"Sounds better in iTunes" - sound enhancer

[Martin]

itunes --> preferences --> playback --> sound enhancer checkbox

so the first thing i do whenver itunes gets put on a system is go in and turn this off so i know i'm hearing back what i put in, but it got me thinking and researching a little...

there's little documentation apart from the official apple description of "...think of it like a loudness control on your old stereo..."

question for you mastering boffins, what do you think it is doing exactly?

there some obvious spreading and high end boosting, can you hear anything else in there?

[Jason Dirckze]

I never even noticed it was a feature... I went and checked and it was on. It is now off... forever

[heathen]

I swear I heard something about some big name artist actually using it to master a record, I could have been having a bad dream but I'm sure its true.

Can not remember who though.

[smash]

I swear I heard something about some big name artist actually using it to master a record, I could have been having a bad dream but I'm sure its true.

Can not remember who though.

Ry Cooder

As to what is "actually" does... it would seem to be a Stereo Enhancer i.e. Adds out of phase harmonics to opposing channels, combined
a variation of the classic "smiley" EQ.

[Text_Edifice]

Ry Cooder - "'My Name Is Buddy,' an oddball folk and blues concept album about a red cat that travels through a mythic American landscape"

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/22/techn ... ooder.html

[Text_Edifice]

dammit you beat me.

I think there's some sort of 'normalizing' thing on the iTunes enhancer too. I've noticed it can suck the dynamics out of a lot of my CD's and in a couple of rare cases added a tiny bit of distortion.

[toddd]

so now dave fridmann is saying it's usuable too?

apple should give the thing to us as an audio unit plug in...

[Kris]

There's also a function that scans the playlist and evens out the volume between each track. Woo. Just what I always wanted. (insert sarcasm here).

[toddd]

thanks for making it clear that you were being sarcastic kris. (insert more sarcasm here. also on my previous post)..

[Mark Bassett]

Can I insert sarcasm without writing anything?

[OzDrum]

There's also a function that scans the playlist and evens out the volume between each track. Woo. Just what I always wanted. (insert sarcasm here).

actually I use this function as itunes is on our office computer - I have about 4000 songs on there and it shits me to turn up and down the volume all day long between tracks - so many different levels on so many different CD's and when it's on Shuffle each track is different - some as much as 3db! so Soundcheck at least keeps it constant for my background music - same goes with my ipod as I don't like my ears getting blown out as the next song comes in while I am working out or whatever with my ipod in. But then again that's all I use itunes and my ipod for so it is definately not critical listening!!

[heathen]

I swear I heard something about some big name artist actually using it to master a record, I could have been having a bad dream but I'm sure its true.

Can not remember who though.

Ry Cooder

As to what is "actually" does... it would seem to be a Stereo Enhancer i.e. Adds out of phase harmonics to opposing channels, combined
a variation of the classic "smiley" EQ.

Ahh cool I thought I was'nt losing the plot.