Develop Bugs

[Audio] Comparison, what is available in video (appalling), what is possible

Somebody took the time to make this nice comparison between what is available in video for audio (appalling) and what is possible with the microphone for a N1, but should more or less be the same for the Desire:
http://monopedilos.com/mediagallery/album.php?aid=87&page=1
This really needs fixing.

That's ridiculous. Anyway, I took four 20 seconds recordings of some of my music, once in HTC Sense camera, once with DeFrost Nexus One camera. They have exactly the same quality, I think, but you judge, they're attached in a zip.

alphagamma said:
Somebody took the time to make this nice comparison between what is available in video for audio (appalling) and what is possible with the microphone for a N1, but should more or less be the same for the Desire:
http://monopedilos.com/mediagallery/album.php?aid=87&page=1
This really needs fixing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the N1 has dual mic for noise cancellation.

I doubt it has anything to do with the dual mic. If media_settings.xml file is anything to go by, audio in video files is recorded using the amrnd codec, at a quality of 12.2kbps and a sample rate of 8000Hz...
Same on all profiles from the looks of it (720p, low, youtube, etc)
Code:
<AudioEncoderCap name="amrnb" enabled="true"
minBitRate="5525" maxBitRate="12200"
minSampleRate="8000" maxSampleRate="8000"
minChannels="1" maxChannels="1" />
And don't forget the audio settings they said they used for PCM Recorder Lite...
16-bit WAV at 44.1kHz... then converted to MP3 (conversion makes no difference to the initial recorded format, other than compressing it)

Is is purely about the amr audio codec used in video recording.
Why not write out 44.1kHz 16 bit PCM data to the mp4.

Neutron music player

professional music player... try it

It brings better sound, but the front end is better of Poweramp

i can´t belive, a realy parametic equalizer !

has it better sound than stock music player (Im satisfied with it)

I think you need good ears and headphones to hear the sound difference.
Neutron uses 32 bit audio processing, it is better than Poweramp and stock SGS3 player's sound, but the app itself is is not that better

camspy said:
I think you need good ears and headphones to hear the sound difference.
Neutron uses 32 bit audio processing, it is better than Poweramp and stock SGS3 player's sound, but the app itself is is not that better
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually, for me it is since I use the volume normalization feature that no other player has.
If you have a mix of different encodings with somewhat different effective volume, this feature will adjust the preamp setting for each file so you don't need to fool around with the volume rocker on each track

Are there any recommended settings to use with our beloved SGS3?
Is there an option to have more volume-steps for the SGS3? The volume is rather high (even on lowest volume-bar) for me... I wish I could adjust the volume more precise...

U can adjust preamp on most good players,like poweramp-neutron-playerpro,they all have adjustable preamp...or wait for supercurio to release voodoo sound.he boost and modify the wolfson dac (sound chip) and the improvement he makes is "over the top" fantastic and it also contains a preamp

High-pass filter on audio

Hi there, fellows HOX users,
There were several topics about HOX's poor audio quality when capturing video or recording through voice apps, but still, there weren't any solutions how to solve the lack of frequencies down below ~100-200hz.
I have experience working with sound production, recordings, so I know that these limitations are only made by software. In that case, there must be some kind of solution to improve audio recording quality and enjoy HOX at 100%.
I tried editing srs_global.cfg (found in /system/etc/soundimage) (there was a guy who tried to improve the sound of the phone's loudspeaker and he kinda managed to do it by editing the file), by changing high-pass filter frequency in every "device"
//BLOCK: (srs_hpf_0) HiPass - Device 0
//=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
srs_hpf_0:hipass_order = 4 // Filter Order -
srs_hpf_0:hipass_frequency = 60 // Filter Frequency -
srs_hpf_0:hipass_is32bit = 1 // Filter Precision (16bit when 0) -
srs_hpf_0:hipass_skip = 1 // Skips High Pass Filter when true - toggle
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
but there aren't any results.
I don't really understand the types of devices and that they do (WOWHD, TruEQ, CSHP and so on).
Maybe there is any other cfg files who process audio input, because it's the same high-pass filter when recording on internal mic and with external 3.5mm mic.
Let's try to solve this problem everybody, because, as HTC support said
HTC is not designed for capturing things in loud environments
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, whatever... It can do it!

