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Setting Up PipeWire with EasyEffects

Since starting out with Pop! OS I have encountered two annoying issues with the audio system:

  1. Dynamic Range compression (aka Loudness Equalization) is almost required to make the audio listenable
  2. Audio latency on my input mic is really bad. My broadcast audio in video meetings is almost a full second out of sync with my webcam video

The former I had been addressing via PulseEffects-Legacy, but that only worsened the audio latency. PulseEffects didn't like buffer sizes smaller than 4096, either, despite my desktop being pretty powerful.

After extensive research it sounded like PipeWire could be a cure-all. I've only been running it for a little while but I'm happy to report my audio performance does indeed seem much better. Luckily, Pop!'s packages include PipeWire (albeit not the latest release) so it was pretty easy to set up.

Tip

Before starting, I would recommend making a Timeshift snapshot. The first time I tried to set up PipeWire resulted in undetectable input/output devices and Timeshift made undoing the carnage much easier than manually removing and downgrading packages.

Dumping PulseEffects

Since PulseEffects is designed for PulseAudio, and superseded by EasyEffects, it's best to dump it first. In my case I was using a native package instead of a flatpak so I just removed it with apt: 

sudo apt remove pulseeffects

Leftover Audio Modules

When removing pulseeffects apt may suggest other audio plugins / modules for removal. Leave these alone -- EasyEffects can make use of them once we install it later.

Installing PipeWire

As mentioned above, PipeWire is included in Pop!'s package manager. It won't be the latest version, but I think it is better to install the included copy rather than pulling newer versions from a PPA or elsewhere. In theory the included version will be less likely to break future Pop! OS distro releases. Of course, I am not doing any audio editing/mixing/streaming so my needs may differ from yours. If you are doing music production, for instance, it might make sense to seek out newer versions of PipeWire which will undoubtedly contain stability/quality of life improvements.

Anyway, in addition to PipeWire we'll load up some other packages to support GStreamer plugins, JACK, and Bluetooth audio.

PipeWire

Install PipeWire core:

sudo apt install pipewire

PipeWire Add-Ons

Install the GStreamer, Bluetooth, and JACK support (curate to your liking):

sudo apt install gstreamer1.0-pipewire libpipewire-0.3-{0,dev,modules} libspa-0.2-{bluetooth,dev,jack,modules} pipewire{,-{audio-client-libraries,pulse,media-session,bin,tests}}

Reboot

Restart to make sure the system picks up the changes:

systemctl reboot

Confirming PipeWire Installation

Once the system starts back up it should automatically be using PipeWire. You can check by running:

pactl info | grep '^Server Name'

The output should look something like:

Server Name: PulseAudio (on PipeWire 0.3.32)

That's pretty much it! Next we'll add EasyEffects so we can do system-wide loudness equalization.

EasyEffects

EasyEffects is the PipeWire replacement for the PulseEffects-Legacy project and only works with PipeWire. It works like a souped up equalizer that can manipulate input/output devices or individual applications via plugins (e.g. compressors, gates, limiters, etc).

Installing EasyEffects

Unfortunately it only seems to come packaged as a flatpak for debian-based systems so we'll have to install it that way: 

sudo flatpak install flathub com.github.wwmm.easyeffects

Select "Y" when prompted by the flathub tool to install EasyEffects & its plugins.

Importing the Loudness Equalization Preset

We're going to make this really easy by borrowing a preset that's already been put together by Digitalone1 on GitHub:

  1. Open terminal and navigate to a sensible place to temporarily store Digitalone1's repo

  2. Download the repo contents: 

    git clone https://github.com/Digitalone1/EasyEffects-Presets.git

  3. Copy the preset into this EasyEffects directory: 

    cp LoudnessEqualizer.json ~/.var/app/com.github.wwmm.easyeffects/config/easyeffects/output/

That will pre-load the preset for use in EasyEffects. Note the filename is important: LoudnessEqualizer.json is the file you want. Once the file has been copied over you can delete the Digitalone1 repo from your system.

Configuring EasyEffects

Setting up loudness equalization from here is simple:

  1. Start EasyEffects
  2. Make sure the Output tab is selected
  3. Click the Presets dropdown
  4. Click the Speakers tab
  5. Find the LoudnessEqualizer preset entry and click Load

Nice, preset is loaded. Before we can call it job done we'll want to alter some basic quality of life settings:

  1. Start EasyEffects if it's not already open
  2. Hit the hamburger menu and open Preferences
  3. Change these settings on the General tab:
    • Start Service at Login: ON
    • Shutdown on Window Close: OFF
    • Process All Inputs: OFF
    • (OPTIONAL) Use Dark Theme: Your choice
  4. Explore the settings on the Spectrum tab. My config is below:
    • State -> Enabled: ON
    • Shape: Bars
    • Points: 50
    • Height: 240px
    • Line Width: 5px
    • Fill: ON
    • Show Bars Border: ON
    • Rounded Corners: OFF
  5. Close the Preferences pane
  6. Switch the main interface to the PipeWire tab
  7. Make sure Output is selected at the very bottom of this panel
  8. Open General
  9. Unless you have multiple input devices, turn off the Input Device -> Use Default setting and hard assign your microphone to the dropdown menu
  10. Open Presets Autoloading
  11. Select your default speakers AND the LoudnessEqualizer preset, then click the Plus (+) button
    • This will make sure the loudness equalizer is always applied to your default audio device

Now we are all set! You can also explore other goodies inside EasyEffects, such as microphone settings. I have a simple preset configured which boosts the volume a hair and fixes the audio/video desync issue I mentioned at the outset:

  1. Open EasyEffects
  2. Switch to the Input tab
  3. Switch to the Plugins module
  4. Click Add Plugin -> Loudness
  5. Set FFT Size to 256
    • This sets a small buffer to decrease latency
  6. Set Output Volume to +0.5dB
    • This boosts the mic volume half a decibel. This was just enough to get my microphone working at a reasonable volume

Now there's nothing left to do but enjoy a usable audio experience!

Last update: 2022-12-30