Speaker phone volume - Google Pixel Questions & Answers

Does anyone have an idea if we can raise the speaker phone up louder then current max? For some reason the speaker phone seems to be a lot quieter then using the speaker for watching youtube for example.

Yes, there is a special trick. Use external amplifiers such as even a little cylinder bluetooth speaker!
Works like a charm! As for when the device has been rooted and modified in he future, there may be a kernel with access to "speaker level gain."
However. Playing large dynamic youtube and web video such as movies and TV.... These sources are not mastered or mixed like the ads or like music or like a voice call...
Therefore, modding the gain up is very easily going to damage the speaker when "standard loud audio" plays. Sure you can control it and lower the risk... But loud ads on youtube you can't control.
Audio that loud then gained digitally can easily exceed the design parameter of the amp and speaker.
Sent from my sailfish using XDA Labs

Related

[idea] Noise-cancelling in music playback.

The N1 already uses its second mic to cancel background noise in calls. Would such a thing be possible with earphones plugged in and playing music, either using the mic in the body or in-line mics?
I'm not a fan of noise-cancellation in general, but I know it has its uses in certain situations, and it would be a cool functionality to have.
The Sony Walkman X1000 does something similar to what I'm describing, although I think it has a mic in each earphone as it's got a five-pin plug instead of the four of a normal mic headset.

Low volume with anything other than Google Music

Volume was very low through my earphones (I've tried multiple), so I looked around the forum for similar threads. There's a LOT of threads with low volume issues. I found Voodoo Control, installed it, and configured it to output maximum levels. Google Music is at an acceptable level now where I won't put it to maximum volume, but Moboplayer sounds like I have it at ~50% when I actually have everything maxed out. It's pretty much useless to watch a movie where there is any other noise even with my in-ear phones that isolate sound.
I'm running the original Prime 1.5, not the revised kernel (no SoD issues here). So I'm getting a bit desperate here because of all the other little issues I've had to deal with this tablet... What can I do to resolve this?
I can't be the only one with this issue. Google Music's volume is more than sufficiently loud after installing Voodoo Control and maxing out everything. I originally thought my problem was limited to Moboplayer, but it's anything else besides Google Music. I've viewed my videos through Mobo, Rock, and the built-in MyNet app. I have normalized the audio stream to 100% for my videos, but even when set to "max" volume, it is nowhere near loud enough if there's any other noise in the environment.
I really want to like this tablet (and I do to some extent), but there's all these little issues with the software and some hardware that are really making me -__-
I can't say I have this issue but I can say that the sound quality sucks and even at the highest volume it is too low.
I installed Power AMP which has an equalizer with a Loud Speaker Out Pre setting which is louder than anything I have seen yet. It seems when you set your tab to this any other music player will pick it up and it is definitely louder.
Give it a try.

Headphone amplifier app

Every couple months i pointlessly ask this question.
Is anyone aware of an app that can adjust the headphone amplifier levels?
I need the headphone amp to have REDUCED volume to eliminate static noise when listening to quiet music at night.
Voodoo sound does this perfectly, but only works on samsung phones.
Thanks in advance, even though lets face it it doesn't exist.
stonew5082 said:
Every couple months i pointlessly ask this question.
Is anyone aware of an app that can adjust the headphone amplifier levels?
I need the headphone amp to have REDUCED volume to eliminate static noise when listening to quiet music at night.
Voodoo sound does this perfectly, but only works on samsung phones.
Thanks in advance, even though lets face it it doesn't exist.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What exactly is causing this static noise??
DSP manager should be what you are looking for. Set the equalizer in the headphone settings to "custom" then reduce the levels across all the bands. If it is high pitched static you may just want to reduce the high frequencies
EDIT: Search the forums for "Dsp manager" to find the download link. Id post it but cant...
thornhill523 said:
What exactly is causing this static noise??
DSP manager should be what you are looking for. Set the equalizer in the headphone settings to "custom" then reduce the levels across all the bands. If it is high pitched static you may just want to reduce the high frequencies
EDIT: Search the forums for "Dsp manager" to find the download link. Id post it but cant...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I appreciate your reponse but its not a solution. If you listen to quiet music at night like classical music, you will hear a static. Its a cheap headphone amp in the phone. Think about a guitar amp turned up too loud. You would hear the amp clearly when the guitar isn't playing. Some phones are worse than others in this regard. Turning the headphone amp down and the media volume UP reduces static noise and allows the media volume to be high.
Turning the eq down may help but at the cost of good sound quality. I have tried it.
And finally, here is the answer. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.teamkang.fauxsound
I had the same problem to with white noise static coming in my low impedance in ear phones.
I edited these 2 files and lowered the gain to 48 for headset. I think by default its on 55.
They are in /system/etc
Files
TPA2051_CFG.csv
TPA2051_CFG_XC.csv
Edit and reboot. Make copies before edit just in case.
Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using Tapatalk 2

App for louder music sound! -Much Louder-..

