'Stuck' Equalizer Problem in iTunes 8.0.2
 

'Stuck' Equalizer Problem in iTunes 8.0.2

System
iTunes 8.0.2
OS X 10.5.4
Intel iMac

I use the iTunes equalizer and have about 100 custom equalizer settings. Most songs have no EQ setting (Equalizer = None), but some have their own EQ setting. The Equalizer itself is set to ON and Flat.

When I play a song with no EQ setting, it plays correctly with no EQ. When I play a song with a custom EQ setting (eg: Treble Booster), this song plays with the 'Treble Booster' EQ, and the Equalizer is then 'stuck' on 'Treble Booster' for other songs, even though they have no EQ. The other songs should revert to playing with no EQ setting, as their Equalizer setting is None, but they play with the EQ setting of the song that had one. As far as I remember, I didn't have this problem with previous version of iTunes.

I would be very grateful for any suggestions :)

You have to give all songs some EQ setting.
The "None" setting really means no change.

Always has.

-HI-

This definitely was not the case in earlier versions of iTunes I used. I used to set the Equalizer to 'Flat' and 'On', then set separate Equalizer settings for some songs. The songs which I had set an EQ for would play with the individual song setting, and the others would play with the 'standard' EQ setting. The problem now, in iTunes 8.0.2, is that once a song which has an invidual EQ setting plays, all other songs play with THAT setting, not the 'standard' EQ setting.

(I don't really want to get into an argument about 'who's right', so perhaps someone else would like to comment ;) ?)

Hmm, my memory is that the reason i started assigning every song its own EQ
was specifically because iTunes did not do what you describe there. That started
somewhere around version 3 or 4 methinks. I'm not certain of the timeline, just
the behavior. (can't recall much about versions 1 and 2, except that 1 had no EQ).

OK. I just tried this on my Intel MacBook which is running iTunes 7.6.2 and OS X 10.5.

Most songs have no preset EQ

One song has 'Treble Booster' as the EQ setting for that song.

The standard Equalizer setting is set at 'Flat' and 'On'

With this setup, songs play with the 'Flat' EQ setting. When I play a song with 'Treble Booster' as it's EQ, it plays with the 'Treble Booster' setting. Then when I go to the next song, with no EQ set, it plays with the standard 'Flat' setting.

This confirms my memory that this is the way the iTunes Equalizer used to work for me, and, I think, should work. The problem is I have upgraded iTunes to 8.0.2 on my main Mac now, and it doesn't work properly :(

I suspect this is a bug which Apple will fix in time, but in the meantime I might have to downgrade my iTunes back to an earlier version. Does anyone know the easiest way for me to do this, and retain all my song information?

Okay... i can go along with that, with one qualification: that behavior may have been true for version 7... because --by that time-- all my songs had an assigned EQ, and i wouldn't have noticed the improvement. But i'm certain that was not true for earlier versions (since that was the very impetus which inspired me to assign EQs to all songs).


Maybe (maybe not).


Wouldn't assigning every song with no EQ to "Flat" be easier? (you can select thousands and do all in seconds).
Just sort your library by EQ and all the empty ones will cluster together. Shift select, get info... click, click, done.
(Of course, your next backup will be huge... since tons of music files are modified).

I've always found the actual usage of the iTunes Equalizer confusing. I'm sure that a lot of iTunes users either don't use it, or don't know how to use it 'properly'.

Yes, I thought of that as a work-around, but as I regularly add songs, this seems like lots of extra work.

No, I think I'll look into downgrading back to iTunes 7 for the time being (any help appreciated ;)).

I've just searched Apple's support forums, and several other people have reported the same problem:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread....306498�

I'm guessing that everyone who has the latest iTunes has this problem.

Come on Apple, please fix it! :rolleyes:

Sorry, link didn't seem to work. I'll try again -

Topic : Problems with Equalizer Presets in iTunes 8.0.1

http://discussions.apple.com/thread....sageID=8306498

Wait a second... right below "None" is a choice i've never noticed before called "Custom".
What's that for? [i'll bet it might do exactly what you're trying to get here.]

