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Mac Forum / Applications / Mac Applications / February 2005Sound Check in Itunes-how does it work
At what point does Sound check work: If the option is turned on and you are importing music CD's into iTunes, does it do anything to alter the music files(my guess is no). If the option is on, I assume when listening to music on your computer it will equalize the sound volume. If the option is on, I assume the volume will be equalized when burning CD's or transferring music to the ipod (the ipod itself has a Sound check option) Apple doesn't seem to document this feature at all. Thanks for any info. Steve > At what point does Sound check work: > [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] > info. > Steve I believe it's just an element in the ID3 header. And I think I've seen people recently complaining that it's not (reliably) honored when burning audio discs. G  SignatureI think the breaking point for me as a fan came when George started talking about the pivotal Episode 3 light-saber duel between Palpatine and C-3PO. > At what point does Sound check work: > > If the option is turned on and you are importing music CD's into > iTunes, does it do anything to alter the music files(my guess is no). When importing a file, it measures the average volume of a track and stores this value in the database (or maybe in the ID3 tags). On playback, it adjusts the playback volume based on this value. If you do a "get info" on a track and look at the summary page, you can see the setting as the "Volume:" parameter. When SoundCheck is used for playback, this value overrides (completely or partly, I'm not sure) the "Volume Adjustment" slider for a track. > If the option is on, I assume when listening to music on your computer > it will equalize the sound volume. That's the way it's supposed to work. But it's restricted to the limits of the volume adjustment slider's range (or something similar). If a track's volume is too far off from SoundCheck's baseline, it won't be able to completely normalize the volume. It's also not a compressor. So if a track has both loud and soft parts, at least some of that track is going to have its volume out of range. > If the option is on, I assume the volume will be equalized when > burning CD's or transferring music to the ipod (the ipod itself has a > Sound check option) If you have selected the "Use SoundCheck" option on the Burning panel of the iTunes preferences, it should burn CDs with SoundCheck - subject to its limits, of course. The iPod's SoundCheck feature is supposed to do the same. Note, however, that the iPod shuffle does not support SoundCheck, so it will ignore the SoundCheck volume parameter. Some people have reported that SoundCheck seems to not work on protected AAC files (those purchased from iTMS). If this is true, then it's a bug. It should be noted also that volume adjustments that are made with the equalizer settings (not the volume adjustment slider) are ignored when burning CDs and may also be ignored by iPods. -- David > > At what point does Sound check work: > > [quoted text clipped - 43 lines] > > -- David Is there a consensus bottom line, then, as to whether SoundCheck is worth using or not? Thx. t-L > Is there a consensus bottom line, then, as to whether SoundCheck is > worth using or not? Thx. t-L I use it. You'll get better results by manually tweaking the volume and EQ settings on a track-by-track basis, but that is time consuming. There are third-party programs that will analyze your files and make these manual adjustments for you. I've never used any of these, so I don't know how well they work. SoundCheck usually works well enough for me, so I haven't bothered looking for anything else. -- David |
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