STIFF. said:
Hi there, fellows HOX users,
There were several topics about HOX's poor audio quality when capturing video or recording through voice apps, but still, there weren't any solutions how to solve the lack of frequencies down below ~100-200hz.
I have experience working with sound production, recordings, so I know that these limitations are only made by software. In that case, there must be some kind of solution to improve audio recording quality and enjoy HOX at 100%.
I tried editing srs_global.cfg (found in /system/etc/soundimage) (there was a guy who tried to improve the sound of the phone's loudspeaker and he kinda managed to do it by editing the file), by changing high-pass filter frequency in every "device"
but there aren't any results.
I don't really understand the types of devices and that they do (WOWHD, TruEQ, CSHP and so on).
Maybe there is any other cfg files who process audio input, because it's the same high-pass filter when recording on internal mic and with external 3.5mm mic.
Let's try to solve this problem everybody, because, as HTC support said
Yeah, whatever... It can do it!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't mess with HPF, REALLY DON'T!
I have been experimenting with SRS trumedia 51 and music, HPF messes up when enabled!
these settings you have posted are from SRS_global which won't really do much, install musicBox and you can get SRS working...
There is a reason why you sould not enable HPF without know what values are right, I tried this and it made a mini explosion noise (a sqeek then a loud POP) when starting audio, I highly recommed you do not mess with it. Anyways, SRS will NOT do anything with audio recording, your best place to find audio recording values are in the media_profiles.xml in /system/etc
SRS has nothing at all to do with recording audio, only to output the SRS effect.
I hope this info helps
WOWHD is SRS WOWHD, this is a sound effect which enables a true surround sound experience.
TruEQ is SRS's native EQ settings, not much to say here...
CSHP is SRS CS Headphone. Or as I would like to call it, Dolby Digital 5.1 (Because it IS the exact same effect) (CSHP is only used in srs_truemedia_51) (HTC Enhancer uses this file)

Thank's for your answer.
I can't understand, how nobody is interested in improving audio recording quality, when it's obvious that it's a software limitation thing.
We have an almost perfect phone with good camera, but we can't fully enjoy watching and LISTENING recorded videos, because some "clever" people in HTC decided that it's normal to high-pass the mic and put a compressor on it, without any gain control - in result we have a tragic audio from loud concerts and even LOUD voice conversations (where people are sceaming a little bit).
Maybe someone has a solution?
Maybe HTC will offer switching to a ****ty iphone, which has almost perfect audio recording quality (for a phone)?!

STIFF. said:
Thank's for your answer.
I can't understand, how nobody is interested in improving audio recording quality, when it's obvious that it's a software limitation thing.
We have an almost perfect phone with good camera, but we can't fully enjoy watching and LISTENING recorded videos, because some "clever" people in HTC decided that it's normal to high-pass the mic and put a compressor on it, without any gain control - in result we have a tragic audio from loud concerts and even LOUD voice conversations (where people are sceaming a little bit).
Maybe someone has a solution?
Maybe HTC will offer switching to a ****ty iphone, which has almost perfect audio recording quality (for a phone)?!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for this post....

