OpenBoom

Next-generation, low-latency 3D spatial audio enhancer, parametric equalizer, and real-time DSP studio for Windows.

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⚡ Overview

OpenBoom is a modern, high-fidelity, open-source alternative to proprietary audio enhancers like Boom 3D. Engineered in Rust and Tauri v2 with a clean-room architectural design, OpenBoom transforms any standard headphones or speakers into an immersive 3D soundstage with zero kernel driver instability, sub-15ms round-trip latency, and zero telemetry.

• Zero-Crash User-Mode Architecture: Pure WASAPI & PortCls routing without intrusive third-party kernel drivers.
• Audiophile Grade DSP: SSE2/AVX SIMD-accelerated filtering, 64-tap KEMAR HRTF binaural convolution, and an inviolable lookahead brickwall peak limiter.
• Modern Fluent Dark UI: High-contrast audiophile aesthetic with neon cyan glow, tactile circular dials, live spectrum meters, and hardware-accelerated animations.

[!IMPORTANT]

🔊 Virtual Audio Device Requirement for 100% Echo-Free Experience (Mode A)

To achieve the commercial-grade, 100% echo-free experience with genuine 7.1 surround ingestion, Windows requires a Virtual Audio Sink Device to act as the default silent system playback endpoint:

• With Boom 3D installed (Recommended): OpenBoom automatically detects and pairs with the Boom Audio virtual driver (boomvad.sys). Windows directs all system audio silently into this virtual sink, and OpenBoom's DSP pipeline processes and delivers the enhanced audio directly to your physical headphones/speakers with zero slapback echo.
• With Free Virtual Cables: OpenBoom also seamlessly recognizes alternatives like VB-Audio Virtual Cable, VoiceMeeter, or VAC.
• Without any Virtual Driver (Mode B - Driverless Fallback): OpenBoom automatically falls back to Mode B (Pure WASAPI Loopback). It runs immediately without any third-party software, but is subject to Windows loopback constraints (stereo output limitation and potential acoustic duplication if raw playback is not silenced).

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✨ Features

🎧 3D Spatial Soundstage & Binaural Simulation

• Binaural 7.1/5.1 Downfold: Converts surround audio streams into realistic spatial audio using KEMAR HRTF tables with Interaural Time Difference (ITD 0.2–0.7ms) and pinna rear notches at 6 kHz.
• Interactive 300° Soundstage Dial: Intuitive circular control with polar angle physics and tactile detents.
• 8-Channel Virtual Speaker Configurator (Ctrl + Shift + S): Top-down listener orbital ring view with customizable azimuth angles ($\theta$), individual node mutes, and relative gain faders ($\pm 6\text{ dB}$).

🎚️ Dual-Mode Equalizer Studio (Ctrl + Shift + E)

• 31-Band ISO 1/3-Octave Graphic EQ: Covering 20 Hz to 20 kHz with Direct Form II Transposed biquad topology ($Q=4.31$) and Schur-Cohn stability verification.
• 10-Band Quick Graphic EQ: Instant musical adjustment preserving smooth Bezier curves.
• 12-Band Parametric Pre-EQ Stage: Low/High Shelves and Peaking filters with automatic pre-amp gain compensation ($A_{\text{preamp}} = -\max(0, \max_i(G_i))$).
• 15 Factory Studio Presets: Harman Acoustic, Bass Boost, Treble Boost, Gaming, Vocal Clarity, Electronic, Rock, Jazz, Movie, and more.
• Custom Presets: Atomic preset persistence (%APPDATA%\OpenBoom\presets\*.json).

🎯 Embedded AutoEq Headphone Calibration

• Over 4,200 Headphone Profiles: Instant offline access to the Jaakkopasanen/AutoEq measurement database compressed to just 209 KB.
• Sub-Millisecond Fuzzy Search: Find your exact headphone model (Sennheiser, Sony, Audio-Technica, Beyerdynamic, AirPods, HyperX, etc.) in under 0.1ms.

🍬 Psychoacoustic Audio Sweeteners Rack

A dedicated 5-module real-time audio enhancement strip:

• Ambience: Schroeder-Moorer / Feedback Delay Network (FDN) algorithmic reverb with 4 comb filters, 2 series all-pass diffusers, and asymmetric stereo decorrelation.
• Fidelity: Psychoacoustic harmonic exciter generating second ($x^2$) and third ($x^3$) harmonics with soft tanh saturation and high-frequency air shelf.
• Night Mode: Dynamic Range Compressor (DRC) with 2.5ms fast attack, 120ms release, +6 dB dialogue clarity boost, and a -55 dBFS noise-gate.
• Spatial: Mid/Side stereo width expander with mono sub-bass anchor (< 200 Hz) and mathematically guaranteed mono compatibility ($L=R \implies S=0$).
• Pitch: Harmonic pitch modulation engine preview.

