Viper4Linux - An Adaptive Digital Sound Processor
Making Loonix sound good.
This is the second interation of Viper4Linux and aims to focus on features and end-user ease.
Disclaimer:
I am not associated with the awesome mates over at Viper. I wish I was, but it is what it is. (Jason, you're particularly awesome.) You can find their git here: https://github.com/vipersaudio and their site here: http://vipersaudio.com/blog/
While all my software is free (GPL), theirs is not. This (my) software makes use of their non-free libraries. I have kept these libraries separate from this code, but it is dependent on them. You can find all the necessary instructions below.
Installation
At this point I've given up on automating the installation process, but it isn't that bad really. If you're lazy, use Arch.
Packages
Arch
We have a package for Arch.
yay -S viper4linux-git
We also have a package for the GUI! check it out at https://github.com/Audio4Linux/Viper4Linux-GUI.
Stable package:
yay -S viper4linux-gui
Development package:
yay -S viper4linux-gui-git
Opensuse
We have a package for opensuse Leap 15.1 and opensuse Tumbleweed. First you need to add the repos according to your version (in this example Tumbleweed is used).
sudo zypper ar https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/bosconovic:/viper4linux/openSUSE_Tumbleweed/ viper
Once you have added the repo, refresh the package list.
sudo zypper refresh
Now you're ready to install viper4linux.
sudo zypper in gstreamer-plugins-viperfx libviperfx viper4linux
There is also a package for the stable releases of the GUI (https://github.com/Audio4Linux/Viper4Linux-GUI).
sudo zypper in viper4linux-gui
Ubuntu
In Ubuntu, the install process can be automated if you use Pacstall (install instructions at https://github.com/Henryws/pacstall). To install it, just use
sudo pacstall -I viper4linux
Pacstall will take care of installing all the dependencies an will set up viper4linux.
Manually
Step 1:
Get the build-essential or similar package installed. You will be compiling their gstreamer plugin.
You will also need gstreamer-1.0 (not gstreamer, and not gstreamer-0.10).
For Debian/Ubuntu:
sudo apt install build-essential git cmake libgstreamer-plugins-base1.0-dev libgstreamer1.0-dev gstreamer1.0-tools
For Arch:
sudo pacman -S base-devel git gst-plugins-good
For Solus the following packages are reported to be needed:
sudo eopkg it -c system.devel
sudo eopkg it gstreamer-1.0-devel gstreamer-1.0-plugins-base-devel
For Fedora:
(I don't currently support Fedora. That said, there are reports of it working. Thobi from the Telegram group mentioned needing the gstreamer1-plugins-base-devel.x86_64 package.)
Step 2:
Get this software and their software, and more of their software...
git clone https://github.com/Audio4Linux/Viper4Linux.git
git clone https://github.com/Audio4Linux/gst-plugin-viperfx
git clone https://github.com/vipersaudio/viperfx_core_binary.git
Step 3:
Build the gstreamer plugin.
cd gst-plugin-viperfx
cmake .
make
You now need to install the plugin. The install path is different on different systems. On my Debian, it was located at /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gstreamer-1.0/. Yours should have a ton of libgst*.so files in it.
Debian:
sudo cp libgstviperfx.so /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gstreamer-1.0/
Arch:
sudo cp libgstviperfx.so /usr/lib/gstreamer-1.0/
The rest of it:
cd .. #I think that should get us back to our main git directory.
#Now test it with gst-inspect-1.0
gst-inspect-1.0 viperfx
If this doesn't return a ton of options related to viper, then check the permissions on the file that they match the other files. If they do, double check that the plugin compiled properly.
Step 4:
Install the main library file. (this will be copied with a different name! Do not keep the original name!)
sudo cp viperfx_core_binary/libviperfx_x64_linux.so /lib/libviperfx.so
There are some distros that use different lib paths. For example, Solus wants the file to be placed at /usr/lib64/libviperfx.so.
