Any utility/audio player that adjusts L/R balance? - General Questions and Answers

As the question asks: any out there does this?
My bluetooth wireless audio adapter went for a ride in my washing machine, and now the left channel is much diminished. Thankfully it still works.
Being ever cheap, I want to keep using it. To fix it temporarily, I was wondering if there's any audio player out there that adjusts the left/right balance like in winamp?

I once went to watch something on my phone and found it only had sound on one channel. As a workaround in coreplayer, I set it to play in mono which would probably work for you as well. You can choose from getting the sound from left, right or joined.

That's different than my current issue
Because of the trip through the washer, I suspect that the amp on my bluetooth dongle is damaged, especially the part responsible for outputting to the left channel (excuse my horrible layman logic).
In any case, my cheesy workaround is to use a utility on the transmitter that artificially increases the gain on the left channel, such that it compensates for the lack of output from the left channel of the dongle into my ear.
Artificially restoring L/R balance, really

Related

Figured out how to get orientation-dependent stereo back!

It's been known for a while that, on the original Lollipop-based stock Rom for this phone, when the screen rotation was in secondary landscape mode, the audio mix would be adjusted accordingly so that the right channel of audio would be played out of the top speaker and the left channel of audio would be played out of the bottom speaker (for all other orientations, the left channel would be played out of the top speaker and the right would be played out of the bottom). Unfortunately, this seems to have been broken as of the official Marshmallow stock Rom release on the phone, and nobody has found a solution...
Until now! I happened to be reading a thread from 2015 in XDA's NEXUS 6 forums, in which somebody actually complained about the momentary period of silence that would occur during this transition. Senior member springer.music stepped forward with the answer saying that "ro.audio.monitorRotation" in the build.prop was the location of the hidden setting for turning this feature on and off. Changing it to "true" yields the desired effect, allowing the stereo mix to be corrected in landscape. Turns out that the same value is just as relevant under Marshmallow on the Pure Edition as it was for Lollipop on the NEXUS 6!
Here's a direct quote of springer.music's original post with further background:
springer.music said:
Code:
ro.audio.monitorRotation=true
If I got it right, this makes it so that the left speaker always plays the actual "left" audio channel and the right speaker plays the "right" channel in landscape mode regardless of the screen position (landscape or reverse landscape).
If this were not in place, when the device is in reverse landscape, the left speaker would play the "right" audio channel, and the right speaker would play the "left" channel.
In order to avoid this, the system must swap the audio channels on the fly, hence the short pause when you rotate the screen.
...
EDIT: I forgot to mention that the short audio pause when rotating the device happens only when playing music through the built in speakers, and it doesn't happen when using a headset. It further proves that this is due to the system adjusting the L/R audio channels and it is actually a feature, not a bug.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is worth mentioning that "ro.audio.monitorRotation" was not originally present in my device's build.prop file, so it was simply a matter of adding the entry. To my surprise, it was a runaway success. As springer.music pointed out, this tweak is only for the speakers and (thankfully) does not affect the headphones, so you can feel free to apply this without risk of messing up the headphone-based listening experience. I used JRummy Apps's "BuildProp Editor," available on the Marketplace, to make the change.

Microphone records only in mono?

Ok so I just got the Pixel 2 XL and realized that all audio recording on it is in mono. Even when I hooked up my blue yeti (set to stereo mode) the audio still got mixed down to mono. The reason why this is such a big deal to me is that recording just sounds awful compared to my Galaxy S5 that recorded in stereo.
Is this a hardware limitation on the Pixel 2 XLs side, or is it a software limitation? If it is software do I have hope that a custom rom in the future would be able to enable stereo recording?
There's one mic (unless you want different levels and quality on each channel) and one pin for mic input in the phone, so I'm guessing (it would be the way I'd have done it) they've only implemented one audio channel for the mic (hardware costs money). So even if you use a stereo mic, both channels are being fed to the same pin (or you're losing one channel, depending on the mic manufacturer and whether you have the mic set to stereo or mono), so the phone records in mono.
I haven't torn my phone apart - this is just a "how would I implement this if I were given the assignment" first approximation. (On second approximation, I'd probably split the mic input so a mono mic plug would hit both channels, but a stereo plug would maintain them separately, then run 2 channels in the phone, at least for video recording ... then present it to be shot down as being too expensive.) But I don't work for Google, so I have no idea what their design philosophy is.
There is definitely at least two mics, one bottom side that you speak into and one top side that is used for ambient noise reduction while you are on a call. This is the same setup that the original Pixel had except the ambient mic was on the rear, it too only recorded video with mono audio, but later on an audio system mod was made to enable stereo playback and capture; https://forum.xda-developers.com/pixel-xl/themes/mod-enabling-dual-speaker-audio-playback-t3492257 . Unfortunately an equivalent mod doesn't exist for our Pixel 2 yet, but hopefully someday it will.

