How to Install PulseAudio-Equalizer in Ubuntu and Linux Mint

Ubuntu and Linux Mint work pretty well right out of the box most of the time, but  it often doesn’t play nice with certain audio hardware. It can be hair-raising to search for new Linux sound drivers for your specific audio hardware setup when you’re trying to solve problems with sound in Ubuntu and Linux Mint. Linux Mint, in particular, has been a bit buggy as of the release of version 19.1. But the good news is that you typically don’t need to change your sound driver to get the sound working properly on your computer, because ALSA and PulseAudio usually work fine on most computer systems. But the settings can’t be easily tweaked in the software that comes installed with Ubuntu. The PulseAudio Volume Control utility (you can type pavucontrol in the run box or at the command line to start it) gives you a few options to control the audio settings, but only PulseAudio-Equalizer gives you the ability to easily fine-tune your audio settings by audio channel. While some versions of PulseAudio come with a built-in equalizer, the equalizer is not available on all distributions and can be difficult to set up.

Before getting started, you might consider swapping out your headphones, speakers, or sound card to see if you’re having a hardware problem.

PulseAudio-Equalizer is available from the Webupd8 PPA.

Ensure that you have all the necessary dependencies:

sudo apt-get install python-dbus python-qt4 python-qt4-dbus pulseaudio-utils

Then you can install the software at the terminal by entering the following commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nilarimogard/webupd8
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install pulseaudio-equalizer

Then you can run the equalizer at the command line by typing:

qpaeq

You may receive an error message, saying:

There was an error connecting to pulseaudio, please make sure you have the pulseaudio dbus module loaded, exiting.

If this happens, you have to make a few changes to your system’s startup settings. At the command line, type:

sudo nano /etc/pulse/default.pa

Scroll down to the bottom of the file and add these two lines:

load-module module-equalizer-sink
load-module module-dbus-protocol

Type CTRL+O to write the file out, press enter to save the file and then press CTRL+X to exit the nano text editor.

Next, restart  PulseAudio with the following command:

pulseaudio --kill && pulseaudio --start

PulseAudio Equalizer comes with a multi-band interface. While your audio is playing, you can adjust the sliders as necessary to correct problems with the sound output. You can also press the save button to save your presets for later use, or press the trash button to discard the preset, or press the reset button to set the bands back to default values.

Also, if you resize the equalizer window, you will see many more bands than in the default window size.

This can help you to achieve a far more nuanced sound output. The settings above helped me to eliminate a “buzzing” sound that was occurring on my nine-year old HP dv7 laptop during certain music or voice playback.

If you have any problems or questions, you can check the Webupd8.org website for tips. But keep in mind that the software comes without a warranty.

If you’re uncomfortable installing a PPA on your system, then you can use the following alternative installation method:

wget http://cgit.freedesktop.org/pulseaudio/pulseaudio/plain/src/utils/qpaeq -O /tmp/qpaeq
sudo install /tmp/qpaeq /usr/local/bin/

This step downloads the installation file directly from the developers of PulseAudio rather than from the Webupd8 PPA.

I have had some experience with the Webupd8 PPA over the last few years, though, and I have found it to be very reliable. To see the other apps available through this PPA, check out Webupd8’s Launchpad page.

Has this article been helpful? Have any questions? Feel free to post a comment below.

Support me on Patreon.

Support me on PayPal.

Additional Reading:

Clementine Music Player Tutorial
Solve Problems with Sound in Ubuntu and Linux Mint
Troubleshoot Problems with Audio Using PulseAudio Volume Control
How to Add Programs to the Linux Mint Menu

Advertisement

Privacy Settings