Enable Loudness Equalisation

Automatically adds and enables loudness equalisation to any playback device.

Only works if your selected driver supports enhancements for speakers, but didn't expose this support for any other output devices. This script will expose any existing support, but can not work if the driver doesn't ship any.

before execution	after execution

If you are looking for bass boost, you can use the more complex version of this script https://github.com/Falcosc/enable-bass-boost

How to Download and Run

run in powershell

Invoke-WebRequest https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Falcosc/enable-loudness-equalisation/main/EnableLoudness.ps1 -OutFile $env:HOMEPATH\EnableLoudness.ps1
Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -Scope CurrentUser
. $env:HOMEPATH\EnableLoudness.ps1

Or if you want to set the fastest possible time until sound level gets adjusted (unpleasend to daily usage but gives a competitive edge on video games where dynamic audiolevel adjustments are not banned)

. $env:HOMEPATH\EnableLoudness.ps1 -releaseTime 2

Using the Toggle Version with GUI

This script includes a toggle version with an AutoHotkey (AHK) GUI script for easier use:

1. Install AutoHotkey v2.0+ if you haven't already.
2. Save the ToggleGui.ahk script in the same folder as EnableLoudness.ps1.
3. Run ToggleGui.ahk to open a simple window with a button that toggles loudness equalisation when clicked.

Environment Variables for the Toggle Script

For the toggle script to work correctly, the following environment variables must be set:

• HeadphonesName: Specifies the playback device name. This should match the beginning of the device name as shown in your system.
  • Example:

    setx HeadphonesName "YourDeviceName"

• ReleaseTime: Sets the release time for audio level adjustment, from 2 (fastest) to 7 (slowest).
  • Example:

    setx ReleaseTime "4"

Note: Setting these variables ensures the toggle script works with the intended playback device and adjustment speed.

How to Set Environment Variables

1. Open Command Prompt as an administrator.
2. Use setx to set the environment variables:

   setx HeadphonesName "YourDeviceName"
   setx ReleaseTime "4"

3. Restart Command Prompt or PowerShell to apply the changes, or reboot your system for a global update.

When is it needed?

• HDMI, Display Port, Digital Optical Output playback devices usually doesn't have it
• if you can not find an audio driver version which adds loudness equalisation to any of your playback devices
• you can't enable it globally in your driver

Why does it need to be scripted?

• if you want to toggle it via hotkey
• updates are messing with your audio drivers
• some use cases lead into re-registration of HDMI or DisplayPort playback devices, which will purge your settings every time

What does it do?

1. search for all active playback devices by name in registry
2. imports audio enhancement settings
   • PreMixEffectClsid and PostMixEffectClsid
   • StreamEffectClsid and ModeEffectClsid
   • Enhancement Tab UI defnition
   • loudness equalisation flag
   • release time value
3. restarts audio service to apply changed registry values

Known Issues

• all setting flags stored in fc52a749-4be9-4510-896e-966ba6525980 get overwritten, instead of just enabling loudness equalisation
• flags key are different across Windows versions fc52a749-4be9-4510-896e-966ba6525980 used in this script works for Windows 11, maybe 10 as well.
• If the playback device gets re-detected the audio service reboot maybe sets volume to default 100%
• Sound Settings UI shows 0% volume if it was open during restart (reopening fixes it)
• Restarting audio service after sleep does break the taskbar tray icon volume slider in some situations
  • mediakeys and sound settings UI volume controll still works fine
  • tray icon slider gets fixed with full reboot
• does not work if your driver doesn't have any enhancements, try a different one

Install as Task

1. Open Task Scheduler

2. Action -> Create Task...

3. General -> Run with highest privileges

   

4. Triggers -> New...

   

5. Actions -> New...

   • Action: Start a program
   • Program: powershell
   • Add arguments: -WindowStyle hidden -f %HOMEPATH%\EnableLoudness.ps1 -playbackDeviceName BE279

6. To test it you could use an invalid DeviceName like "-playbackDeviceName XXX" then you will see an error message pop-up after login