I was searching all over the play store for a way to boost the music sound and nothing was working in fact it would make the sound worse and lower than it already was and this is another thing we can't change without root permissions but luckily I found PowerAmp and this app literally made the music almost 50% louder so if you like your music louder I suggest you give it a shot and it can easily be found on the play store! Make sure you learn to use the equalizer and pre amp features because it makes it extremely loud but if you go into the settings and turn on the gain levels you can make it so loud that it's going to hurt your ears so just a warning lol.. Google Play Store PowerAmp!
My issue is not so much the speaker but the ear piece for calls. It just seems very low. I have issues hearing everyone unless it is cranked.... and it is still not loud enough.
Does PowerAmp affect the ear speaker too?
Update: I am guessing not since this is a "music player"
player911 said:
My issue is not so much the speaker but the ear piece for calls. It just seems very low. I have issues hearing everyone unless it is cranked.... and it is still not loud enough.
Does PowerAmp affect the ear speaker too?
Update: I am guessing not since this is a "music player"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No this is only when you're playing music or videos through the PowerAmp player. Have you tried adjusting the hearing settings in settings then accessibility and Hearing? See if that may help or you can go through Settings then Sounds and Vibration and tap Sound Quality And effects and go through the entire process.
MrMike2182 said:
I was searching all over the play store for a way to boost the music sound and nothing was working in fact it would make the sound worse and lower than it already was and this is another thing we can't change without root permissions but luckily I found PowerAmp and this app literally made the music almost 50% louder so if you like your music louder I suggest you give it a shot and it can easily be found on the play store! Make sure you learn to use the equalizer and pre amp features because it makes it extremely loud but if you go into the settings and turn on the gain levels you can make it so loud that it's going to hurt your ears so just a warning lol.. Google Play
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
@mmw68666
What are you trying to say? Lol..
It should be noted that the lower the bitrate of the audio file being played, the lower you will be able to increase the pre-amp level before getting massive distortion. I bought PowerAmp long ago and have used it almost exclusively, and the pre-amp I generally set pretty high, but most of my audio is FLAC with some 320WMA mixed in and the rare 192 and lower for rare stuff I had to rip from Youtube or other less than ideal sources. With FLAC files you can boost the pre-amp quite high and lot lose any quality or introduce any distortion. Using my Sony MDR-XB500 headphones and FLAC files, and the PowerAmp pre-amp, the audio levels easily get to painful/damaging-to-your-ears levels without distortion, but "standard" bitrate music (192kbps-ish) starts to distort pretty low on the pre-amp.

Stereo Audio Recording?

