Fender Quantum HD8: Separate EQ of Main out and HP out?

[asktoby]

New user of the Fender (Presonus) Quantum HD8.
Speakers connected on the SP-DIF output.
Headphones connected to the HP1 port on the front.

My aim is to have a separate EQ loaded by default for my speakers, and for my headphones.
I'd like the EQ to be blanket applied to all Windows and DAW outputs.
I've been trying to achieve this with "Equalizer APO" but haven't been successful yet.
I'm not tied to that tool, it just seemed the best approach.

Any suggestions?

 

[kvlt]

APO is Windows Audio only and would not affect the ASIO streams.

VoiceMeeter Banana or Potato version can provide PEQ on outputs, which you can use for both ASIO/WDM. It will act as a middle man, but you will need to use VM ASIO driver in the DAW, which will make I/O routing much more difficult, as it's not the most intuitive Audio App (Very Consumer oriented, my biggest complaint).

Personally, I only use VM Banana for WDM only (OBS / Discord routing). If you are in a DAW, you can just manually create those outputs and apply PEQ there. Use VM for WDM and just mimic the same PEQ settings. That way, you can use the QHD8 ASIO Driver in the DAW as intended, while leaving the WDM to VM. You will need to assign one of the HD8's outputs to the Headphone, in order for VM to have a dedicated PEQ (See screen shot, A1 output is for Main LR, you would use A2 or A3, assign to any output pair from 3/4+).

 

[asktoby]

Thanks for the reply!

I had been struggling using the HD8 mixer, but since writing the message I found the "off" button in it which hands all control over to the DAW.

Now I just have the DAW run at startup and have used the loopback channels: red for my speakers connected to SPDIF, green for my headphones.

Windows' sound comes in through Loopback 1 and gets duplicated to the SPDIF Out for speakers with EQ (red) and Headphone out on sacrificial output 3/4 with headphone EQ (green)

Seems to work so far

 

[SwitchBack]

Note that by 'handing over to the DAW' your HD8 turns from a mixer into a straight interface.
- Advantage: You don't have to learn to use the HD8's mixers and controls
- Disadvantage: Cue mix latency will be higher because live inputs now always have to pass through the DAW

So good to get things working as you wanted, but when latency becomes an issue then know that the HD8's mixers can do it too, with zero cue mix latency.