281     361      77 A  0x000 00000001 00000003  44100  3   1  0  -inf     0     0     0  00000000  22050       0 f         0        0      false       new

   02-15 00:15:26.087 AT::remove    (0xb4000077dcd8d0d0)          84     no  16281     353      76 T  0x600 00000001 00000003  44100  3   1  0  -inf     0     0     0  000940A6  22050       0 f         0    20286      false  225.62 k

   02-15 00:15:26.087 removeTrack_l (0xb4000077dcd8d0d0)          84     no  16281     353      76 T  0x600 00000001 00000003  44100  3   1  0  -inf     0     0     0  000940A6  22050       0 f         0    20286      false  225.62 k

   02-15 00:15:34.472 AT::add       (0xb4000077dcd88a00)          86     no  16281     369      78 A  0x000 00000001 00000003  44100  3   1  0  -inf     0     0     0  00000000  22050       0 f         0        0      false       new

   02-15 00:15:34.567 AT::remove    (0xb4000077dcd8ddb0)          85     no  16281     361      77 T  0x600 00000001 00000003  44100  3   1  0  -inf     0     0     0  0005A1DC  22050       0 f         0    17640      false  227.25 k

   02-15 00:15:34.568 removeTrack_l (0xb4000077dcd8ddb0)          85     no  16281     361      77 T  0x600 00000001 00000003  44100  3   1  0  -inf     0     0     0  0005A1DC  22050       0 f         0    17640      false  227.25 k

Multi-Session option may help here and I'll try to add some specific workaround, but it's not possible to workaround all bugs like these, especially in advance, as some devs. are pretty "creative" with them. Please report the issues to the player developer. Equalization support is very simple in Android, but many devs are not aware (including large coprs like Apple).

 

[Enrique Araujo]

@maxmp thank you for your reply.

When I say it doesn't work it means when I play Retro, the PA Eq App starts, retro shows as active in Known Players and also on the little little message that shows recognized players but it simply won't equalize. This is exclusive for Retro since TuneIn Pro, YouTube and other apps work fine as long as I dont fire PA Eq app on Retro.

The weird thing is I have set up PA EQ App on the Galaxy S22 Ultra exactly the same way it is set up on the Pixel and it works flawlessly on the S22 Ultra, including Retro Music Player.

[Greg5413]

I had to laugh after reading this. I just bought a pixel 7 and have soundcore liberty 4 and  the life A2 NC earbuds. I bought the Poweramp app and it worked ok so I added the EQ. It doesn't work and ask for me to change settings that I can't find. 1 being the Bluetooth DVC which I can't find. It says to look under developer options under system but it's not there. I'm new to android any help would be appreciated. 

[andrewilley]

@Greg5413 You need to enable Developer Options for your device (it's usually hidden by default) which can vary a bit by manufacturer. On a Pixel it should be by tapping on the Build Number line in Android Settings=>About Phone multiple times:

https://www.hardreset.info/devices/google/google-pixel-7-pro/developer-options/

Andre

[Greg5413]

Thanks, I was able to figure that out but still no luck with getting it to work. I'm beginning to think these apps are someone's piggy bank. The only player I can get to work with the EQ is Spotify. Time to cut my losses. 

 

[andrewilley]

1 hour ago, Greg5413 said:

The only player I can get to work with the EQ is Spotify. 

 

That's nothing to do with the Bluetooth Absolute Volume setting for DVC, which is what you asked about in your original post.

Have you enabled the additional permission for the EQ app to be able to track the audio streams from other Android apps? Otherwise you'll only be able equalize the output from very specific apps which already grant that permission for themselves, and most don't.

Andre

[Greg5413]

I've been all over my phone, the settings on both the player and EQ. This is all I find and it doesn't say where or to put that command line. I'm not the greatest with tech stuff but I can usually get by, but I've just been going in circles with this  

 

[andrewilley]

Please see the step-by-step guide that I linked to in my previous post. The 'ADB' command process needs to be run on a separate device connected to your phone by USB cable - e.g. a computer.

Andre

[Lion Best]

@andrewilley hi.

I have the same kind of issue with the OP. My device is Motorola Edge+ 2022 running on Android 13. I recently installed the PAEQ but the only thing that works(i.e. effects my listening) is the volume button. Nothing else works and I have enabled these permissions recommended. I installed the Poweramp player and the equaliser on it works well, I don't know why PAEQ doesn't work

I use the PAEQ on my old Samsung Galaxy A70 and it equalises fine even without the DUMP permission enabled

[maxmp]

@Lion Best what player do you try to equalize? Have you tried YouTube Music or Spotify (these two work out of box, no Advanced Player Tracking mode needed). Also, on first run after Equalizer installation, player should be restarted (by pausing it and throwing it away from recents) - though this is not needed for Advanced Player Tracking. Thanks!

[Lion Best]

@maxmp I have tried it with YouTube music, Spotify, also with Apple Music. I have restarted my phone so many times, done the throwing away from recent, none works other than the volume knob on the PAEQ app.

[andrewilley]

@Lion Best you do actually have the EQ controls activated don't you? You can enable/disable tone/EQ/etc separately. And the media player that you are listening to is enabled in the 'Known Players' list in Settings?

Andre

[Lion Best]

@andrewilley @andrewilley @maxmpyes, I have all that done. That's an attachment of my "Known Players" list...and even the balance settings to see if I could turn off either ears doesn't work and I believe it's not from my earbuds/earphones 'cos I tried it on my other phone and it works on it. 