Mi Max Sound Problems

How are people dealing with the audio problems on the Mi Max? It is affecting the Global MIUI 7&8 and the China MIUI 8 ROM. Xiaomi has done nothing despite many complaining on the MIUI forums for months. Even the latest ROM has the same problems.
The output through the headphone jack is half the volume it should be. You can easily listen to YouTube at full volume and it's not even loud. Also the sound quality is appalling with quiet vocals and heavy bass even without using the system EQ (which crashes anyway in MIUI 7). There is also a noticeable hissing/static though headphones for a few seconds before and after a system sound plays, but listening to music doesn't have the same problem.
Considering its a standard Qualcomm DAC used in many phones its terrible what Xiaomi has done to mess up the output. My Mediatek powered phone from 2012 sounds so superior and with the Mi Max being a media consumption aimed phone it's a real poor effort.
I believe the phone is taking a low internal DAC output (caused by a bug) and amplifying it hence the distorted sound and low max volume. It's the only thing I'm extremely disappointed with and wondered how others are handling the issue?

By ditching MIUI...!?

Does the Mi Max not have these issues running CM etc?
I'm sure many are currently using MIUI and I won't be ditching it at least until the years warranty is up, also want to see what MIUI 9 is like based on Nougat.

F27 said:
Does the Mi Max not have these issues running CM etc?
I'm sure many are currently using MIUI and I won't be ditching it at least until the years warranty is up, also want to see what MIUI 9 is like based on Nougat.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Except some low volume issues which are fixed now haven't heard of much complains...

nijel8 said:
Except some low volume issues which are fixed now haven't heard of much complains...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=m...i+max+sound+problems+site:en.miui.com&start=0

F27 said:
How are people dealing with the audio problems on the Mi Max? It is affecting the Global MIUI 7&8 and the China MIUI 8 ROM. Xiaomi has done nothing despite many complaining on the MIUI forums for months. Even the latest ROM has the same problems.
The output through the headphone jack is half the volume it should be. You can easily listen to YouTube at full volume and it's not even loud. Also the sound quality is appalling with quiet vocals and heavy bass even without using the system EQ (which crashes anyway in MIUI 7). There is also a noticeable hissing/static though headphones for a few seconds before and after a system sound plays, but listening to music doesn't have the same problem.
Considering its a standard Qualcomm DAC used in many phones its terrible what Xiaomi has done to mess up the output. My Mediatek powered phone from 2012 sounds so superior and with the Mi Max being a media consumption aimed phone it's a real poor effort.
I believe the phone is taking a low internal DAC output (caused by a bug) and amplifying it hence the distorted sound and low max volume. It's the only thing I'm extremely disappointed with and wondered how others are handling the issue?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can confirm the low headphone volume bug exists for some media/music player apps on the miui 8 global rom. However, there's an easy workaround. Open Google play music app and play an audio file in that app. Increase the headphone volume from that app beyond the 'Warning: high volume can damage hearing' volume level. Leave the headphone volume at the highest setting. Close Google play music app. The next time you play audio in your preferred media player (other than Google play music), it should already be fixed. If you don't have Google play music, you can download it from Google Play store.

F27 said:
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=m...i+max+sound+problems+site:en.miui.com&start=0
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That wasn't necessary... I am well aware of all things about Mi Max from day one.
And you were asking about CM so...

I thought my new earphones were faulty when I used them in my Mi Max. I was going to give them away but then I read about sound problems on Mi Max. Both my xiaomi phones have poor sound quality, mi4 always had poor quiet sound.

The low volume has been fixed for me on g8
There's some cracking but that's sorted by clean cache in the play music app there's also a equaliser in the app settings

This is a workaround for get high volume during listening to music by using IEM/Headphone. Only work with poweramp v3 alpha build 703/704
(Please Google it for APK. It's free in Poweramp forum)
Install poweramp v3 alpha, go to setting > resampler.
Select resampler type > SoX
Resampler cutoff frequency ratio > 97% ~ 99%
Dither > Improved e-weighted noise shaping (Poweramp indicate it slow but actually it fast enough)
Tap back button and select Hi-Res Output and then turn on Wired headset/aux (it will upsampled lossy format thus higher volume and audio quality improved a little bit. Another thing is make sure the 24-bit Snapdragon DAC is activated during listening session).
WARNING: Lower the volume at 20% or lower before activating Hi-Res output during playback. Trust me you'll thanks me later xD
If you can hear distorted sound at high volume, go to replay gain (RG), set preamp for songs without RG info to -7dB. (Just to make sure the sound is not clipping).
The Mi Max audio quality is pretty good even the DAC is just an integrated DAC.
In the screenshot is DSD128 playback. Working but it was downsampled. As for 24bit/96kHz source, it will upsampled to 192kHz.

