Plantronics EOLs VolumeLogic but offers fix for Leopard
I've spoken before of my love for the Octiv/Plantronics Volume Logic audio optimizer plugin for iTunes, which makes your laptop speakers sound like a much bigger system, but when I fired up iTunes under 10.5, unsurprisingly, VL wouldn't work or find its registration info. OK, no problem, surf over to volumelogic.com for an update and... agh! The plugin has been end-of-life'd and Plantronics will produce no more updates. What to do, what to do... time to check out iWOW I suppose -- but what's this?
Credited to VL's 'loyal Mac fans,' an update installer and slighly funky Terminal instructions are available to make VL happy under Leopard, at least for now. Undoubtedly a future iTunes or OS upgrade will break the plugin once and for all, and on that day I will mourn for a moment the departure of VL from my Mac... and then I'll move on.
Update: Note Zach's comment below -- this fix is unsupported and is at your own risk. Per Ronnie's note, a more thorough review of the resolutions is here.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Simon Arch said 12:07PM on 11-15-2007
Wow...I'm so glad I never registered the plugin now. It's too bad, because this really made a huge difference in iTunes. Is there any indication of why they're stopping production on VolumeLogic? Dare I hope it's because Apple has purchased it and will be incorporating the tech into future versions of the OS and iPod? Pretty please with sugar on top?
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Zach said 12:40PM on 11-15-2007
DON'T DO IT!!!
I ran the terminal code and all heck broke loose. The first time I ran it, Volume Logic gave me an error message. So I ran it again. iTunes crashed and refused to reopen. When I tried to report the problem to Apple, the reporter crashed. I tried to ignore that, but the option to report the reporter crashing keep coming up. So I rebooted. Now my iMac won't turn on.
I tried a PRAM reset, but no luck either.
I rebooted to the install disk and repaired disk permissions and repaired the disk. No luck.
I am now doing an archive and install of my Leopard.
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Michael Rose said 12:50PM on 11-15-2007
Zach -- sorry you're suffering. I had no immediate ill effects from the changes, but you can roll back those mods by deleting the link files and copying the .old library files back to their original names.
Run these ONE AT A TIME:
cd /usr/lib
sudo rm libcrypto.0.9.dylib
sudo rm libssl.0.9.dylib
sudo cp libcrypto.0.9.dylib.old libcrypto.0.9.dylib
sudo cp libssl.0.9.dylib.old libssl.0.9.dylib
you should be back to status quo ante.
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Ted Slawski said 1:19PM on 1-14-2008
I know this thread is kinda old but I was wondering if I could get some help. I did the original terminal hack to get Volume Logic working in Leopard. It now works but I can no longer rebuild permissions, I just get error messages about altered files that cannot be repaired. I did an archive and install and the modified code was in the new system. I tried the fix suggested to remove the changed code but I get file not found errors. Maybe because I've updated to 10.5.1. Any ideas appreciated as this change seems to really screw things up.
Dan Parmelee said 1:00PM on 11-15-2007
Sorry, but I simply don't trust this sort of product. Laptop speakers simply can't output a very wide dynamic range...any sort of plugin claiming to improve the sound is going to be inaccurately boosting certain frequencies, resulting in unnatural sound.
If you want big sound, use a high-quality speaker system or good headphones. Laptop speakers are merely for producing error sounds.
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WickDC said 1:02PM on 11-15-2007
Wonderful product and great to be able to use it again!
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Trist said 1:19PM on 11-15-2007
Just tried the work through. Doesn't work. VL still gives an error when I put my serial no in :(
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Ronnie Hughes said 6:24AM on 11-16-2007
I tried this Terminal fix when it was first posted on Veerle's blog about a week ago http://veerle.duoh.com/blog/comments/no_more_volume_logic/
And it has worked ever since on two Macs without causing any chaos.
I've used Volume Logic for a couple of years now - not as a way of boosting laptop speakers but as a way of making iTunes practical to live with when coming out of real speakers. OK, I'm a hi-fi fan too and I know that what VL produces isn't hi-fi. So when I want hi-fi I listen to real Cds. But mostly we listen to music socially, so it's semi in the background. And with a vast library now on hard drive from CD and vinyl over many years - iTunes 'Sound check' is just not up to coping with all the volume changes between songs in the source material. Making it extremely irritating to listen to. But Volume Logic sorts all that and has made iTunes our major listening tool - constantly on shuffle and never irritating us when a deafening Howlin' Wolf is followed by a strangely quiet Steely Dan.
