MusEQ: Audiophile-grade headphone EQ for Apple Music on macOS

Allow myself to introduce… er… myself

I got tired of the bloat and cost of using Roon + a streaming service on my Mac when all I really needed was a proper EQ solution for Apple Music. Well if I can’t bring Apple Music to Roon I guess I’ll have to bring Roon-like EQ to Apple Music.

This is MusEQ (formerly AudioTool). As you may have guessed, I wrote it. :smiling_face_with_sunglasses:

I’ve been beta testing it for some time now and it is very close to being released. But I want a controlled rollout. So for now you can sign up to be notified when MusEQ launches at the link above.

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Wow! This sounds and looks incredible. Any chance you’ll offer the ability to just buy it though? I would gladly pay $100 for something like this but a subscription is a very tough pill to swallow.

There is always a chance I will add a buy option, but I do not have any plan to offer one as MusEQ will be in continuous development for some time. The roadmap of features is pretty long and this is just the beginning. Also maintaining compatibility with future macOS versions will take some effort.

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Looks very good. Same thing as jorr1313, I’d prefer to just buy it for a fixed price. How many bands does it support? I’ve seen SQUIGs with over 30 bands, I think.

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The only limit to the number of bands is the performance of your computer. :joy:

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Thank you.

Now will someone PLEASE for crap’s sake write an AAOS complaint PEQ so that I can replace and/or supplement the brain dead tone controls in the GM ( General Motors) infotainment system in my Cadillac LYRIQ? I use ROON ARC, but it would be nice to have something that works natively with all sources.

AAOS = Android Automotive Operating System, which ain’t Android Auto.

How many bands would that be for my M1 Pro 32 gig MacBook Pro?

just kidding

Seriously you should offer a buy once instead of subscribe price too.

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Ahh this is very exciting! Been frustrated myself with the Mac EQ options for some time.

Thanks for putting the efforts in here and congrats on nearing launch! I will be there on day one!

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In my excitement and haste, I didn’t think to do a trademark search on AudioTool. There is a company called audiotool that has an online music production website. While they don’t have the trademark, they have been in business for some time. So I decided rather than risk an issue further down the road, I’d rebrand now.

AudioTool is now MusEQ.

This rebrand has delayed the release a bit but I anticipate having everything ready by next week.

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I put myself on the list buddy! It better be good! :wink: :rofl:

Seriously I look forward to trying it. I’ve never been huge on EQ, partly because it’s not all that intuitive.

You can do rough EQ in SoundSource by Rogue Amoeba, and load profiles in it as well. I’m sure you are familiar with it, they’ve been around forever in the Mac community. Plus you can use AAU plugins with SoundSource, which I have several of that I find useful.

But this looks a lot better than some of the other EQ tools I’ve seen in the past.

Hats off to you with this, I hope it is successful!

But are you a man of wealth, and taste? :wink:

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Goddamn would this be fantastic! Just signed up for the launch notification. To be clear, it’d work with Apple Music streaming and not just local iTunes? Also, system-wide; AU hosting? Currently using eqMac for Apple Music and Audirvana for everything else, would really help my nervosa to have a SRC-equipped PEQ option for AM, as LesslessSwitcher and eqMac don’t play well together

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Yes Apple Music lossless streaming and iTunes. It will either capture Music.app or system audio and redirect to your chosen output device in exclusive mode. No Audio Unit hosting. It is not a DAW. Because of the exclusive mode it doesn’t play well with other audio software, but without exclusive mode (and sample rate matching) it wouldn’t be bit-perfect.

I have used both LosslessSwitcher and eqMac. It is my completely unbiased opinion that MusEQ stomps them both. :smiling_face_with_sunglasses:

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In the past I used soundsource with Lossless switcher but I always had a short interruption when the sample rate changed from song to song. First test with MusEQ looks very good, no annoying interruptions anymore. This point alone is worth for me the 20 $ year subscription. Sometimes the sample rate does not change correctly, I have send you some screenshots via bug report. Another feature would be useful for me: Is it possible that the opened app can be fixed on the screen (like soundsource)?

Many greetings

Rael

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That would be fantastic, Lossless Switcher is very useful and has gotten better, but the lag is still there. Though less than in earlier versions.

@AudioTool just to clarify, I won’t be able to use Sound Source anymore, or the AAU plugins I manage in Sound Source? Will I be able to quit MusEQ to use Sound Source if wanted?

I’d like to be able to use both, depending on the scenario.

MusEQ works like Roon in that it grabs the output device in exclusive mode. You should be able to use SoundSource and MusEQ at the same time, just not in combination aka on the same output.

But I’m thinking that it would not be difficult to have a toggle button for exclusive mode in MusEQ. So that’s probably coming soon. I just didn’t think anyone wouldn’t want exclusive mode until now.

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The eq editor should stay on the screen floating above other apps. The main menu doesn’t have a “stay open” mode, but I can probably add one. Noted.

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Yes this interruption 1-3 secs into playback was annoying enough to me that I never used Lossless Switcher. My main goal with MusEQ was actually eliminating this interruption. It wasn’t until I had a working solution for this that I added EQ features.

Full disclosure, it is not completely gone as the rate switching is totally a hack that is not supported by Apple. There is no API to detect a track’s sample rate, for instance. My current solution is as good as it gets - I think. It works 100% 98% of the time.

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I have a fix for this which should go out later today. You can check for new versions of MusEQ by clicking “MusEQ” at the top of the main dropdown menu.

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Interestingly it seems like CoreAudio’s resampling function has changed at least once or twice since the last iOS 18/macOS 15, in some major ways. With crossfade on and lossless (incl hi-res) on iOS, SRC used to happen per-track, and now it looks like iOS just keeps a standard SRC to 48kHz no matter the native SR of the track. And on macOS with crossfade (either OG crossfade or the new AutoMix) and LosslessSwitcher on, I noticed it changing midway thru the track (even w it crossfade off sometimes) and pretty consistently too. This is conjecture, but it seems like macOS CoreAudio is switching sample rates pretty far in advance to account for the new AutoMix feature, which can start mixing mixing tracks w fades well over a minute before actually switching to the next track (because why else would they implement this new SRC algorithm?). I imagine this must’ve been a headache to deal with on your end?

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Thank you I will test it later.

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