Realtek Equalizer Settings

fspm said:

I tried creating my own preset, exporting registry entry [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\MMDevices\Audio\Render\{16d4b961-f28a-4e2a-a0bd-d434799a6eaf}\FxProperties],...

Just in passing, there were some of us who tried very hard last year to figure out where/how the EQ (preset and custom) properties and settings values were kept, so that we wouldn't lose them if we reinstalled new driver versions or a new Win7, etc.

Turns out the registry keys are NOT constant. It may seem that you've "found" them... but that's just the currently installed name.

Much to our frustration, there seemed to be more to the story than just finding the keys and values where they currently were and saving them somewhere, so that they could be imported again after a new driver install. Realtek had for some reason gone to great lengths to make this all very proprietary and non-transportable. It was NOT workable, what had seemed intuitively obvious and simple to us.

You may have better luck than we did, and if so please share your technique and results. We all had the same objective... namely to not have to re-build all custom EQ settings any time a new driver version got installed. So far, nobody's provided the 100% reliable technique.

I went as far as dumping whole registry before and after applying different profiles, later comaring them. Still, no luck obtaining desired results; so it's game over. F# you, realtek :)

Maybe I'm missing something here...and maybe the issue is exclusive to Win 7 (which I don't have -- I happened upon this thread while searching for something else), but in XP the following registry key stores all the Realtek Equalizer user-defined presets:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Avance\AC97 Audio\EQ

Backing up (exporting) this key allows for an easy restore of all user-created presets.

Rick441 said:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Avance\AC97 Audio\EQ

Assuming you didn't have a typo in that key, there is no such thing in Win7... not even remotely close.

Rick441 said:

dsperber said:

Rick441 said:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Avance\AC97 Audio\EQ

Assuming you didn't have a typo in that key, there is no such thing in Win7... not even remotely close.

No typo. Do you find any key at all with "Avance"?

ETA: Comments to the following -- which was specifically for Win 7 and Vista -- suggests that things may have changed after a driver update:

Get The Realtek Equalizer Back In Windows 7/Vista

Indeed, with the initial versions of the Win7 drivers from Realtek there was no user-customized EQ capability, as this article states. Only a set of Realtek-provided presets, but nothing like we used to have in WinXP.

However with version 2.39 of the driver in mid-December 2009 (we're now up to 2.66) Realtek reinstated the user-customized EQ. It looks more modern and elegant than the WinXP version, but it's functionally the same.

Your referenced article seems to be discussing a workaround alternative (from November 2009) to the problem that still existed at that time, and that appears to be to use the AC97 drivers (which I guess DID have an EQ). However this is not what was wanted, which was an EQ for the drivers for the true Realtek chips (ALC883, etc.).

Again, the problem was finally resolved officially by Realtek in December 2009 with 2.39, when they finally finished their Win7 development project and restored the sought-after user-customized EQ. We've had it ever since then.


However... just as with WinXP, the exact place where these user-customed and saved EQ's were stored escaped discovery for quite a while. And when their whereabouts were finally discovered it was then thought to be a piece of cake to "save" the contents and "restore" it after a new OS install, in order to recover those previously created EQ settings.

Not the case, unfortunately. The Registry key in which these settings were stored was not a constant, but rather seemed to vary with each OS install. Furthermore, simply restoring the presumably saved copy of the EQ setups did not work to actually restore those EQ setups in the new OS install.

Bottom line: it appears that Realtek has simply gone out of their way to make this impossible... lacking both their own built-in functionality to EXPORT/IMPORT all of the user's EQ setups, as well as any way even the savviest of PC users can figure out how to save the crucial objects and make use of them at a later date.

Believe me, many have tried, and all (so far) have failed.

Hello to all,

I came accidentally across this thread and I must say that the RT EQ settings can be imported from one driver to another.
All you have to do is to save the FxProperties key with all your settings somewhere in your pc and upon installation of a newer driver you replace the new FxProperties value. You will need to change the .reg extension of the file to .txt and in the first line of the file you replace the older FxProperties value with the newer created by the new RT driver.
Save the file, change the extension to .reg, open regedit as admin, and highlight the FxProperties key.
Click import and you should have the message that "the values have been successfully merged...etc".
Reboot your pc and you will notice that all your previous EQ settings are there and work!!
I tried with 2.71, 2.73 and 3 Sony Realtek drivers and it works flawlessly.
As for the Dolby included with the driver, the installer installs the version that your pc supports.
Done and tested extensively.
Hope this helps.

Regards,

Vaio 7 said:

I came accidentally across this thread and I must say that the RT EQ settings can be imported from one driver to another.
All you have to do is to save the FxProperties key with all your settings somewhere in your pc and upon installation of a newer driver you replace the new FxProperties value. You will need to change the .reg extension of the file to .txt and in the first line of the file you replace the older FxProperties value with the newer created by the new RT driver.
Save the file, change the extension to .reg, open regedit as admin, and highlight the FxProperties key.
Click import and you should have the message that "the values have been successfully merged...etc".
Reboot your pc and you will notice that all your previous EQ settings are there and work!!
I tried with 2.71, 2.73 and 3 Sony Realtek drivers and it works flawlessly.

AHA! Sounds like the FxProperties value in the first line was probably the particular piece of magic none of us ever thought of. Excellent work!

As it turns out, I only use one single "fixed" EQ setting as my standard setup. I don't have a whole collection of different EQ's (although perhaps others might).

I've simply written down my own standard EQ setup, as represented by the number of up/down clicks on the arrow keys for each frequency band, and I refer to it anytime I upgrade to the latest version of the Realtek driver in order to recreate that EQ again. Takes 30 seconds and I'm done, and doesn't require REGEDIT... although I do commend you for your discovery.

It would be nice if hovering the mouse over one of the Realtek EQ frequency bands would reveal in a flyout what the +/- value is of that slider, but unfortunately it doesn't. Hence my little "cheat sheet" method that allows me to simply press the up/down arrows on the correct frequency slider some proper number of times (while I'm watching the onscreen slider move, to confirm my action) in order to recreate my EQ anytime I need to.

31 - +1
62 - +4
125 - +1
250 - 0
500 - +1
1K - -3
2K - 0
4K - +5
8K - +6
16K - +2

Nevertheless, your revelation about how to actually preserve/restore any and all current custom EQ setups is very nice information to have. Thank you for sharing.

This thread has been around for quite a while, and nobody had been able to "solve it"... until now.