Is there a way to turn off the EQ in Itunes

[xgabrielx]

I dont speak of the build in eq. This one is turned off all ready.
But I think there is an other eq in itunes!!!
When I listen to wav/mp3/apple looseless..... all seems to be scooped!!!
This is so annoying!!!
I just want to listen to the music like the engineer mixed/mastered it

[theblue1]

I'm not an iTunes user (and never will be, I'm 99% sure) but, iTunes has, in addition to a conventional EQ, something called the "Sound Enhancer" -- which, according to Apple, is simply a continuously variable 'smile-curve' EQ control [like a 'loudness' button (aka, the 'disco button') on an old stereo].

According to others, however, the Sound Enhancer also incorporates phase/stereo widening trickery [that messes with phase coherence in the signal but sometimes initially impresses rubes and neophytes]:

Apple says it is similar to a loudness control:
[Apple]
"If you select the "Sound Enhancer" checkbox, iTunes "enhances" the sound of your audio files by increasing the treble and bass response, depending on how you set the slider. Think of it kind of like the "Loudness" button found on an old home stereo system, but adjustable. If you move the slider toward the "high" end, iTunes boosts more of the equalization, meaning things will generally sound punchier and crisper. If you move it towards the "low" end, iTunes will decrease the same frequencies."

Others claim that there's more to it than that:
[Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia]
"iTunes includes sound processing features, namely an equalizing section, and its "sound enhancer", which in some languages is translated into "sound improver". The enhancer works by inserting out-of-phase components of the signal into the opposite stereo channel, a technique often used on elements in music production."

[Logic Pro Help :: Logic Pro Forums]
(blueintheface):
"What iTunes does in this respect is the same as the 'Wide' button found on ghetto blasters in days of yore - some high frequencies from each channel are phase-inverted and fed to the opposite channel. This makes the stereo-width apparently greater - but comes at the expense of any real definition of placement. It might be instantly appealing in its queasy-making phasey-ness, but in reality the whole stereo image is smeared. It's an effect that destroys any spatial naturalism to any recording, and so wouldn't be suitable for use on any 'realistic' recordings say of an orchestra or a jazz band. I'm not saying it doesn't have its place - because someone will probably have a hit with the most artifically widend track next week - just to be aware of what you're doing, and sometimes what is instantly appealing ends up ultimately fatiguing. "

-- Can someone tell me how iTunes Sound Enhancer works?

Funny story about the Sound Enhancer -- or maybe about "sound-loving" but technologically-underinformed artists:

A few years back, slide guitarist and musical folklorist Ry Cooder was finishing up an album, listening to roughs on his his Mac using iTunes.

When the record came back from mastering and Cooder heard it in the studio -- he was crushed. It just didn't have the same "sonic sheen" as the roughs he'd been listening to. Then he took the mastered version and listened on his Mac and whump! the sonic sheen was back. It took him more than a little while to figure out that he'd been listening to all the roughs with the iTunes 'Sound Enhancer' engaged!

So Ry, whose guitar prowess apparently does not extend to logical reasoning [enh, how many logician's can play such nice slide, eh?], mandated that the whole album be mastered using iTunes Sound Enhancer.

Heaven only knows what Ry thought when he played that in iTunes, now with a layer of Sound Enhancer built-in and with a layer of Sound Enhancer slapped on top of that, as well...


Talent... gotta love it.

[Lagerfeldt]

Yes, that story is hillarious. And probably - and sadly - true.

in iTunes, open your preferences and make sure both of these options are unchecked:



Sound Enhancer: Off
Sound Check: Off

Restart iTunes.

[theblue1]

He's still a fine guitarist and musical folklorist. And a pretty good raconteur. [I've seen him four (or maybe 5) times, beginning c. 1973 at UCLA in a small hall from a couple rows back. Great, great solo show. I also saw him open for Randy Newman, as well as trying to nursemaid the hard-drinking caballeros in Flaco Jimenez' band in a free show on the Santa Monica pier. Not a great show but much fun, nonetheless, despite long periods of confusion and drinking on stage. (Not Ry, though, I don't think. But everyone else seemed blottisimo. Y media.]

I can't personally vouch for the truth of that story but it's pretty much what was put out as a press release at the time of the album, as you can tell by this obligingly obedient write-up in the NY Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/22/te...oder.html?_r=1

[Lagerfeldt]

Yeah, I remember when it supposedly happened.

[xgabrielx]

yeah thank you both.
After one year I finaly got this damn thing off