GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 612669
Custom equalizer settings are lost during upgrade; default is set to 'Pop
Last modified: 2010-03-15 07:06:57 UTC
Created attachment 155931 [details] log file from banshee After upgrading to Banshee 1.5.5-1, all playback produces severely distorted sound, like a speaker being driven too hard. Downgrading to Banshee 1.5.1-1 (the one in the karmic repositories) restores undistorted playback. I am on Ubuntu 9.10 with libgstreamer 0.10.25-2. I also remember the problem occurring I think in version 1.5.4 Attached is a logfile obtained with: kill -s QUIT $(pidof banshee-1); cp ~/.config/banshee-1/log ~/Desktop/banshee.log More information upon request, I'm not sure how much more specific I can get since it happens always :|
Check this mailing list conversation: http://mail.gnome.org/archives/banshee-list/2010-March/msg00091.html Confirming and changing the importance.
Mailing list discussion sounds like the same problem. I took the suggestion there and disabled the equalizer, which fixed the problem! It was set to "pop". In Banshee 1.5.1, the equalizer was on, but with all the bars centered. When I dragged them into about the same shape as "pop", I got tons of distortion there also. However, this distortion occurred even when my speakers were down really low or I was listening quietly with headphones - whenever the lower to middle frequencies of the equalizer were significantly upped. So it seems it is the equalization's fault and not my speakers'. Also, shouldn't the equalizer be off by default? Perhaps this was carried over from my settings in the previous version where it was on (but zeroed, with no presets) Cheers, -Chris
I should add that the the preamp slider made the biggest difference. Turning it up a bit produced lots of distortion no matter what the other settings were.
Did you set it to pop yourself? The eq is disabled by default. But if you had it enabled in previous versions, and then on upgrading to 1.5.4/5 it switched to Pop from whatever you had it set at, I'd consider that a bug. Otherwise, sounds like NOTABUG, or maybe an Enhancement bug for the Pop eq settings.
When I updated from Banshee pre- built-in equalizer settings to Banshee with built-in settings, my single custom setting (named 'Punchier') was lost, and the equalizer was automatically set to 'Pop.' I thought this happened because 'Pop' was the nearest alphabetically, but it sounds like it might default to 'Pop' if it's turned on, but it can't find any user-specified equalizer settings. I considered reporting this as a bug (especially the part where it lost my setting), but when I tried repeating the update from before and after the equalizer change, I couldn't reproduce the problem.
Gabriel, no I didn't set it to pop. My setting in Banshee 1.5.1 was with the EQ on and set to 'New Preset', with all the sliders flat. Then upon upgrading it changed to "Pop". Sounds like the same problem as Michael. I tried to reproduce it, failed at first, but worked out how. Banshee 1.5.5 and 1.5.1 appear to store equalizer presets differently. in ~/.config/banshee-1, banshee 1.5.1 puts a file 'equalizers.xml' in which the user defined presets are stored. 1.5.5 instead uses a file 'equalizers.json' in the same directory. To reproduce the problem, do the following: Downgrade to banshee 1.5.1, and delete the file ~/.config/banshee-1/equalizers.json In banshee 1.5.1, turn the equalizer on and make a preset. You can see that preset in equalizers.xml. Upgrade to 1.5.5. Banshee will remember that the EQ was on, but can't access the presets (the name of the preset as well as whether it is on is stored in gconf apps/banshee-1/player_engine) For some reason, if it cant find the correct preset it defaults to 'pop', which by the way is a pretty bad preset causing the distortion I originally complained about :P. But that's beside the point. 'pop' isn't stored in equalizers.json, only the user defined presets are, and equalizers.json doesn't exist at this point. I'm guessing the solution would be to create 'equalizers.json' at install time of 1.5.5, and copy over the presets from 'equalizers.xml'. Cheers, -Chris
To reconcile the fact that I said the problem 'happens all the time' in my first post with the statement that I couldn't reproduce it at first in my last post, I should point out that the problem no longer occurs after you create EQ presets in banshee 1.5.5 (something I hadn't tried when I first posted). This is because equalizers.json exists once you create presets. So to reproduce the problem you have to delete it.
I can reproduce this bug by just enabling the equaliser and switching between presets. The strange thing is that the same preset does not always result in distorted sound but after some switching it normally does.
Haha, then I guess there are two bugs leading to distorted sound. One is that upgrading forgets EQ presets, the second is that the preset it defults to sounds like crap! It *consistently* sounded crap for me though, so I was happy to accept that that aspect of the problem was notabug as Gabriel said, just a poor setting. Or perhaps its a 'feature' in that people listening to pop music might be put off their music so much that they might be persuaded to listen to good music instead :P
The part of this bug that deals with playback distortion when using the built-in 'pop' setting is actually a duplicate of bug 609463. Future conversations about that issue should happen there. I'm leaving this open, though, because it also brings up the issue that custom equalizer presets can be lost during an upgrade, and the default is set to Pop. I'll change the title accordingly.
I fixed the migration in git master. If you want to test, delete the .json file and edit the currently selected equaliser setting, either by downgrading to 1.5.3 or by changing this gconf key directly: /apps/banshee-1/player_engine/equalizer_preset commit 85ead51644bde85795257572b50ba15a6cef06ee Author: Alexander Kojevnikov <alexander@kojevnikov.com> Date: Sun Mar 14 13:40:15 2010 +1100 [EqualizerManager] Fix eq settings migration (bgo#612669)
Works a treat! Keep up the good work guys!