Thank you for the replies. I have tried upping to volume in Google Play Music and it did increase the volume in other apps by around 20% so it's a start and thank you for the tip but it's still not really near the quality and loudness it should be for a stock Qualcomm 652 DAC. I will give the V3 Poweramp beta trick a try. I am currently using the Poweramp Pro to listen to music and the Mi Max sounds poor.
Basically Xiaomi need to go through how MIUI is handling audio and overhaul it imo, and hopefully version 9 won't need any of these work arounds because I've never had trouble on other budget phones... or I'm off to another ROM!

F27 said:
Thank you for the replies. I have tried upping to volume in Google Play Music and it did increase the volume in other apps by around 20% so it's a start and thank you for the tip but it's still not really near the quality and loudness it should be for a stock Qualcomm 652 DAC. I will give the V3 Poweramp beta trick a try. I am currently using the Poweramp Pro to listen to music and the Mi Max sounds poor.
Basically Xiaomi need to go through how MIUI is handling audio and overhaul it imo, and hopefully version 9 won't need any of these work arounds because I've never had trouble on other budget phones... or I'm off to another ROM!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you want more loudness still, louder than what the stock MIUI 8 can give you, I suggest you install music players with a 'pre-amp'. Neutron is one of my favorites among 'audiophile' grade music players (though I like BSPlayer more due to its multimedia capabilities). You can download the trial version of 'Neutron' at Google playstore (or purchase the full version if you are satisfied with the player.) Here are screenshots of Neutron music player where the pre-amp was adjusted (above zero) so as to increase the Mi Max's maximum attainable headphone volume (without buying an external portable headphone amp). Please note that too high a pre-amp setting can cause audio clipping which results to bad sound quality.
As to sound quality, yes the Mi Max headphone sound quality is really poor out of the box (MIUI 8). I have an Audio technica ATH-M50s/LE headphones which I used to listen to FLAC music on my previous Huawei Mate 7 phone. The sound quality was just ethereal. It's like listening to live musicians. I missed the headphone sound quality on my Mate 7 [DTS enabled] using the Audio technica as my headphones and BSPlayer as my preferred player (highlights the Audio Technica's strengths). Anyway, when I changed to the Mi Max, I used the same Audio Technica headphones only to be disappointed. I found out the Mi Max can't quite match the Mate 7's music reproduction [headphone DTS enabled] using the same music player (BSPlayer) or any music player for that matter. Fortunately, the Mi Max comes with headphone settings and a built in equalizer. Did a little experimentation and came up with the following settings that managed to somehow 'resemble' what my previous Mate 7 phone was able to deliver with regard to sound quality. Please note your mileage may vary depending on the quality of the headphones you use and your preferred media or music player:
1. Set Mi sound enhancer to 'ON'. Choose 'Mi headphones'.
2. Set the equalizer as follows:
These settings should improve the Mi Max's sound quality tremendously... Well, at least from my experience --- using the same Audio technica headphones and BSPlayer music player as audio player. I've saved the custom equalizer settings above as 'Mate7' because it reminds me of the sound quality of my previous Mate 7 phone. It's not a perfect match, but at least it comes close. Please note you really need good quality over-the-ear headphones if you want to overcome the Mi Max's 'poor headphone audio' shortcomings. Alternate headphones that I have thoroughly listened to and would also highly recommend are the B&W P7 and Sennheiser Momentums. I would have bought the B&W P7 had I not auditioned the Audio Technica side-by-side it and the Sennheiser Momentums. If you are serious about audio but can't give up the Mi Max for another phone with better audio components, then the recommendations above are about as good as the Mi Max can get.

