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.