They probably they went back to "None" meaning no change (keeps the last song's assignment
the way it did when EQ was first introduced), and so maybe "Custom" means whatever the user
sets the EQ to manually.

Did you try that yet?

--

Huh? It was there a minute ago . . . now i can't find it. (this is strange).

Can't find 'Custom' in my set-up (iTunes 8.0.2). I'm not convinced it would solve the problem anyway.

"Problem" was solved in post #6 anyway. ;)

Assigning each song some sort of EQ is beneficial in many ways,
and -- it's so easy to do -- i don't know that i'd even call it "work".
For folks who shuffle songs whose ages may range from the 1700's
into yesterday... it's practically a requirement (to maintain consistent
sonic quality).

[that 'Custom' item thing was weird... i can't make it reappear again.]

I guess it's up to each iTunes user to use the EQ the way they want. At the moment, I prefer to have no EQ for the majority of songs, and a EQ for a small percentage.

OK - just downgraded from iTunes 8.0.2 to iTunes 7.7.1 following these instructions -

http://www.oldapps.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2075

A minor chore, but the 'stuck' equalizer problem has gone, it now works just fine :)

That process usually loses certain settings. But maybe -- since you're not storing EQs -- then
you probably haven't tweaked many volume settings... or start/stop times either. Because
if you did, then you better look around carefully... they might be ALL GONE!

--

I think narrowly focusing on the "stuck" equalizer has prevented you from
seeing the limits of your approach in effectively controlling playback for a
wide variety of source material, via multi-dimensional parameters.

If you didn't set a lot of volume levels and/or tweak start/stop times then
you're probably "fine" as you say. However "fine" isn't good enough unless
most of the music sounds nearly the same (which is far from optimal IMHO).

I guess you have no new (2008) iPod either... since they all require iTunes 8. :cool:

Start and Stop times and volume settings were transferred without any problems. The thing that was missing was the layout within the playlists. The playlists themselves were there, but the display needed to be re-done using 'View Options', which took a lot of time.

I don't think you can have used the equalizer very much, believe me it is really annoying when the sound effectively changes without your control, as it does at the moment with iTunes 8. For me, the 'solution' of applying an equalizer setting to every tune is an annoying extra task to do for each song (I add new songs all the time).

And yes, I've just got an iPod Nano 16Gb and discovered that you can't use it without iTunes 8 - back in its' box it goes for now :(

Interesting. So you did have a lot of start/stop times and volume adjustments
carefully tweaked... but simply tacking on a flat EQ setting would be annoying.

I am glad if your start/stop times and volume adjustments did make it through
the import process (but i wonder why >others< don't share your good fortune).
Roughly how many of your songs had such alterations?


As i already said: I have an EQ set for every song (with some 50+ EQ variations in total).
Every time i listen to any song, it's going through the EQ. You call that not "very much"?

?

You have to give all songs some EQ setting.

OK, apologies ...


Yes, that would be annoying, partly because I am constantly adding new songs and changing old ones - my song collection is constantly changing. Having said that, it is also annoying that I can't use my new iPod with iTunes 7.7 :mad:

Define "constantly". What... every 5 minutes? ;)
I add approximately 20 to 40 tracks each week.

Plus -- as noted above -- a (single) EQ setting can be added to songs as a group.
[sort by EQ... select first... scroll... shift-select last... get info... click, click, done.]

Thousands can be done in a matter of seconds, literally.
You might consider raising your "annoyance" threshold. ;)

When it comes to configuring and "perfecting" newly-added tunes,
EQ adjustments are probably the least hassle of the bunch.

No it's just the thought of doing another thing in iTunes ...

You could set up a smart playlist of songs added in the last day and assign the EQ there.

Welcome to the party! We are a trio now... enough for a rhythm section.

