Sound Check doesn't work

Question

Level 1

5 points

Sound Check doesn't work

I have a 2nd gen Nano, and my sound check just flat out doesn't work. I have it enabled on both my iTunes and my iPod, but it doesn't change anything. I'll be listening to my music at one volume level, and then one or two songs come on that just blow out my eardrums. It's not even the quality of the music, because it changes from track to track on the same CD. It's really annoying and rather painful. Can anyone help out?

2GHz MacBook, Mac OS X (10.4.11), 2GB RAM, 120GB HD

Posted on Aug 21, 2008 5:39 AM

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Answer 1

Aug 21, 2008 10:15 AM in response to Fresnel

mine does that to the only thing i found to work (it really ***** to) is to amplify the low volume songs with a sound program

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Answer 2

Jeff Bryan

Level 9

61,797 points

Aug 22, 2008 1:29 AM in response to Fresnel

There are 3rd party programs that do this more effectively (at least in my opinion).

For Macs there is iVolume.

Also Macmp3Gain.

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Answer 3

Fresnel Author

Level 1

5 points

Aug 22, 2008 1:31 AM in response to Jeff Bryan

Maybe it's just me, but I feel that if the iPod has a feature, it should do what it's meant to do. It's utterly failing to do that. I'd be willing to use a third-party program if the feature wasn't there, but it is, and as such, it should work.

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Answer 4

Jeff Bryan

Level 9

61,797 points

Aug 22, 2008 1:37 AM in response to Fresnel

Fair enough. I was just trying to help.

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Answer 5

Fresnel Author

Level 1

5 points

Aug 22, 2008 1:41 AM in response to Jeff Bryan

I understand, and I appreciate the links, but it doesn't seem like my iPod is doing anything at all, and I'm wondering if it's a software bug, or if it really is that horrible at sound equalizing.

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Answer 6

Jeff Bryan

Level 9

61,797 points

Aug 22, 2008 1:46 AM in response to Fresnel

You should notice some difference, but as I said the 3rd party programs do it better.

In my opinion, soundcheck has never worked correctly (at least not on any iPod I've ever owned).

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Answer 7

Fresnel Author

Level 1

5 points

Aug 22, 2008 1:51 AM in response to Jeff Bryan

If anything, the difference I notice is that it's worse, but that could be as a result of better speakers on my car than my laptop. I guess I'll just have to run everything through another program. Apple should really look at solving this sometime. iTunes sound check seems to work, but not the iPod sound check.

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Answer 8

Sep 13, 2008 9:45 PM in response to Fresnel

i also have this problem,some songs have different volume but when i use MP3GAIN the software make it worse. more songs have low and high volume,Apple should make an update about this,i'm tired of setting the volume in my nano

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Answer 9

Sep 24, 2008 2:38 PM in response to Fresnel

Sound check is basically useless. Hasn't worked effectively on any model I've purchased. However, as others have pointed out, you can adjust the volume of a song so that your playlists don't cause public embarrassment. Simply do a control "i" on a particular song. In the "info" tab, you can increase or decrease the volume of a particular tune. However, if you make the adjustment, be sure to adjust all of the tune from that album. Otherwise, when you play the album, the song you tweaked will have a different volume from the rest of tunes on the album. It ain't a great fix... but it's better than what the programmers have done with sound check.

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