iTunes Hip Hop EQ distorts my beats.

Hi all,

My beats sound fine with iTunes (by the way, the Sound Enhancer and the Sound Check are all unchecked).

But when I play my beats in iTunes with the "Hip Hop" EQ on (just to test... I don't use this personally), they distort a lot. Like... BIG TIME.

99 % of the music in my music library distorts with the "Hip Hop" EQ, but so minimally, it's hard to tell (I tested everything from Madlib to Apollo Brown beats).

Something tells me that a lot of people listen to iTunes with the "Hip Hop" EQ on, or with some other kind of EQ. (Maybe because they feel like preset EQ's "enhance the sound"?) I can't sell my future album saying: "Warning: please don't use the EQ on iTunes!".

What is up? Is it only a question of EQing my mix better?

Thank you all,

Chris.

The iTunes Hip Hop setting is a little extreme. I don't like the curve at all. way too much boost on 32hz-60-ish hz. Then the highs are too boosted past the 1k vocal range, probably where the distortion is coming from if you have some sizzling compressed hats.

It's a decent EQ but I have to make my own curve and use that. I'm more about notching and roll offs and very minor tweaks even just listening.

Metatron72 wrote:The iTunes Hip Hop setting is a little extreme. I don't like the curve at all. way too much boost on 32hz-60-ish hz. Then the highs are too boosted past the 1k vocal range, probably where the distortion is coming from if you have some sizzling compressed hats.

It's a decent EQ but I have to make my own curve and use that. I'm more about notching and roll offs and very minor tweaks even just listening.

Actually, the distortion comes from my kicks a lot...

Monitors and phones both or does it fluctuate?

Both, but most noticeable with the headphones.

Also, the first kick is always the worst. The sound kind of stabilizes within a few kicks.

I just set my itunes EQ to flat.....I feel it helps me get better mixes for my own music this way if I listen to other music the way it came from mastering. That's weird that it auto adjusts itself though after a few kicks....hope you figure this out!!

If your rendered WAV isn't clipped I'm not sure why the distortion would be so pronounced. Usually you'd have to have your monitors literally pumping and pushing air to get that kind of distortion.

the hip-hop setting is like the old MEGA BASS button on SONY products from the 90's [boomboxes & discmans in particular]... the reason it's distorting is because it's sending lower bass frequencies than your equipment can handle... just forget about EQ settings entirely in itunes, man...

Yeah dude i wouldnt suggest replaying beats to get some sort of reference through itunes, use your DAW to master as best you can and if you gotta replay through itunes keep it at the flat or off position if it still distorts then thats down to your mix.

Bottom line even professionally mastered songs are gonna distort at one preset or another so dont sweat it if a preset ruins your beats

Thanks to all!

My beats don't distort with a flat iTunes EQ.

Indeed, professionally mastered songs distort with one preset or another, but really minimally compared to mine.

sirparksalot wrote:I just set my itunes EQ to flat.

Me too. I do this for test purposes, just to make sure that my beats still sound OK with the Hip Hop EQ on (like Apollo's, Madlib's, or ALC's beats, for instance), because something tells me other people might put it on.

I don't know anyone who uses the iTunes EQ, so I don't see it as being much of an issue.

The problem is that most of the EQ presets are crap. Most of them just amplify some bands while hardly attenuating any, and leaving the pre-amp slider at unity. So if a track ever hits 0db, pretty common, it's likely to clip.

i see 2 problems here: using a preset eq curve on your music library, and using the bloated, stinkin carcass that is itunes...the airborne titanic, the spruce goose

WINAMP 'til i die, muthafuggaz!!

Yeah man itunes is pretty f*ckin awful i aint used it in years such a ball ache to navigate and catalogue my music with...wmp #ftw

ITunes is the worst piece of software ever coded. The last two revs have a new bug that the first search you run will just show every track you have, you have to erase the search field and type it again to have any chance of it working.

Dragging one file makes mine hang for 10-45 seconds most times, and for years now you can't scroll more than 4 or 5 times without hanging. This is on my quad and 8 core/24GB RAM box mind you.

iTunes 64x is BS too, it is the same 32 bit app with a second service running at 64 bit wrapping the 32 bit one. In my investigations it still can't address more than 2.5GB of RAM. So it's running a 32 bit executable, making that go through a 64 bit layer and have the instructions translated to larger data chunks...to NOT utilize the larger memory address spacing. It's insane and 100% pointless coding. Essentially a fake 64 bit app.

Sorry I had to vent, no app has caused more lost time and troubles in the last decade. I have over 200 apps so I have to use it, but I'm gradually tagging all my music for XMBc now and yeah Winamp shits on iTunes.