View source for Alsaequal on debian 7 wheezy with MPD

[[Category: Linux]]
Alsaequal is an equalizer for the ALSA soundsystem that can be used from command line. It gives system-wide equalizer capability to your Debian system. 

'''Tested on Debian 7.4 Wheezy 4/4/2014'''

This guide requires you have MPD installed and working with alsa


==Download Alsaequal==
Download File: [http://www.etcwiki.org/dl/alsaequal-0.6.tar.bz2 alsaequal-0.6.tar.bz2]

==Make and Install alsaequal==
*Get Dependencies 
 aptitude install build-essential caps libasound2-dev libasound2-plugins
*Switch to home directory and download alsaequal
 wget http://www.thedigitalmachine.net/tools/alsaequal-0.6.tar.bz2
*Extract alsaequal, enter directory
 tar xf alsaequal-0.6.tar.bz2
 cd alsaequal
*Make soft link to alsa-lib for alsaequal make process
 ln -sf /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/alsa-lib /usr/lib/alsa-lib
*Run the make processes
 make clean
 make
 make install
 make clean
*alsaequal is now installed if you had no errors

==Apply alsaequal at boot==
*edit your ~/.asoundrc   (make it if it doesnt exist)
 nano ~/.asoundrc
*Add these lines
 ctl.equal {
      type equal;
    }
    pcm.plugequal {
      type equal;
      # Modify the line below if you don't
      # want to use sound card 0.
      slave.pcm "plug:dmix";
    }
    # pcm.equal {
      # Or if you want the equalizer to be your
      # default soundcard uncomment the following
      # line and comment the above line.
    pcm.!default {
      type plug;
      slave.pcm plugequal;
    }

==Link MPD with alsaequal==
*for this you just need to modify your primary alsa device in /etc/mpd.conf to be like so:
 audio_output {
  type		"alsa"
  name		"My ALSA EQ"
  device		"plug:plugequal"
  mixer_type      "software"	# optional
  mixer_device	"default"	# optional
  mixer_control	"PCM"		# optional
  mixer_index	"0"		# optional
  use_mmap	"yes"
 }

==Restart and check alsaequal==
*Alsaequal should now be installed and working, try running it
 alsa force-reload
 service mpd restart
 alsamixer -D equal
*If you are using root user change user in mpd.conf to root 


==Troubleshooting==
#A bad idea so says everyone basically, but in /etc/mpd.conf I had to change user to root for this to work. It is probably because I log in a root more than I should... 

 
==External Resources==
*[http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=47899 Debian forums] - The install and make of alsaequal 
*[http://crunchbang.org/forums/viewtopic.php?id=16059 Crunchbang] - Solved one of the problems I had
*[http://fsk141.com/alsaequal-for-when-you-need-tailored-audio-response/ Setting up MPD with alsaequal] - Just the MPD info
*[http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=106778 Debian forums] - Solved a problem in the make process with missing alsa-lib
*[http://www.thedigitalmachine.net/alsaequal.html The digital Machine] - Alsaequal page about Ubuntu but has a download for it