don brian said:
If you want more loudness still, louder than what the stock MIUI 8 can give you, I suggest you install music players with a 'pre-amp'. Neutron is one of my favorites among 'audiophile' grade music players (though I like BSPlayer more due to its multimedia capabilities). You can download the trial version of 'Neutron' at Google playstore (or purchase the full version if you are satisfied with the player.) Here are screenshots of Neutron music player where the pre-amp was adjusted (above zero) so as to increase the Mi Max's maximum attainable headphone volume (without buying an external portable headphone amp). Please note that too high a pre-amp setting can cause audio clipping which results to bad sound quality.
As to sound quality, yes the Mi Max headphone sound quality is really poor out of the box (MIUI 8). I have an Audio technica ATH-M50s/LE headphones which I used to listen to FLAC music on my previous Huawei Mate 7 phone. The sound quality was just ethereal. It's like listening to live musicians. I missed the headphone sound quality on my Mate 7 [DTS enabled] using the Audio technica as my headphones and BSPlayer as my preferred player (highlights the Audio Technica's strengths). Anyway, when I changed to the Mi Max, I used the same Audio Technica headphones only to be disappointed. I found out the Mi Max can't quite match the Mate 7's music reproduction [headphone DTS enabled] using the same music player (BSPlayer) or any music player for that matter. Fortunately, the Mi Max comes with headphone settings and a built in equalizer. Did a little experimentation and came up with the following settings that managed to somehow 'resemble' what my previous Mate 7 phone was able to deliver with regard to sound quality. Please note your mileage may vary depending on the quality of the headphones you use and your preferred media or music player:
1. Set Mi sound enhancer to 'ON'. Choose 'Mi headphones'.
2. Set the equalizer as follows:
These settings should improve the Mi Max's sound quality tremendously... Well, at least from my experience --- using the same Audio technica headphones and BSPlayer music player as audio player. I've saved the custom equalizer settings above as 'Mate7' because it reminds me of the sound quality of my previous Mate 7 phone. It's not a perfect match, but at least it comes close. Please note you really need good quality over-the-ear headphones if you want to overcome the Mi Max's 'poor headphone audio' shortcomings. Alternate headphones that I have thoroughly listened to and would also highly recommend are the B&W P7 and Sennheiser Momentums. I would have bought the B&W P7 had I not auditioned the Audio Technica side-by-side it and the Sennheiser Momentums. If you are serious about audio but can't give up the Mi Max for another phone with better audio components, then the recommendations above are about as good as the Mi Max can get.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
FYI, the audio quality pretty impressive with IEM (Audio Technica ATH-IM50 and Trinity Audio Engineering Delta). You feel the sound is not quite loud enough because of internal amp suck. Mi Max can't handle high impedance headphone like yours (ATH-M50X). To overcome your problem, you have to pair your Mi Max with portable amp such as fiio e11k.
btw, didnt you noticed your source is clipping too much across low freq??

Actually the 'Neutron' screenshots did not show any headphones attached. The music was played on Mi Max's loudspeakers which can't reproduce low frequency so you can't hear the clipped low frequency sounds. The recording is actually only piano, vocals and cymbals. The low frequency is from instrument feedback (low frequency hum). On my ATH-M50s/LE headphones, that volume level would have been half as much since 100% is already too loud, eliminating the low frequency clipping. I don't need an external amp for my headphones. They're loud enough for me except for some Chesky recordings.