I think the main thing to take away from all this is: keep good backups
of that (binary/hex/whatever) "iTunes Library" file, so we don't need to
find out if importing the (text/ascii/whatever) "iTunes Music Library.xml"
file works for us or not. Thank God Steve for Time Machine... as those
hourly incremental backups are just what the doctor ordered.

Downgrading iTunes versions isn't the only situation where this could
crop up. It's possible for the "iTunes Library" to get messed up while
we are using (abusing) it with just one iTunes version.

I wonder if anyone knows if this equalizer problem has been solved yet?

I just popped into the Apple Store on Regent Street in London and tried a Mac with iTunes 8.1.1 which, I think, was released in April 2009.

http://support.apple.com/downloads/iTunes_8_1_1_for_Mac

Guess what - it still has the same problem :(

The primary hurdle remains: convincing people (Apple mostly) that this falls under a "problem" category (rather than a 'works as intended' scenario).

I find the fact that the Volume tag (Get Info: Options: Volume slider) no longer affects burned CDs far more fundamental and extremely annoying. I had to purchase iVolume 3 (now $30) just to burn some CD mixes with listenable normalization. (Sound Check's default behavior is woefully inadequate).

I agree that iTunes needs work.

It clearly doesn't work as intended, and I'm sure I saw on Apple's support boards that other people have reported the problem to Apple. I'm just surprised they haven't fixed it yet.

People may have reported what they think is a problem... but that doesn't mean Apple agrees.

You continue to be a little one-sided here. What about those users who want the "None" setting to behave the way it does?
... i.e., "None" == NO CHANGE.

Under your scenario, how could they possibly achieve a 'no change' action?

You (and me) OTOH, can simply and very, VERY easily obtain our desired action... by simply assigning a specific EQ setting. You are trying to equate "None" with "Flat". If you want flat, then set it to flat. It's so easy... as has been articulated many, MANY times already. Just because you're too lazy to set EQ's doesn't mean that *other* users (those who want "None" to mean "no change") should have to suffer.

I suppose Apple could add a specific "No Change" item on that pop-up menu... but -- after all these years -- it isn't really needed. Both goals can be easily attained, as is.

--

In case you haven't noticed: after 5 months, no one else in this forum has stepped up to join your cause.

The program is designed to let you individual EQ settings for each track. It is not meant to 'keep' the EQ setting you set for one track for subsequent tracks. Prior to version 8, it did this just fine. Since version 8 however, there has been this problem. I know there is a 'work-around' by setting all other tracks to 'flat' EQ setting, and making sure that any new tracks have this. But I would also like Apple to fix the bug ;), which would make it much easier for me and many other iTunes users.

Actually it does both... you are merely unaware of all the facts, and/or the possible uses of a 'no change' setting. If "None" always forces a flat setting, then no one could ever use the EQ in a live context... get it?


Not quite factual either. As i informed you (on page 1): i've been using iTunes since version 1.0 and the whole reason i started adding EQ to every song in the first place was that: any song which had no specific assignment would assume the EQ of the song that previously played. [i.e., the very behavior you seek to prevent.] It's been that way all along as far as i recall. If Apple changed it briefly during some version or update, and you happened to come along at that point... well, them's the breaks. It's back to the behavior it had when equalization was introduced (version 2.0?).


No bug, no workaround... rather, a lost cause with no hope. [works as intended.]
Just pretend that the "None" menu item says "No Change" and proceed accordingly.

At any rate, no one here can "fix" it for you... so if all you want is the last word go ahead, i'm finished now.

I remember being very confused by how the equaliser settings applied to songs, so perhaps your memory of how it worked in early iTunes versions is different to how it actually worked? I'm convinced that iTunes is designed to:

1. Let you choose individual EQ settings for particular songs

2. Revert to no EQ for the others (the 'None' setting).

Other people have reported the same problem with iTunes version 8 -

http://discussions.apple.com/thread....sageID=8306498

[consult my previous posts]