New head unit install has static noise

I have just installed an Erisen 7591-HA (PX5) into my 2010 Golf Gti and I am getting static and digital processing sounds through my speakers.
If I mute the head unit there is no static or other sounds.
The digital processing noise happens when playing music via usb and Spotify when selecting the next track.
This is my first Android head deck and I am really disappointed.
Sound is going through an Alpine PDX-F6 amp.
I have tried disconnecting the radio plug and removing the head unit from the dash but no change still has static and processing sounds.
Sound issues remain if the engine is off it makes no difference.
Static and digital sounds do not increase with volume, it remains the same no matter what volume it is at unless the head unit is muted.
Good quality RCA and speaker cable was used.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
I have the same issue with a Belsee unit I installed last week. Do you have a line-level filter in your harness? I have a theory that the line-level filter that's included in mine is unnecessary, as it's coming straight off where the RCA outs would normally be (and those are line level already, right?).
tonyarnold said:
I have the same issue with a Belsee unit I installed last week. Do you have a line-level filter in your harness? I have a theory that the line-level filter that's included in mine is unnecessary, as it's coming straight off where the RCA outs would normally be (and those are line level already, right?).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No I do not have a line level filter on mine.
I have tried using an RCA GROUND LOOP ISOLATOR but this done nothing.
Below is a link to the sound I am getting from the head unit, you will see it only makes the sounds when volume is not muted.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vhT7AavZbg
Same issue on my PX5 KGL unit, not tested with filters or similar...
I read somewhere that the LED color-changing caused interference - and I noticed that you have yours setup that way. Have you tried setting a static color? Also, make sure all of your wiring is clean and try to keep any speaker wires away from any power wires (although that is more applicable to an external app setup).
Can you hear the noise at all while music is actually playing? Obviously, it would be better if it wasn't there are all, but if you can't hear it normally (only hear it when nothing is playing), then I wouldn't sweat it too much. All you can do is make sure that your wiring is clean and maybe try adjusting the LED settings and the "pre-amp" settings under the factory menu (maybe see if reducing the "System" setting under "Voice" helps reduce it). Once you try using things like ground-loop isolaters, etc, then there is a chance that the music fidelity is reduced even more.
jtrosky said:
I read somewhere that the LED color-changing caused interference - and I noticed that you have yours setup that way. Have you tried setting a static color? Also, make sure all of your wiring is clean and try to keep any speaker wires away from any power wires (although that is more applicable to an external app setup).
Can you hear the noise at all while music is actually playing? Obviously, it would be better if it wasn't there are all, but if you can't hear it normally (only hear it when nothing is playing), then I wouldn't sweat it too much. All you can do is make sure that your wiring is clean and maybe try adjusting the LED settings and the "pre-amp" settings under the factory menu (maybe see if reducing the "System" setting under "Voice" helps reduce it). Once you try using things like ground-loop isolaters, etc, then there is a chance that the music fidelity is reduced even more.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah have tried all the above and nothing changes.
The sound quality is poor also with higher ranges being really scratchy.
I am sure the unit would be fine if not using a higher end amp and just running the speakers off the head unit, I have read a few posts online and on youtube that the RCA output signal can be really poor with certain brands.
I just sent the unit back today for a full refund and will now be buying a brand name such as Alpine, Pioneer etc etc

Vehicle Door chime/signal sounds

https://www.hifimax.net/6-95-inch-android-7-1-quad-core-16g-auto-navigation-gps-head-unit-for-bmw-mini-2006-2013.html
Installed that unit with android 8 4gb 32gb option for a 2013 Mini Cooper Countryman S, installation went quite well, fit is great.
I knew that the factory unit was responsible of playing the vehicle chime and indicator sounds, including the blinker turn signal sounds. Before purchasing a wire harness adapter for bmw/mini that makes up for the vehicle chime/indicator sounds, I thought I'd see what solution this head unit had built in.
Unfortunately, the sounds aren't great. The unit has an external speaker that emits the sounds. The speaker is fine, but the only sound that DOES work is the blinke/turning indicator sound which is absolutely terrible. The blinker indicator tone programmed in is a recording of a classic oldschool mechanical electromagnetic relay switch tinging on and off loudly with a *twang*, lol. The length of the sound file is also too long, meaning it takes time for the sound to stop playing after the turning signal has stopped blinking. Door chimes, key/fob dinger doesn't work, vehicle information notification tone doesn't do anything. Something is strange.
The can-bus decoder seems to be built into the unit pulling from the factory wire harness that is pre-wired. I have no idea where these files are stored, if they are on a subsystem rom that's inaccessible or what but it would be very cool to be able to rewrite the audio files to work like factory. I am up to plugging in the factory unit to record all of the factory tones with some high end recording equipment I have to make it right.
Anyone have any leads of where to begin to correct this?
From my reading the CANBUS external box (which has the external speaker attached) is what is generating the sounds so unfortunately they aren't coming from the head unit itself.
millab said:
From my reading the CANBUS external box (which has the external speaker attached) is what is generating the sounds so unfortunately they aren't coming from the head unit itself.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't believe that is correct as the speaker is just a 2-terminal connector plugging into the back of the LCD panel module (which houses the px5 processor module, most of the computational components. )
I have the exact same setup and am hoping for a fix...the new sounds are awful and I really miss the key and light warnings.

Do external DACs circumvent the "high volumes" warning?

TL;DR - See thread title.
Full story:
I'm sure everyone knows about the "Listening at high volumes may damage your hearing" message. Well, I don't ever wear headphones; I plug my phone into my car's Aux jack. The warning is completely irrelevant.
My issue - when I am driving, my phone likes to randomly reset its output level back to nominal.
Mid-song, middle of a podcast, no specific app. Sometimes multiple times in a day. Sometimes weeks in between. Unpredictable.
I need to keep my phone's volume all the way up to get a decent signal-to-noise ratio for my car stereo. If I leave the phone below the warning/nominal level, I have to turn the stereo up a lot louder, and it sounds noisy.
If I'm driving down the highway, I prefer to never interact with my phone. If the "Listening at high volumes may damage your hearing" nanny-ware popup decides to appear while I'm trying to drive, and I've got another hour left before I get home, this demands I look at my phone to correct the issue. Unsafe.
My car only has an Aux input, and I think 1/8" Bluetooth adapters sound like garbage. I want to continue using analog connectivity.
So, back to my original question - Does anyone have experience with $100-tier external DACs paired with a Moto One 5G Ace? When in use, does the Moto recognize these devices as "headphone jacks," or line outputs that require no headphone volume warning?
I'm willing to drop the money if it will actually solve my nagging safety issue.

Categories

Resources