iPod frustration

[cellio]

I wish that my iPod (nano, in case it matters) did volume-balancing for playlists. If I play an album everything's generally fine because the publishers of the album made track volume self-consistent (usually), but that doesn't help so much if you assemble a playlist from multiple albums. Publishers don't always agree on the same volume standards. It's irritating to have to adjust volume from track to track.

Editing the tracks themselves isn't the answer, unless you edit every track you might ever play. Every track is automatically part of at least three playlists -- album, artist, and genre -- along with whatever playlists you create. This needs to be a playback option, not an edit of the source data.

It seems hard to believe that this isn't there, but I can't find it. Now granted, the UI for the iPod isn't that intuitive to me [1], so it might really be in there and just not covered in the documentation that came with the iPod, but Google seems to agree that it's not there. How frustrating, and surprising.

[1] For example, I am still utterly mystified by what sequence of key-presses I accidentally issue from time to time that lands me in a "rate this song" mode with no clear way to abort.

Comments

[blackpaladin.livejournal.com]

I believe there's a setting for it somewhere in iTunes, but since I don't have iTunes here at work, I can't check it. Next time I'm at my laptop (tonight), I'll try to remember to check and get back to you, if no one else has already.

[blackpaladin.livejournal.com]

Oh, and:

> I am still utterly mystified by what sequence of key-presses I accidentally issue from time to time that lands me in a "rate this song" mode with no clear way to abort.

On my Nano, you get that way by hitting the center button three times, twice if there's no album artwork associated with the current song. Press the center button again to get back to the "default" screen.

[cellio]

Thanks!

[tashabear.livejournal.com]

Look for something in Options in iTunes called SoundCheck -- that will level the volume for all your music.

As for ending up on the ratings screen, you've pressed the center button too many times while the song is playing. Just hit it again, or hit menu. (Though if you actually want to rate the song, ratings can be used as criteria for setting up smart playlists.)

The documentation packed in with the iPod when you purchase it is not complete; it's just a QuickStart Guide. If you actually want the manual, you have to download it as a .pdf from Apple (http://www.apple.com/support/ipodnano/). Another great source for iPod tips, tricks, and tutorials is iLounge.com -- they have some excellent iPod 101 articles, and some very knowledgeable (if sometimes snarky) people on the forums.

[cellio]

Thanks!

The control gives me trouble sometimes, so I'm guessing that in those cases I trigger the middle button when I was aiming for the bottom one (pause playback or turn off). Good to know what I was really getting, since it wasn't what I was aiming for! And sometimes the buttons are just flaky; about one time in four when I try to turn it off I end up causing it to play instead.

[tashabear.livejournal.com]

I don't think the controls are flaky so much as super-sensitive. Flaky implies that they don't work the way they're supposed to. They are performing their function; they're just touchy. Doesn't help that the touch-wheel is a little smaller than on the full-size iPod.

[cellio]

Without better feedback it's really hard to tell. press and hold in the bottom center, but instead of turning off it starts play. I press what feels like the exact same spot to undo that, succeed, and then press and hold again to turn it off. It doesn't feel like I've changed anything, but obviously different sensors are triggering. It might not be flaky, but to this user it feels flaky, and I'm left wondering what I did wrong.

It seems plausible that the size of the wheel is part of the problem. I didn't realize it was different on the different players.

[tashabear.livejournal.com]

I *think* it is; don't quote me. I don't have a nano to compare.

Perhaps you're not holding it long enough?

[metahacker.livejournal.com]

There's an option called "Sound Check" in iTunes (Preferences -> Playback -> midway down the dialog box) which is supposed to do this on the fly, but it doesn't seem to have much an effect. But I think the iPods don't do it. This is a pity as it's a fairly easy thing to implement.

You might try scouring the web for a 3rd party app to do this. It would have to edit every track you own, of course, to make them all the same apparent volume, but it might be a one-time process you could let run overnight. It would make albums sound a bit odd, as producers often use overall volume to achieve an effect, but it might help for casual listening.

[hakamadare.livejournal.com]

I think the iPods don't do it

my understanding (not authoritative) is that you enable Sound Check (http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=61655) in iTunes. over time, iTunes compiles baseline volume information about each of your tracks and stores it in the metadata.

then, when you play the tracks which have baseline volume metadata on your iPod (and you enable Sound Check on your iPod by selecting iPod->Settings->Sound Check), your iPod adjusts the volume of each track in response to that metadata. in theory this makes all your tracks play at more or less the same volume; in practice this works well if you're playing tracks that have a relatively small dynamic range and poorly if you're playing tracks that have a large dynamic range.

-steve

[cellio]

Thanks! (Including for the warning about songs with wide range.)

[cellio]

Thanks!

TV too

[chaos-wrangler.livejournal.com]

I've been complaining for years that the TV has no way of leveling the sound levels for different channels, so switching channels means I need to have the sound control at the ready as well. I keep wondering if one of my friends who is geekier in the appropriate field(s) could kludge together something that would just cut off any TV noise above a set-able decibel level.

[http://users.livejournal.com/merle_/]

And it isn't just between channels, but within a channel -- often commercials are louder than the shows.

A high-pass filter shouldn't be too difficult to do for someone with electronic experience. Then again, televisions are heavy and awkward to take apart. Maybe if the sound went out to an external set of speakers, it could just go through a black box that did the filtering.

[cellio]

And it isn't just between channels, but within a channel -- often commercials are louder than the shows.

TV stations do that deliberately. It's one of the things my VCR uses in its "auto-skip commercials" implementation. (Occasionally that misfires, but that's easily fixed via the remote.)

I would think that filtering the sound would be easy if your TV is part of a systemw (external speakers, receiver, etc -- easy to plug in an equalizer, yes?), and darn near impossible otherwise. I, however, am not handy with TV inards, so I'm the wrong person to evaluate the latter.

[http://users.livejournal.com/merle_/]

The other noise thing that frustrates me is conference calls. There is always someone who can barely be heard, and someone whose voice is a loud shout. How hard would it be for a phone system to have everyone say a brief sentence in a normal speaking voice, and for it to adjust the volume for that person?

(I know, it fails in cases where one speakerphone is used by a lot of people, but there should be solutions even in that case)