At the end of the day we shouldn't need to do any of these fixes and tweaks to make the sound from the Mi Max reasonable, Xiaomi should fix it but it seems they have very poor customer service when it comes to feedback and bugs. This Qualcomm DAC chipset is in many phones yet they don't have sound quality and loudness issues. I don't expect perfection but the Mi Max out of the box sounds worse than by budget Mediatek powered phone from 4 years ago!

i modded the mixer_paths files to make the sound louder. My roms all include this already. You need to make sure in your build.prop that fluence is enabled by making sure there is a line that says ro.qc.sdk.audio.fluencetype=fluence and make sure the two lines persist.audio.fluence.voicecall and persist.audio.fluence.speaker are set to true. Then flash this in twrp or replace your three mixer paths files in system/etc with the ones in the zip file.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5I_q70mNuR4c1pxODNpTk12Y2M/view?usp=sharing

AeroMiku said:
FYI, the audio quality pretty impressive with IEM (Audio Technica ATH-IM50 and Trinity Audio Engineering Delta). You feel the sound is not quite loud enough because of internal amp suck. Mi Max can't handle high impedance headphone like yours (ATH-M50X). To overcome your problem, you have to pair your Mi Max with portable amp such as fiio e11k.
btw, didnt you noticed your source is clipping too much across low freq??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try out Foobar2000 (available on the Play Store, free & open source) instead of Neutron & you can skip the entire default sound processing with usage of the Open SL sound output & you will find a built in DSP section mostly sufficient. I am against modifying sound picture to much & as much as I sow in GSM Arena review the output sound picture is almost perfect & thick behind iPhone 6s (I plan to buy Max now). Rest is mostly influenced by quality of sound source & used headphones. For more well use dedicated external DAC & Amp.
---------- Post added at 11:43 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:37 AM ----------
ajsmsg78 said:
i modded the mixer_paths files to make the sound louder. My roms all include this already. You need to make sure in your build.prop that fluence is enabled by making sure there is a line that says ro.qc.sdk.audio.fluencetype=fluence and make sure the two lines persist.audio.fluence.voicecall and persist.audio.fluence.speaker are set to true. Then flash this in twrp or replace your three mixer paths files in system/etc with the ones in the zip file.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5I_q70mNuR4c1pxODNpTk12Y2M/view?usp=sharing
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Would actually rather increase (in small steps) output volume
In <!-- Play Scenario --> section for headphones & speaker if I whose you.
Don't exaggerate with it!
Best regards.

I did the opposite and reduced headphone volume to get rid of the hissing. I had the same problem on the Note 3 Pro, on MIUI 8 and CM13/CM14, so it's down to how the Qualcomm mixers are configured. By reducing gain and turning off companders you're dropping the noise floor. The drawback is that headphone volume is low, so this hack only works well with low impedance IEMs like Xiaomi Pistons.
1. Get rooted, open up all mixer_path_*.xml files in /system/etc.
2. Change HPHL Volume and HPHR Volume to a low value like 2.
3. Change any Comp* Switch values to 0.
4. Change RX HPH Mode to CLS_H_HIFI
5. Reboot and enjoy.

My own solution - Use VLC. Fixes the volume problem well - after you set the Audio Output to ES

skerry2006aj said:
My own solution - Use VLC. Fixes the volume problem well - after you set the Audio Output to ES
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Use Foobar2000 instead, VLC is bad when it comes to music.

Realme 7 Pro Hi-Res Audio enabler

Hi-Res Audio enabler and sound booster headphones Only Realme 7 Pro
I threw on a mod for the hobby of quality and volume in headphones.
Hi-res enabled by default (24 bit / 96 kHz)
Volume increased to the maximum value
Increased the sound quality of video recording from the camera
Install via Magisk
Git updates

HD is a wonderful thing especially if your using .wav* files and higher resolution media files.
*HDCD's need to be stored as .wav files only to prevent the loss of their HDCD subtext; they can't be altered to another file type as the subtext is lost in the conversion.
They can have up to 22 bit resolution vs a CD's 16 bit if handled properly. No decoder is needed but they signal needs to stay in the digital realm and go into a 24 bit or higher DAC. Doing so will glean 90+% of the encrypted subtext giving a noticeably broader sound stage and more accurate sound stage reproduction.
Many CDs are HDCDs, and many of those are not labeled as such... a pleasnat surprise from a sound engineer/producer that knows what they're doing