Feature: Add ability to bypass eqMac for specific devices

[Caleb10E]

• [x] I have checked for a similar issue and sure it hasn't been reported before.

Description: Add the ability to enable or disable/bypass eqMac for specific devices. I use a pair of Sony XM4 Bluetooth headphones for video calls, but the microphone does not always work unless the output device is the headphones directly (with eqMac bypassed). Since I would prefer to only use eqMac with my speakers and not headphones, the ability to disable/bypass eqMac on a device-by-device basis would be perfect.

User flow & interface: This could be a button added right next to the device in the Device Auto Switch menu that allows us to disable eqMac for that device. After that, if I manually select that output device from System Preferences, it should bypass eqMac until I switch back to a device that has eqMac enabled.

This is the only thing missing that's keeping me from using eqMac full-time. Please follow up with any clarifying questions if you need any more info.

[ayozemr]

+1 I am having also some problems with airpods pro 2 and would like to bypass when using them

[nodeful]

Thank you for your feedback and suggestion. For the past week I was trying to figure out what was going on with FaceTime and the fact that the mic volume gets lowered but unfortunately I got nowhere, I explained it in more details here: https://github.com/bitgapp/eqMac/issues/741#issuecomment-1354060729

I then tried to add the functionality to fully disable eqMac on certain devices, but unfortunately there were some architectual complications that would require more work to get resolved and I was very pressed on time to release the next update and Lifetime Pro Licenses.

I will try to squeeze this feature in the next update. Sorry for the inconvenience guys, I wish I could add every feature as quick as people ask for them :(

[pattont]

I would also like this. I don't really want to use eqMac when using just my Macbook speakers. I want it enabled as soon as I plug in my Chord Mojo2.

[ryanbugden]

Thanks for looking at this @nodeful . I'd like to +1 this as well. I left a comment on the other issue: https://github.com/bitgapp/eqMac/issues/762#issuecomment-1380945458

Will follow this issue!

[jacobweberbowery]

Same here — eqMac seems to mess up the output when using AirPods with Slack Huddles, so it would be good to be able to keep it off for AirPods.

[devantoine]

That would be such an awesome feature! 🤩

[mar627]

would love this too! Attaching bypass states to certain devices.

Or the inverse? A checkbox in prefs to have the bypass state enabled by default, then eqMac could disable bypass for certain devices.. <3

[dtrasbo]

I would like to second this. I would love the ability to bypass eqMac for certain devices, and also assign specific EQs to specific devices.

[notjames]

I also recognized that this is requisite. We could either do what's requested in this issue (by-pass) or if my observations are accurate, the reason this doesn't work right is because eqMac doesn't pass-through sound on the mic for applications which use the mic.

For instance, at least for the application we use for conference calls the following are my observations on a mpb M1

• if I set the input device as my bluetooth headphones to either the bluetooth device with or without eqMac and I set the output device to the bluetooth headphones using eqMac, I can neither get sound nor are people able to hear me in the meeting.
• If I set the input device to a non-eqMac microphone and leave the output device to the eqMac bluetooth device, then I can both hear and be heard.
• If I set input to the eqMac bluetooth headphones and I set the input device to the same bluetooth headphones without eqMac, I get neither input or output sound to work.

My assumption is that this is the case because eqMac doesn't pass-through input over the hardware and it only works for output, however I could be wrong. At any rate, it would be nice for this to get fixed.

[ragauskl]

Super presets can be assigned to be 'per device' in the free tier of eqMac, this may not work for all cases as it doesn't fully bypass eqMac (if you need that specifically), however if applying different effects or no effects at all to certain devices is the only goal super presets should be enough.

You can find device selection if you enable 'Auto Switching' when creating or editing a super preset

If this solution is not enough for your case and you need full bypass - it is being discussed/may be added in near future

[dtrasboIMG]

Personally, I need the bypass feature because eqMac doesn't like my AirPods Pro for some reason. When they are set as output device it causes eqMac to become unresponsive.

This problem is worsened by the fact that I have auto switching for the AirPods turned on. It means I need to always have eqMac in bypass mode and then manually turn it on, e.g. when I'm using my wired headphones.

[ragauskl]

Just to provide a quick update: current plan is to include the bypass feature per device in v1.9 (and maybe per app as well if time will allow it)