[maxmp]

@Lion Best it should work as displayed. If it doesn't work - something prevents it:

- you have some other equalization apps which conflict with each other (e.g. wavelet). Generally only one equalization app will work at time on Android.

- firmware is missing dsp part. Could be a bug but I doubt that is possible for official ROMs (but possible for customs and any type of beta/preview ROMs).
- something else. We can't remotely guess - at least full logs are required from the Developer settings right after you try to start Equalizer + resume player. If you do this log, please send to gpmaxmpz@gmail.com

Thanks!

[Blaze Emerson]

@Greg5413 Enable Dump permission 

[Lion Best]

@maxmp @maxmp I just sent the log to the specified email with subject "Requested Log Report from Moto Edge+ 2022"

[maxmp]

@Lion Best thanks for the log. Some minor warnings - same as I can see on my Motorola during local tests.

There is some Effect-BC360-DSP-Effect which seems to activate when Equalizer inits DSP. This is something non-standard and this either blocks Poweramp Equalizer DSP or somehow replaces it, not implementing the necessary functionality. From the name it's something related to the spatial/3rd/etc. audio effect. And this is not Dolby, at least on my Moto dolby effect do not interfere Equalizer.
You may want to try to disable that in device settings.

EDIT: Btw, I would suggest _disabling_ Advanced Player Tracking as Equalizer properly detects YouTube Music/Spotify anyway.

[Lion Best]

@maxmp I had advanced player tracking activated, I reinstalled the app so as not to interfere with the log record you requested. I sincerely do not know how to deactivate whatever the Effect-BC360-DSP-Effect is or how to deactivate it cos it's not readily available in my settings 😪 and I also have the Dolby Atmos too. Thanks for the feedback anyway 

[andrewilley]

7 hours ago, Lion Best said:

 I also have the Dolby Atmos too.

Please turn that, and any other local audio processing tools that might be provided by your device's firmware, off. Controls are probably in your device's Android Settings. Also remove or disable any other audio processing software such as wavelet. You may find you can turn some back on after testing, but for now try to avoid any clashes.

Andre

[Lion Best]

None of the workaround works. I've disabled Dolby Atmos, no other interfering equaliser app. The equaliser on Poweramp player works as expected, it's the standalone PAEQ that has this problem. I've tried other EQ apps that works quite fine also. 

Also note that the volume knob in the PAEQ app works(the only thing that works).

 

[maxmp]

@Lion Best in this case it looks system silently ignores DSP Processing effect Poweramp Eq uses. Either this is the firmware is not fully Android compatible in this regard, or some phone environment is broken so the effect doesn't work. You can try to test Wavelet on your device, which uses the same effect. You'll need to completely disable or uninstall Poweramp Equalizer as those two will conflict over one global effect.

[Lion Best]

@maxmp wavelet works fine, jApp's flat equaliser works fine too. 

 

[maxmp]

@Lion Best then Android DSP is not an issue if wavelet is used per-player (not globally/in legacy mode).

[Fitzian]

 ̶H̶a̶p̶p̶y̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶b̶e̶ ̶c̶o̶r̶r̶e̶c̶t̶e̶d̶,̶ ̶b̶u̶t̶ ̶P̶i̶x̶e̶l̶ ̶7̶ ̶P̶r̶o̶ ̶h̶a̶s̶ ̶t̶w̶o̶ ̶s̶y̶s̶t̶e̶m̶ ̶l̶e̶v̶e̶l̶ ̶D̶S̶P̶ ̶o̶p̶t̶i̶o̶n̶s̶-̶ ̶a̶d̶a̶p̶t̶i̶v̶e̶ ̶s̶o̶u̶n̶d̶ ̶(̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶l̶i̶s̶t̶e̶n̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶w̶i̶t̶h̶ ̶p̶h̶o̶n̶e̶ ̶s̶p̶e̶a̶k̶e̶r̶)̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶s̶p̶a̶t̶i̶a̶l̶ ̶a̶u̶d̶i̶o̶ ̶(̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶w̶i̶r̶e̶d̶ ̶o̶r̶ ̶B̶l̶u̶e̶t̶o̶o̶t̶h̶ ̶c̶o̶n̶n̶e̶c̶t̶i̶o̶n̶s̶)̶.̶ ̶T̶h̶e̶r̶e̶ ̶i̶s̶ ̶n̶o̶ ̶"̶D̶o̶l̶b̶y̶ ̶A̶t̶m̶o̶s̶"̶ ̶h̶e̶r̶e̶.̶ ̶I̶ ̶d̶o̶n̶'̶t̶ ̶k̶n̶o̶w̶ ̶i̶f̶ ̶o̶n̶e̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶t̶h̶o̶s̶e̶ ̶t̶w̶o̶ ̶s̶y̶s̶t̶e̶m̶ ̶D̶S̶P̶ ̶o̶p̶t̶i̶o̶n̶s̶ ̶i̶s̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶c̶u̶l̶p̶r̶i̶t̶ ̶(̶t̶h̶e̶y̶ ̶h̶a̶v̶e̶ ̶n̶o̶t̶ ̶b̶e̶e̶n̶ ̶e̶x̶p̶l̶i̶c̶i̶t̶l̶y̶ ̶m̶e̶n̶t̶i̶o̶n̶e̶d̶ ̶t̶h̶u̶s̶ ̶f̶a̶r̶)̶.̶

 

~edit~ ignore my mention of P7P and related functions, forgot more recent posting are regarding Motorola devices and not Pixel 7 Pro from the start of the thread...

Edited August 15, 2023 by Fitzian