If Plantronics don't want it any more I'd suggest Apple buy Volume Logic and use it to replace 'Sound check' within iTunes - then we could maybe have Volume Logic working on iPods too.
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Danny said 2:57PM on 11-15-2007
Yupeeee!!! Thanks for the heads up
:)
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james neal said 3:22PM on 11-15-2007
i loved vl so much that i paid for it. i'm rather disappointed that its not updated for leopard, although i haven't installed leopard on my powerbook. i think i'm going to email them to let them know how crappy of a decision it is.
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Galley said 3:58PM on 11-15-2007
If I were Steve Jobs, I would be throwing a boatload of money at Plantronics, so I could integrate Volume Logic not only into iTunes, but into iPods as well. The "real-time remastering" was amazing!
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Dan Riley said 7:02PM on 11-15-2007
To Dan above;
Volume Logic is (was) the opposite of adding dynamic range.
It is a multiband compressor/limiter. One with almost the
same level of quality your local FM broadcast radio station uses.
It brings up the low levels and brings down the high levels.
Ever notice how when you are in your car and you are listening to
your radio, you don't have to keep changing the volume up and
down as the song plays or people are talking? This is because they use compressors and limiters at the station. That's what Volume Logic does, with the very same technology the stations are using but at a very small fraction of the cost because it's all in software.
These other enhancers you read about are a totally different
concept. They do indeed change the frequencies and phasing
of the music. Volume Logic does not.
Plantronics had a very good product which they purchased from
the original company, then proceeded to kill it in every conceivable
way. I saw it coming a mile off, because Plantronics makes and sells
very low quality stuff and here they got their hands on a great
product. I knew they would screw it up. No matter how many times
I wrote them and pointed out those of us in the PRO market would
pay dearly for a PRO version of their product, they did nothing.
I hope the people who sold the technology to Plantronics
can buy it back from them and then learn a thing or two about
marketing. The product is not the problem here folks.
It's how it's been marketed. Sound familiar ?
Dan
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Richard Soderberg said 1:21AM on 12-06-2007
There's a way to fix VolumeLogic without modifying /usr/lib. I've confirmed these steps work on my local system (barring copy-paste errors). I strongly recommend undoing any modifications to /usr/lib as they can have unexpected systemwide impact.
These steps may need to be preceded by "sudo -s", to get a root shell. I didn't need to on my single-user system.
0. Shutdown iTunes. Undo any /usr/lib modifications.
1. mkdir /Library/Frameworks/EWSMac.framework/Versions/Current/Frameworks
2. ln -s Versions/Current/Frameworks /Library/Frameworks/EWSMac.framework/
3. cp -p /usr/lib/libcrypto.0.9.7.dylib /Library/Frameworks/EWSMac.framework/Frameworks/libcrypto.0.9.dylib
3. cp -p /usr/lib/libssl.0.9.7.dylib /Library/Frameworks/EWSMac.framework/Frameworks/libssl.0.9.dylib
4. install_name_tool -id @loader_path/Frameworks/libcrypto.0.9.dylib /Library/Frameworks/EWSMac.framework/Frameworks/libcrypto.0.9.dylib
5. install_name_tool -id @loader_path/Frameworks/libssl.0.9.dylib /Library/Frameworks/EWSMac.framework/Frameworks/libssl.0.9.dylib
6. install_name_tool -change /usr/lib/libcrypto.0.9.dylib @loader_path/Frameworks/libcrypto.0.9.dylib /Library/Frameworks/EWSMac.framework/EWSMac16777504
7. Start iTunes.
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Paula said 6:40PM on 12-28-2007
My husband was a volume logic fan is is crushed that his new iMac does not support it. He is also very upset that he gets an error message each time he opens iTunes regarding VL.
I followed the directions at www.volumelogic.com for uninstalling the plugin but still get the error window. Anyone have advice for removing this from my husband's new computer?
Thanks!
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james said 10:38PM on 1-08-2008
try this site:
http://labs.xoofoo.org/modules/planet/view.article.php/2872
This dude's recommendation works!
Does anybody know how I can get a working serial number?
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