iTunes Volume-knob Scaling.
Hi,
When i use iTunes in my studio, it connects to the stereo through AirTunes.
Usually this works fine, except that sometimes i find myself walking back'n'forth to the amplifier multiple times a day, especially on 'long days' (deadlines) when a day ends at 2am or later, and i need to take my neighbours' health into account.
Somehow i never found a configuration between amp and Airport Express(AE)/iTunes, which provides a volume-range that covers the minimum- and maximum-levels i might want to use over the course of such a day.
In the night i have to turn-down the volume on the amp, in order to have finer control on the (lower) audio-levels from within iTunes. In the day, those settings are often too low, so that when iTunes's volume-slider is at its' max, i need to walk-over to the amp again to increase the volume to the desired level.
Now i'm wondering: am i doing something wrong?
This is not related to the difference between songs, and the desired max. level is not ridiculously high, although amp/speakers are probably capable of some more dB's than the average home-stereo..
And i also don't use SoundCheck, equalizer, SoundEnhancer nor any plugins.
It seems like iTunes' volume slider has a big gap between minimum-volume and absolute-mute.
Is that true, and maybe a usablility/design decision from Apple based on 'tipical usage'?
Or maybe related to the (usually) logarithmical audio-scale, in combination with the limited range of a pixel-based volume-slider? Perhaps inherent to digital-audio combination with analog amps? etc..
If you consider Airport Express/iTunes as an audio-device with it's own pre-amp, you'd expect you could simply hook it up to the power-amp (skipping pre-amp/analog volume-control) and still have sufficient control
over the output volume. But clearly that's not the case.
i'd like to know more..
thanks
arri
[edit (arri)]
PS: The Airport Express seems not a significant factor in this context: Volume-levels appear to be the same whether using Airtunes or connecting to the amp directly with a cable.
The main differences are that in case of the latter, you need an extra cable, but you also gain more/finer volume-control through the system-audio control.
When i use iTunes in my studio, it connects to the stereo through AirTunes.
Usually this works fine, except that sometimes i find myself walking back'n'forth to the amplifier multiple times a day, especially on 'long days' (deadlines) when a day ends at 2am or later, and i need to take my neighbours' health into account.
Somehow i never found a configuration between amp and Airport Express(AE)/iTunes, which provides a volume-range that covers the minimum- and maximum-levels i might want to use over the course of such a day.
In the night i have to turn-down the volume on the amp, in order to have finer control on the (lower) audio-levels from within iTunes. In the day, those settings are often too low, so that when iTunes's volume-slider is at its' max, i need to walk-over to the amp again to increase the volume to the desired level.
Now i'm wondering: am i doing something wrong?
This is not related to the difference between songs, and the desired max. level is not ridiculously high, although amp/speakers are probably capable of some more dB's than the average home-stereo..
And i also don't use SoundCheck, equalizer, SoundEnhancer nor any plugins.
It seems like iTunes' volume slider has a big gap between minimum-volume and absolute-mute.
Is that true, and maybe a usablility/design decision from Apple based on 'tipical usage'?
Or maybe related to the (usually) logarithmical audio-scale, in combination with the limited range of a pixel-based volume-slider? Perhaps inherent to digital-audio combination with analog amps? etc..
If you consider Airport Express/iTunes as an audio-device with it's own pre-amp, you'd expect you could simply hook it up to the power-amp (skipping pre-amp/analog volume-control) and still have sufficient control
over the output volume. But clearly that's not the case.
i'd like to know more..
thanks
arri
[edit (arri)]
PS: The Airport Express seems not a significant factor in this context: Volume-levels appear to be the same whether using Airtunes or connecting to the amp directly with a cable.
The main differences are that in case of the latter, you need an extra cable, but you also gain more/finer volume-control through the system-audio control.