[REQ] Script to enable/disable Windows built-in Loudness Equalization

There's probably a way to do it with vbscript that just isn't documented, but from what I can tell there's a registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/MICROSOFT/WINDOWS/CURRENTVERSION/MMDEVICES/AUDIO/RENDER

One of those...
You could make a cmd script to add the loudness thing, net stop the audio service and of course net start the audio service. I'm pretty sure the reg keys are being checked when the audio service starts or you restart windows

Sorry I don't have the exact names, but you could probably figure it out from there...

 

murphy is correct, that's where the setting is.. then from there it's a unique GUID key for every computer and every audio device..

You can take a snapshot of your registry and then change the setting in volume control, then compare the active registry to the snapshot to see which key was changed, so you know for sure... or you can take a guess......

in each GUID named key there are 2 sub keys named FxProperties and Properties, in the Properties key you will be looking for a key whose value is Speakers..... you might only have one so it would be easy to find. My PC has 2 for some reason and changing the setting only affects one of the keys..

once you find the right key for Speakers, then you go back into the FxProperties subkey and that's where the setting is stored... it's another unique GUID label key, the value is 0 for off and 1 for on.. you can have that key open when you change the setting and then refresh the screen and see which key has changed..... then you know which to toggle

Now the tricky part... apparently these keys are protected from change by the user... I was using Registry Workshop and my changes were denied. Changing the permissions didn't seem to work from RW either. I had to use Windows registry editor to change the permission of the key to full access for admins... then I was able to toggle the value without issue. There was no need to start/stop the audio service.. the registry change was all that was needed.

So yes it could be done by batch script provided you have all the required keys (and would need to get the new GUID key names and values each time you reinstalled Windows), and change the permissions on the key to be able to toggle the value.

All in all, it might not be worth the hassle.. up to you.

 

toggle volume on or off

Instead of going thru all the protected reg with correct guid, why don't you just use devcon.exe from a batch or commandline to toggle sound on and off.
If you don't have the devcon utility you can download from Microsoft the 32/64bit versions @ http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;Q311272
then place your version in system32 or just run it from the desktop like so:
Using my machine as an example you can do the following:
1. Use the above reg file to identify the sound hardware id or from commandline Run either devcon find *> HardwareID.List.txt or devcon hwids *> HardwareID.List.txt
2. From text file Do Ctrl+F for a search of hdaudio (mine is:HDAUDIO\FUNC_01&VEN_10EC&DEV_0269&SUBSYS_1179FC36&REV_1001\4&68B495B&0&0001: Realtek High Definition Audio
3. Now with that info just use the DEV_0269
Now fun part
To toggle off volume: devcon disable *DEV_0269>nul
To toggle back on: devcon restart *DEV_0269
DP

 

Got something that works on my Realtek High Definition Audio Device

OK, so this isn't a script, but it's usable in a script, and it interacts with COM, so there may be a way to convert it to a script. Since this page is high on the search results at the moment, and I couldn't find anything that could do this anywhere else, I wanted to share this somewhere others could find it. If that's a no-no, let me know.

I've written a little utility that will toggle loudness equalization for the default multimedia device (assuming it's Realtek). This may work with other Realtek devices, but I have only tried it with my own Realtek ALC892 (10EC:0892) on 64-bit Windows 8.1, driver 6.0.1.7246, with RtkCfg64.dll available in C:\WINDOWS\system32.

Usage: ToggleLoudnessEqualization.exe [1/on/0/off/toggle] [exit]

This command displays the resulting status of loudness equalization on completion. Arguments are optional, and if not included, it will simply display the current status of LEQ.
Including an "exit" parameter will cause the program to return success when LEQ is on, failure when it is off, which allows you to do something like:
ToggleLoudnessEqualization.exe toggle exit && nircmd speak text enabled || nircmd speak text disabled
​

The above command is useful in a batch file. If you have Nir Sofer's wonderful nircmd installed, that command will announce whether you've just turned Loudness Equalization on or off. Just an example usage, and the way I use it myself.
​

ToggleLoudnessEqualization.exe and RTPolicyConfigClientLib.dll are the only files necessary for the application to execute.

Source and binaries attached:
View attachment ToggleLoudnessEqualization.zip

Details:
Some Realtek drivers come with DLLs that allow you to change Fx Properties and have it take effect immediately (without disabling/re-enabling the whole device). For my particular device, the relevant COM-accessible DLL is RtkCfg64.dll, RtkCfg.RtkCfgApi.1.

If programming in .NET is your thing, you can interact with the RtkCfg COM library by creating an interop DLL for it using TlbImp -- in my case, from the Windows "v7.0A" SDK's bin folder, but other versions of TlbImp probably work. If you're targeting a version of .NET earlier than 4.0, you will need to modify tlbimp.exe.config and insert the following into the <configuration> section:

Code:

    <startup>
        <supportedRuntime version="v2.0.50727"/>
    </startup>

(I couldn't insert it in the typical GUI way, myself, due to it being a 64-bit library.)