Can any of the early adopters here confirm whether the Pixel (not XL) is capable of recording stereo audio when capturing videos? All of the example videos I've seen on YouTube seem to be recorded with monaural audio.
This could be the only deal breaker for me. I take my HTC M8 to concerts frequently, and it captures phenomenal stereo audio that doesn't distort or clip in loud venues. As much as I like the Pixel, I would probably have to buy the HTC 10 instead if the audio recording capabilities were overlooked by Google.
bjamerican said:
Can any of the early adopters here confirm whether the Pixel (not XL) is capable of recording stereo audio when capturing videos? All of the example videos I've seen on YouTube seem to be recorded with monaural audio.
This could be the only deal breaker for me. I take my HTC M8 to concerts frequently, and it captures phenomenal stereo audio that doesn't distort or clip in loud venues. As much as I like the Pixel, I would probably have to buy the HTC 10 instead if the audio recording capabilities were overlooked by Google.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just did some testing for you. The built in video recorder records in mono. However, the Pixel obviously has the ability to record in stereo because I just tried the "Sony Audio recorder" on Google Play and it records stereo audio. If you just need audio and not video this has the ability to record very high quality stereo recordings.
gadgetgaz said:
I just did some testing for you. The built in video recorder records in mono. However, the Pixel obviously has the ability to record in stereo because I just tried the "Sony Audio recorder" on Google Play and it records stereo audio. If you just need audio and not video this has the ability to record very high quality stereo recordings.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow thanks for looking into this!
I'm really disappointed to learn that the "best phone camera ever" doesn't record videos in stereo! Google really needs to address this in an app update quickly.
Good to know that the hardware is capable, at least. The Pixel also seems to do well in very high sound pressure levels too, based on concert clips I've seen posted on Youtube (this is something HTC has always excelled at).
bjamerican said:
Wow thanks for looking into this!
I'm really disappointed to learn that the "best phone camera ever" doesn't record videos in stereo! Google really needs to address this in an app update quickly.
Good to know that the hardware is capable, at least. The Pixel also seems to do well in very high sound pressure levels too, based on concert clips I've seen posted on Youtube (this is something HTC has always excelled at).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Okay.... It is not very meaningful as "stereo" it is not an XY or A-B studio recording physical pattern.
It is more useful for most people as a mono recording, less noise that is heavy left or right from handling phone to record a "home video" (of a meowing cat or cute baby etc)
That said I am an audio engineer and musician, and I can see a usefulness in having two sources, in case one is better. Mixing them might be better with some of each side panned to the other.
I just consider it two channel recording. Stereo is about perceiving a binaural field L+R, not just two paired signals. The analogy isn't moot. A single mic close to a sound source in a studio and one mic in a distant point that provides "room noise" or "reverb" is 2 channels, not a stereo.
So I think it better to know that there are many options and considerations to make when you do use an app to record with both mics as to how to mix the sources knowing they aren't intrinsically just stereo. That's why I prefer the built in camera app to just stick to mono which is overall better sound for most people. 2 channels only sound good if you do some "audio mixing" in a DAW....
Sent from my sailfish using XDA Labs
nednednerb said:
Okay.... It is not very meaningful as "stereo" it is not an XY or A-B studio recording physical pattern.
It is more useful for most people as a mono recording, less noise that is heavy left or right from handling phone to record a "home video" (of a meowing cat or cute baby etc)
That said I am an audio engineer and musician, and I can see a usefulness in having two sources, in case one is better. Mixing them might be better with some of each side panned to the other.
I just consider it two channel recording. Stereo is about perceiving a binaural field L+R, not just two paired signals. The analogy isn't moot. A single mic close to a sound source in a studio and one mic in a distant point that provides "room noise" or "reverb" is 2 channels, not a stereo.
So I think it better to know that there are many options and considerations to make when you do use an app to record with both mics as to how to mix the sources knowing they aren't intrinsically just stereo. That's why I prefer the built in camera app to just stick to mono which is overall better sound for most people. 2 channels only sound good if you do some "audio mixing" in a DAW....
Sent from my sailfish using XDA Labs
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Great information and very useful
gadgetgaz said:
I just did some testing for you. The built in video recorder records in mono. However, the Pixel obviously has the ability to record in stereo because I just tried the "Sony Audio recorder" on Google Play and it records stereo audio. If you just need audio and not video this has the ability to record very high quality stereo recordings.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In your tests, did you compare the waveform of both channels to see if differences exist? How do you know the Sony app didn't just take the mono input and record it to both left and right channels?
Hi I didn't compare the waveforms I just listened to the audio. If you record a single sound source and rotate the phone while recording you can hear the sound going from one ear to the other on playback. If it was a mono recording you wouldn't be able to tell that the phone was being rotated at the time the recording was made.
So which mic is left, and which one is right?
Solutions Etcetera said:
In your tests, did you compare the waveform of both channels to see if differences exist? How do you know the Sony app didn't just take the mono input and record it to both left and right channels?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can easily tell immediately if a video was recorded with 1 or 2 channels of audio, especially when wearing headphones. Here is a clip I recorded with my HTC M8... Notice how the sound pans when I turn the camera away from the stage!
https://youtu.be/-yqL9uD2oxY
2 channels is simply more lifelike... We have two ears, so the Pixel should be using two mics for the most realistic audio.
Device: Pixel (sailfish) running Android 7.1 Nougat
One of our users (we are developers of an audio recorder app on Google Play) is reporting that the top microphone on the Pixel has a slight hiss (when he records stereo audio).
Is this an exception (maybe just a bad device) ? Or are other Pixel users seeing this as a general behavior on Pixels ?
This is confirmed when he records mono audio as well, by using the top microphone (aka "Camcorder" microphone). In our app, the user can choose the "Audio Source for Mono" and set it to Camcorder for the top microphone. For stereo, the user can modify the "Audio Source for Stereo" to find a setting that works best. Even the best setting there had a hiss when recording audio. Hiss was less obvious in certain environments.
Hiss in the top microphone on Android phones can be due to interference from the antenna. One can test if this is the cause, by turning on the Airplane Mode (which shuts off the antenna). Usually the hiss will disappear.
However, in his case the top microphone persisted in having that slight hiss (even with Airplane Mode set to On).
Thanks.
EDIT:
To test this with our app, you can search "mp3 recorder" on Google Play - our app is the "Amazing MP3 Recorder Pro" app there.
EDIT 2:
I have heard back from one person who is suggesting the problem is NOT universal to Pixel - and may just be a problem with that user's device (thus warranting a RMA - Return Merchandise authorization i.e. a return candidate).

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