iTunes Tip #13
One of the things that impressed me when I first played around with iTunes years back was the EQ (equalizer). Instead of a plain “tone” control like many portable devices and even some inexpensive stereos had, iTunes had a nice thought out EQ.

I will explain the “ins and outs” of how the iTunes EQ works. First lets open the iTunes EQ window.

Here’s how:
Open iTunes, and under the Window menu choose Equalizer or use the keyboard shortcut Command (Apple key) + 2.

The iTunes EQ will now instantly appear. See below.

One of the first things you will notice is that iTunes offers you many presets that are located in the drop down menu and you can turn off the EQ with the “On” check box.

The “Preamp” slider can raise or lower the gain of iTunes. Turning up the preamp too much can create distortion. By turning it up just a little, you can get more volume out of your speakers.

The benefit a graphic 10-band EQ over a “simple” tone control is that you have the choice over which band you choose to increase, or decrease individually. iTunes 10-band EQ has frequency choices at 32, 64, 125, 250, 500, 1K, 2K, 4K, 8K and 16K. The “K” is for kilohertz. Combine the preamp slider with the 10-band graphic EQ sliders, and the Equalizer can allow you to fine tune the sound to your liking.

What may not be immediately apparent is that you can easily make your own presets that match your listening taste. Either select manual from the preset list, or better yet just move one of the slider controls on the EQ and it will switch to “manual” mode. After getting the sound you like you can save the setting as your own custom preset. Just select “Make preset” from the drop down menu and name whatever you want.

Note: Although you can create your own custom EQ presets in iTunes, those custom settings will not be transferred to the iPod when you sync. Only the iPod/iTunes presets will be available on the iPod.

If you want to later change the name or delete a preset just choose to “Edit list”. Here you can delete or rename any of the presets. All these settings are basically “global” affecting all the tracks played in iTunes.

But what if you want to set the EQ on a per track basis. Well actually this is pretty easy in iTunes.

Just select a track in the iTunes Library by highlighting it.

Control + click (or right mouse click for multi-button mouse users) and select Get Info. Choose the Options tab. Select an Equalizer Preset from the drop down menu. Now the EQ setting will apply only to that track and ignore the only global settings you may have selected when playing that particular track.

You can also assign a preset EQ to multiple tracks at once. Just select all the tracks you want to add the preset and Control + click and select Get Info. When you set the preset now you will set for all the selected tracks at once.

So what happens with these EQ settings when you transfer tracks to your iPod?
Well that depends on your iPod’s EQ setting. Here is the way it works.

Off
If the EQ is set to Off on the iPod your tracks will play with no EQ, even if you set an EQ preset in iTunes. No EQ setting will playback on any tracks.

Flat
If the EQ is set to Flat on the iPod your tracks will play with the EQ preset you set to them in iTunes. Tracks without any EQ preset in iTunes, will playback without any EQ effect.

Set the EQ for All Tracks
Select Library (in the left Source column)

Command (Apple key) + J this will bring up the View Options window,

Select the box next to “Equalizer” or Control + click on any column title and select Equalizer”. A new column will appear in the Library view, with a drop-down menu next to every song, so you can now adjust the sound.

EQ settings on the iPod
If you choose an EQ setting on the iPod other than Flat, tracks on your iPod that does not have an iTunes EQ preset assigned will use the the iPod setting. If an EQ preset was assigned in iTunes, it will play with the iTunes assigned preset.

If you would like to listen to a track with a different EQ setting then was selected in iTunes on the iPod, start playing the track on your iPod, navigate back to the Settings screen, select EQ, and choose a different EQ setting. The track will then playback with the new EQ preset.

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