Related link: http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20040902070807431
Forget the tired “smiley curve” or the all-faders-on-stun settings most people use on graphic EQs. After this music fan posted his “perfect” EQ curve for iTunes, a recording engineer made it even better by turning it upside down.
Equalization is a dangerous thing. How many times have you seen a stereo on which all the EQ sliders are maxed out or set to some random StairMaster hill contour?
I thought about that after seeing this “perfect” iTunes EQ setting, in which the contributor had boosted two bands by a shattering nine dB. One slider even went to 11!
Of course, unless you have tons of storage dedicated to your audio files, you’ve probably savaged most of the music in your library with data compression, so extreme measures may be called for to restore its luster. But I was gratified to see a follow-up post from a recording engineer who explained that EQ is best used as a sculpting tool—to cut rather than add. He then recreated the curve using negative offsets and an overall boost. Interesting stuff. I’m currently running some crunchy podcast music through it, and it does sound fresher.
If you’re a Mac user, you can even download a script on the site that sets the sliders for you. This article offers an overview of each slider’s musical function.
Are you a booster or a cutter?
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Audio
Comments (1)
Read More Entries by David Battino.
I've noticed that there are at least two different aspects addressing iTunes equalizer.
One is to have what is heard at a set of stereo, which caused to liking the music and to playing back on iTunes. The other is caused by how the stereo set has been heard.
The speakers or headphones are about to be used to simulate with the EQ. So the user preset would be saved with naming of brands or makers of speakers.
In contrast the formers' naming would be similar to what Apple computer has built in in iTunes. One may choose different setting for different genres or songs. Finding right setting for the favorite music and equipments is not so easy, I would imagine. It is more like calibrating the color monitor with a color calibrator for serious digital photographers.