After that, the resulting DLL can be included as a reference in a C# project.
By the way, the closest I've come to converting this to VBScript is...:

Code:

Set objRtk =  CreateObject("RtkCfg.RtkCfgApi.1")

You're welcome to try to flesh that out. First step is figuring out how to get an audio device ID in VBScript...

 

Thank you!! I was investigating how to do this via PowerShell / .NET. It looks like I'll still need to make an interop dll assembly (or borrow the one supplied here) for PowerShell to do it.

EDIT: I just tried the command. It works great!

 

alternative: use nircmd

 

Nircmd can only control audio volume "up", "down", "mute", "mic" or switch to system audio devices; at least, last I checked. It doesn't enable/disable Realtek's dynamic audio compression in realtime.

I'd also like to thank @ja34blke again. This really is an irreplaceable tool. Nothing else really like it. I just configured my HTPC (Kodi Media Center) to automatically use dynamic audio compress for TV; and, disable it for Movies and Music! Pretty slick!

 

Thank you,
I want also to to toggle the 'voice cancellation'.
What would the source code look like?

I tried to change the uint 'propLoudnessEqualization', from 0 to 98,000 without luck.

 

Dude, I can't thank you enough for this. ASUS with its dogs**t SupremeFX has no loudness equalization but your little program worked. No more complaining from other people in the house that my sound is too loud!

THANK YOU SO MUCH!

 

You're a god! <3 Thank you so much! I wanted to create a shortcut that toggles Sound Equalization with game shortcuts, so I wouldn't have to let my ears be fish food for Windows sound effects — they're pretty loud when it's enabled. Lol
Now, when I launch Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, it enables SE, then it waits (/wait), and as soon as I exit the game, SE gets disabled, all thanks to your simple yet ingenious tool! Thanks again! I also created another shortcut with a shortcut key (CTRL + ALT + S) + a VBS line of code to run it in 'hidden' mode. I use "invisible.vbs" to run a batch script that cleans temporary files automatically, and another one that disables Windows Updates whenever it's enabled (the task runs every 1 minute).

Example:
Invisible.vbs contains this line of code (file location: System32):

Code:

CreateObject("Wscript.Shell").Run """" & WScript.Arguments(0) & """", 0, False

Shortcut's target value:

Code:

%SystemRoot%\system32\wscript.exe "%systemroot%\system32\invisible.vbs" "%ProgramFiles(x86)%\CD Projekt RED\The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt\bin\x64\toggleSE.cmd" //nologo

toggleSE.cmd:

Code:

@echo off
ToggleLoudnessEqualization.exe toggle exit && nircmd speak text "Sound Equalization enabled" || nircmd speak text "Sound Equalization disabled"
start /b /wait "" "C:\Program Files (x86)\CD Projekt RED\The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt\bin\x64\witcher3.exe"
ToggleLoudnessEqualization.exe toggle exit && nircmd speak text "Sound Equalization enabled" || nircmd speak text "Sound Equalization disabled"

Cheers!

 

Made an account just to try this - It worked, You are a GOD. I've been looking for something to solve this problem for so long.
For reference, this worked on my Razer Kraken 7.1 - Even though the drivers are different than my speakers (Realtek).

 

Thanks a lot. Works like a charm.

 

@ja34bke: Thank you for the tool, very useful.

It is not possible to do similar tool for main windows instead of realtek only?

BTW, if anyone needs it, I made a systray icon frontend for the ToggleLoudnessEqualization tool, to quickly toggle the loudness equalization, but also to automatize it.
For instance, to disable automatically on any fullscreen window like a video player or a videogame, or to enable automatically on specified windows like a web browser.

Usage: Left click to toggle, right click to remember the setting for the currently focused window.

Download and detailed infos: Nevermind... I cannot post the download link since this forum requires 5 posts before allowing links.. Until then, just search for my patreon page: "byblo" and you will find the tool: ToggleLoudnessEqualizationFE



Have fun

 

I googled you and found nothing
Could you pm the link please

 

Hello Mr. X,
found the tool from @byblo here https://www.patreon.com/byblo.

 

Great app!
May I add a request?
I toggle Loudness Equalization On/Off using the toggle parameter:

Code:

Set WshShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
WshShell.Run ("""C:\Program Files\ToggleLoudnessEqualization\ToggleLoudnessEqualization.exe""toggle"), 0
Set WshShell = Nothing

I would like to use your frontend as visual cue, maybe with some Balloon Tooltip indicating "Loudness Equalization : On or Off" , that would be displayed automatically for a second when the toggle is used.
But currently your frontend doesn't react to my "external" toggle, so I'm not sure that's possible ?
edit: by not react I mean the icon on your frontend doesn't change when "ToggleLoudnessEqualization.exe toggle" command line is run..

 

So I went ahaid and did it, here it is as a simple toggle with nice bubble tooltip and icon.
Enjoy.