🔊 150% Master Volume Boost & Lookahead Peak Limiter

• Perceptual Volume Curve: $p^2$ taper (-12 dB at 50%, 0 dB at 100%, +3.5 dB boost at 150%) with snap-to-100% on double click.
• Master Brickwall Limiter: 2ms lookahead window (96 frames @ 48 kHz), 0.2ms attack, transparent 50ms release, and an inviolable -0.2 dBFS ceiling with 0% digital clipping.

🎛️ Per-Application Audio Session Mixer (Ctrl + Shift + M)

• Live Windows Core Audio Session Manager: Dedicated COM MTA background worker dynamically enumerating active processes (Spotify, Discord, Chrome, games).
• Individual Process Faders: Fine-tune volume levels from 0% to 150% and toggle individual process mutes.
• Persistent Volume Memory: Automatically remembers custom volume levels across process and system restarts via %APPDATA%\OpenBoom\app_volumes.json.

⚡ Low-Latency WASAPI Dual-Mode Pipeline

• Mode A (Virtual Audio Bridge): Echo-free sink bridge routing with sub-15ms round-trip latency.
• Mode B (Loopback Fallback): Real-time capture with process tree exclusion.
• MMCSS Pro Audio Scheduling: Windows Multimedia Class Scheduler Service integration preventing audio buffer dropouts.
• Phase-Continuous Instant A/B Bypass (Ctrl + Shift + B): 5ms equal-power crossfade ($g_A^2 + g_B^2 = 1.0$) allowing instant click-free comparison between raw and processed audio.

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📥 Download & Installation

Pre-compiled binaries for Windows 10/11 (64-bit) are automatically published with every release:

👉 Download the Latest OpenBoom Release

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⌨️ Keyboard Shortcuts

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🛠️ Building from Source

Prerequisites

• Windows 10 / 11 (x86_64)
• Node.js 20.x or later & npm
• Rust 1.80+ (MSVC toolchain: x86_64-pc-windows-msvc)
• Visual Studio C++ Build Tools (with Windows 10/11 SDK)

Step-by-Step Instructions

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/JVGS1111/open-boom.git
   cd open-boom
   

2. Install frontend dependencies:

   npm install
   

3. Run in development mode (hot-reloading):

   npm run dev
   

4. Run the automated test suites:

   # Run all Cargo workspace tests (DSP, WASAPI, Storage)
   cargo test --workspace
   
   # Run frontend React & component unit tests
   npm run test
   

5. Build the production release:

   # Build the official NSIS Windows Installer
   npm run build:nsis
   
   # Build standalone portable executable
   npm run build:portable
   

   Artifacts will be located in:

   • NSIS Setup: target/release/bundle/nsis/OpenBoom_*.exe
   • Portable Binary: target/release/open-boom.exe

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🚀 CI/CD & Automated Releases

OpenBoom features a fully automated GitHub Actions CI/CD pipeline:

• Continuous Integration (.github/workflows/ci.yml): Runs on every push and pull request to main, validating Cargo compilation, test suites, and frontend typechecks.
• Automated Releases (.github/workflows/release.yml): Triggered automatically whenever a semantic version tag (v*.*.*) is pushed:
  1. Runs all test suites (cargo test --workspace, npm run test).
  2. Compiles optimized release binaries with MSVC.
  3. Packages the NSIS installer and standalone portable .exe.
  4. Generates SHA256SUMS.txt cryptographic digests.
  5. Creates a GitHub Release and attaches all binaries.

Creating a Release Tag

To publish a new release, you can use the included PowerShell helper:

# Create an annotated release tag matching package.json version
npm run release:tag

# Push the commits and tag to GitHub to trigger the release build
git push origin main
git push origin v0.1.0

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📐 Architecture & Workspace

OpenBoom is structured as a modular Cargo workspace orchestrated by Tauri v2:

open-boom/
├── crates/
│   ├── open-boom-core/       # Pure DSP pipeline: Biquad EQ, Limiter, HRTF Spatializer, Sweeteners Rack
│   ├── open-boom-wasapi/     # Windows Core Audio WASAPI ingest, MMCSS, Virtual Bridge, COM MTA Session Manager
│   └── open-boom-storage/    # Atomic NTFS configuration, AutoEq database, custom presets, startup registry
├── src-tauri/                # Tauri v2 native desktop shell, IPC commands, system tray
├── src-ui/                   # React 18, TypeScript, Tailwind CSS, Lucide icons, Fluent Dark HUD
├── scripts/                  # Release and AutoEq generator automation scripts
└── .bmad/                    # BMAD Memory Harness (Architecture, ADRs, Task Backlog, Milestones)

The reverse engineering methodology and audio sink driver analysis are documented under .bmad/evidence/rea-boom-engine-reverse-engineering-report.md.

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📄 License

This project is dual-licensed under either:

• MIT License (LICENSE-MIT or http://opensource.org/licenses/MIT)
• Apache License, Version 2.0 (LICENSE-APACHE or http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0)

at your option.

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Built with ❤️ for audiophiles, gamers, and music creators.