Step 5: (optional)
Delete the unneeded git repos to free space.
rm -rf viperfx_core_binary gst-plugin-viperfx
Step 6:
Configure the system by installing the configs.
This will be what makes the magic work.
**Note: Current V4L will attempt to use the current default output sink if it cannot find the devices.conf file. If you prefer this fallback behavior, then simply do not have a devices.conf file in the following path.
cd Viper4Linux
cp -r viper4linux ~/.config
Install viper (the executable bash file) into your path somewhere.
#Just pick one.
cp viper ~/bin #requires ~/bin to be in $PATH
sudo cp viper /usr/local/bin
#/usr/bin and /bin will also work. *shrug*
Configuration
We have a GUI made by ThePBone which is available here: https://github.com/Audio4Linux/Viper4Linux-GUI
Most of your configuration will be done in ~/.config/viper4linux with the following two files:
devices.conf -- More to come on this as I dev more, but right now it is just one line with:
location=$your_alsa_sink_path_here
If you have pactl available, you can find this information by using:
pactl list sinks | grep "Name: " -A1
The part you want is after the "Name: " section.
**Current V4L will attempt to use the current default output sink if it cannot find the devices.conf file.
audio.conf -- This is where you configure how Viper behaves with all the cool bass boosting, reverb, clarity mods, etc.
You can find out what accepted values you can use here by running gst-inspect-1.0 viperfx. I have included all the known options for the plugin with mostly default values in the template file.
Both of these files are sourced by shell, so keep your dirty spaces, backdoors, etc, out of them. ;P
Running
viper(.sh) has four options right now, start, stop, restart, and status. These probably do exactly what you think they do.
Viper will need to be restarted every time a setting is changed. (Sorry).
I leverage pulseaudio and null sinks to do my work. Pulseaudio is somewhat... delicate. If you switch outputs after starting Viper, things may break. running viper restart should resolve this and I hope to code in contingencies in the future.
I did encounter an issue where audio would become intermittently choppy. If you also have this issue, try editing /etc/pulse/default.pa (as root) and adding the following line. If you already have this line, edit it, DO NOT MAKE A DUPLICATE. (things break.)
load-module module-udev-detect tsched=0
Choppy and glitchy audio on pipewire
Using viper with pipewire might result in audio skipping and glitching out while playing anything.
To fix this add these lines to your pipewire.conf (usually stored in ~/.config/pipewire).
default.clock.allowed-rates = [ 44100 48000 ] # This changes allowed audio sample rates to 44100hz and 48000hz.
api.alsa.headroom = 1024 # This changes the alsa required headroom to 1024 ms
pulse.min.req = 1024/48000 # This changes the minimum amount of audio information that is provided to pulse, this slightly increases latency but it is necessary.
Final Notes
I am not a great developer, just tossing this out there and if someone finds it useful, I will be happy. If you have improvements, please submit a DETAILED pull request. Everyone benefits from shared expertise. Thanks!
Got a dope config? Don't like mine but don't want to make one yourself? Check out alternatives made by our community here! Feel free to submit a pull request with your own too!
https://github.com/noahbliss/Viper4Linux-Configs
Got an idea? Comments/suggestions that aren't really appropriate for github? Want a community? Take a look at our Telegram group!
https://t.me/Viper4Linux
Uninstallation
(I always hate it when devs don't include this)
To uninstall, remove the following files:
sudo rm $yourgstreamerlibpath/libgstviperfx.so
sudo rm /lib/libviperfx.so
sudo rm $(command -v viper)
rm -rf ~/.config/viper4linux
Peace!
Shout-outs and stuff:
We've got some cool people in our community. A few notable mentions follow below in no particular order.
ThePBone - GUI development and work with the dynamic system.
yochananmarqos - Work with the creation and maintenance of the AUR packages.
@MaxFomo on Telegram. - AUR package creation and maintenance.
fcuzzocrea - OpenSuse package creation and maintenance.