|
Holy crap, I just made an very unpleasant discovery about iTunes.
You know the little volume adjustment slider in the options for each track?
This one:
+ Show Spoiler +
If you turn it up it introduces HORRIFIC distortion to the song. I never realized this until I was listening to one of my starts for mastering and it blew my mind. I had to reset it for my entire library.
If you want to hear just how much it can fuck up your music I have a little TEST BEAT to try. Just download it and listen in iTunes with no volume adjustment vs. +100% volume adjustment. The difference should be night and day.
Just using normal volume sliders wont cause any distortion...so I have no idea why this is happening, sucks though.
 
|
If i remember correctly it has to do with the maximum volume output of the medium or speakers. The tops of the wave lengths get cut off and you get a clipping sound with massive distortion
|
Youre distorting the sound to "push" past max volume by distorting low sounds to louder ones.
I think
|
On February 19 2012 08:25 Elsid wrote:
If i remember correctly it has to do with the maximum volume output of the medium or speakers. The tops of the wave lengths get cut off and you get a clipping sound with massive distortion
Right, but you can turn the volume up with the normal iTunes volume or the system volume with no issues. This just means they did some terrible workaround with boosting the gain or compressing or something for the in-options adjustment instead of having it just secretly move the itunes volume.
|
This is a different volume than the one you describe. The one you are thinking of is system volume, game volume, or some other other standard sound adjustment metric. Volume adjustment ala the itunes function is a volume change relative to the preset volume for the track. A lot of downloaded music, oftentimes illegal mind you, has variable volume levels due to less than ideal ripping from the uploader, and this function can help. As for the distortion? Deal with it.jpg
|
Does it support replaygain? That's the best way to deal with tracks with inconsistent volumes.
|
On February 19 2012 08:29 farvacola wrote:
This is a different volume than the one you describe. The one you are thinking of is system volume, game volume, or some other other standard sound adjustment metric. Volume adjustment ala the itunes function is a volume change relative to the preset volume for the track. A lot of downloaded music, oftentimes illegal mind you, has variable volume levels due to less than ideal ripping from the uploader, and this function can help. As for the distortion? Deal with it.jpg
Clearly they are different, I can hear that easily. My question is why.
On February 19 2012 08:46 R1CH wrote:
Does it support replaygain? That's the best way to deal with tracks with inconsistent volumes.
Not for free  there is iVolume which uses the same algorithm apparently. It looks like a hassle to use too. eh, I think I'll just use my ears and do it manually.
|
Yup, but I wouldn't say itunes sucks just cus one of their features isn't very good.
I have yet to change my volumes back, that distortion makes me wish I never played my favorite track.
|
On February 19 2012 08:28 sob3k wrote:Show nested quote +On February 19 2012 08:25 Elsid wrote:
If i remember correctly it has to do with the maximum volume output of the medium or speakers. The tops of the wave lengths get cut off and you get a clipping sound with massive distortion Right, but you can turn the volume up with the normal iTunes volume or the system volume with no issues. This just means they did some terrible workaround with boosting the gain or compressing or something for the in-options adjustment instead of having it just secretly move the itunes volume.
Oh I apologize I see what you mean now ^_^
|
iTunes sucks cause it's forced down your throat in order to use your apple products....
also, if you have already have an extensive library (I have terabytes of music as I am a dj), thats organized a certain way, itunes sucks ass... you kinda HAVE to sort your library in the way itunes dictates.
tbh, anything over itunes imo, even friggin windows media player doesnt annoy me as much.
|
Warning: Apple inside! + Show Spoiler +
Make sure you have "Sound Enhancer" and "Sound Check" turned off (Playback settings). Those two can distort your audio horribly.
I almost thought my speakers were broken, before i googled for solutions and found out I needed to uncheck these two..
Not the smoothes programming in a highly profiled piece of software like iTunes...
|
|
|
|
|
|
EPT![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/OeIYr.png)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/YCfpw.png)
