RootlessJamesDSP Guide
RootlessJamesDSP is a powerful no-root-required equalizer app that allows you to enhance your mobile audio experience even for inexperienced or amateur listeners when used in combination with things like AutoEQ, which it has a simple interface for. By patching apps with Revanced Manager, you can effectively allow its use with just about any app, which is something other equalizer apps on Android don't quite offer — albeit with some restrictions still, of course. This guide will detail how to use AutoEQ, as well as how to get apps that aren't already supported right away to work with RootlessJamesDSP.
Why you might want a parametric equalizer
While it is in part outside the scope of this guide, there are plenty of reasons you might want to consider using a parametric equalizer. Among which is the ability to take advantage of AutoEQ.
See this Reddit thread for further reading on some discussions surrounding this topic.
Using AutoEQ
AutoEQ is a crowdsourced collection of pre-made equalizer configurations for a wide range of different headphone models, with the general idea being to tune headphones for clearer and more neutral sound. AutoEQ essentially allows you to reap the benefits of a parametric equalizer without having to do the hard work yourself, which is appealing if you are a beginner or are simply looking to get better sound quality out of your device.
To use AutoEQ, simply enable the toggle for Arbitrary response equalizer and search for your headphone model in the AutoEQ profiles search.
Alternatively, you can use the Convolver equalizer. Acquire the file for your headphone model configuration from AutoEQ, select your headphone model and choose RootlessJamesDSP as the equalizer app. From there you can import the .wav file and select that as your Impulse response filter. This approach should allow for better performance.
Patching unsupported apps for use with RootlessJamesDSP
RootlessJamesDSP does not support a number of apps out of the box, amongst which is Spotify. Fortunately enough, there is a remedy for this, and with this method, you also get to enjoy certain other perks.
Chromium browsers are just about hopeless, as attempting to patch them will result in a PathNotFoundException
, due to the inherent nature of how audio playback is done on them.
Firefox and its forks however, are almost completely supported out of the box, requiring you to only follow one other step.
If you plan to use your browser for media, this does mean you will have to give up your Chromium browser if you are currently using one, but if you are able, do try to use a Firefox or similar browser only for when you plan to stream any audio in browser, in which case I recommend using Iceraven.
- The first step is to install Revanced Manager if you haven't already.
- Next you should acquire the files for the app that you want to use or have it installed. Note that this app may have its data wiped in the process if an uninstall is neccessary.
- Now enter Revanced Manager and make sure the option Show universal patches is turned on in the settings.
- After which you can select the app you want or choose the APK file you've just acquired with the file picker.
Once you have done all that, choose the Remove screen capture restriction patch, which will allow RootlessJamesDSP to capture audio for otherwise unsupported apps. Note that this is not a silver bullet and won't work for apps using the native AAudio C++ API for audio playback, which is why Chromium browsers aren't supported.
- Patch and install the app. You may need to uninstall when there is a signature conflict if one arises.
Rather important little tweak
We're still not done however, you will still need to adjust just one more thing in RootlessJamesDSP.
Go to the settings, in the Troubleshooting section you'll want to change the Preferred session detection method from AudioService dump (recommended) to AudioPolicyService dump or you will encounter audio streams going undetected or audio duplications.
What this setting will do is put RootlessJamesDSP in a more persistent and aggressive audio capturing state, which should allow you to use some apps that already had support, like Firefox browsers. The downside to this is that RootlessJamesDSP will continuously process every single audio stream as they're being detected even while they're not playing audio, but otherwise no big deal.
..and that's it! Now you can open your app and enjoy a better audio experience with RootlessJamesDSP.
This guide was written by oldbama on Discord. I felt compelled to write this guide because this app wasn't getting nearly enough attention for how awesome it is, and it was also the solution to many of the pains I had with other equalizer apps. With that said, feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions or inquiries, and I'll try my best to respond!