Equalify won't load unless specific default Windows sound device chosen

[suburbazine]

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Problem description:
Equalify has become super picky about loading in Spotify if I haven’t selected a particular sound device in Windows. Right now the only one it will launch with is HyperX Cloud II (Game). It works just fine with anything AFTER it loads, though.

Operating system:
Windows 10

Soundcard:
Sound Blaster Z
Samsung HDMI Soundbar
Kingston HyperX Cloud II (Game)
Kingston HyperX Cloud II (Chat)
nVidia RTX Audio

Spotify version
Spotify for Windows
1.1.78.765.g5ea20b00

Equalify Pro version
Latest 1.4.11

Any special software or hardware you might have installed:

Anything else that can be useful or is related to audio processing on your system
Using USB Headset (Cloud II Game), using Samsung sound bar (HDMI). Not actually using Sound Blaster Z or nVidia RTX audio.

[Notrace]

Hey!
Sounds like there might be an application or driver that makes Spotify load the wrong (actually right…) dsound.dll. The way Equalify works is that it places a proxy version of dsound.dll in the spotify folder, and spotify loads that instead of the windows version.

Is this something that has started recently, or has it always been like this?
Can you remember any driver update or application update for your soundcard or your headset ?
Have you changed any settings for the outputs from the soundblaster card, changed to asio mode or something similar ?

As far as i know nothing has changed with Spotify that could explain this, and there has been no changes to the equalizer that can explain it either. So this will be very hard to figure out on my side.

If you want to try to solve it, we could try, but it would involve you spending a while helping me debug and gather information on your side.

[suburbazine]

It’s something that started recently.

The headset drivers are provided by Microsoft, last update was 8/26/21, but that wasn’t when I started having this issue (it was likely part of a large Windows update in November?)

Haven’t played with any ASIO settings.

I’d totally be down for debugging if you’re willing to spend the time. Just tell me what you need.

Also, apologies for the long delay, I thought that watching the thread would send me email notifications but apparently not.

[Notrace]

@suburbazine

Also, apologies for the long delay, I thought that watching the thread would send me email notifications but apparently not.

No worries at all. It should send you an email, unless its turned off in your user preferences.

I’m on a little vacation at the moment, so i’ll contact you when i get back (end of the week) and we can take a look and see if we can figure something out!