Learn Equalizing for iTunes

K. Time to do you guys some good, before I go to bed and prepare for a nong nong day tomorrow.

I saw this post from Bearer of Good News, and he saw it from this or that site. Links are all on his post, if backtracking is your thing.


In the post Andy wrote about this supposedly perfect equalizer setting that would be a one stop power boost to your music. Looking at the original post in 43 Folders the blogger was, to put it simply, screwed over for posting such a ridiculous suggestion.

Andy wrote on the blog, that this EQ setting worked well for him. Now personally, I don't see how that can work. Even by simply looking at it I thought there was something horribly wrong. After I adjusted my equalizer to its indication, I regretted not saving my previous configuration first.

It was disgusting! Ho my God if you're gonna be curious and try it I wash my hands of all responsibility of damaging your speakers, computer, ears or mind.

Now I don't blame Andy. 1) He doesn't know better, 2) it might have suited his speakers. Hey it would be pretty screwed up speakers to sound good with this setting, but negative multiplied by negative equals...? Very good children! Positive!

Funnily enough, I have actually been using BKL (bao-ka-liao: a one-stop solution in Hokkien) EQ settings. It's kinda become my never-ceasing quest to find the one EQ to rule them all. As you will see for yourself on the 43 Folders post, audiophiles generally believe that there's no such setting. Well ok then, the setting that will provide the highest across-the-board satisfaction.

First here's how the iTunes equalizer frequencies can be broken down.

32 - Absolut Bass. Kick drums, pounding beats, some bass strings too.
64 - Bass and possibly the lowest of distorted guitars, if your sound card/speakers can handle it.
125, 250, 500 - Muddiness. Gives music an uncomfortably viscous or muffled tone. Use minimally for low-mid support.
1k, 2k, 4k - Voices and high-pitch guitars. These are normally boosted in varying degrees to bring brightness and a sense of life into the music.
8k, 16k - Cymbals and other really high-pitched tones, like ticks, clicks, whatever effects your favourite band has for its intro.

I'll show you a few settings I use. Why a few? As I mentioned earlier, each speaker demands a whole different configuration. I'll discuss more on configuration later on in the post.

A few things before the EQ graphs. These are tailored to my tastes. And what are they? Bright vocals and crystal clear reproduction of distorted guitars, low or high notes. My speakers are the Creative iTrigue 3800, with my bass level set to 7 out of 10.


First, the one I christened Renhao's Powderful EQ. Not because I pwnz all u assez but because it is very charged up. Very high and rather extreme boosts. I tuned this specifically to my iTrigue. It supercharges the high-mids, the range of our vocals and guitars. The extreme ends are my personal preference. I want to hear booming kick drums and every single cymbal hit during recording. Thus maxing or pushing up the two ends. The low-mids I pushed down. That's simple, low-mids causes "muddiness" in your output. Don't believe? Max out 250 and 500. Tell me if you like that sort of sound.


Next, the Krystall mix. I just did this, right after hearing the horrible "Perfect" EQ. Again, tuned through the iTrigue. Comparatively, Powderful offers brightness and potentially powerful glass-shattering ring to the music. Krystall, as the name suggests, offers a sharp clear sound. You can hear some of the ring from Powderful, but its not that attention-grabbing. Just like its graph, Krystall has a very focused goal - pinsharp reproduction. Disadvantage? Lack of warmth often accompanies sharp mixes. Especially compared to Powderful, this may sound less exciting to you. Low-mids are dropped even lower than Powderful, so to compensate I brought 64 up - note that that's because my speakers, not to belittle yours, can handle it.


Now those two were for speakers. Like science experiments, sound is sensitive to factors. A subtle change of factors can ruin your precious mix. In this case, it's the change of output. Speakers to earphones are horrifyingly different. But of course! Speakers have cones, earphones have minute drivers. Remember that I turned my bass rather high. So just because it sounds fab on speakers doesn't mean it will also sound fab on earphones. See for yourself the difference between a speaker and earphone configuration.

Aurvana is actually the Rock setting. I just upped the preamp to +3 and renamed it. My earphones are prosumer, so reproducing all that energy from Powderful or even Krystall is harsh on my ears. Aurvana warms and softens the output to make for a smoother, more soothing sound. But I'm not satisfied. Because there is too little brightness in the mix.


Ooooo fantastic! Straight off the oven ladies and gentlemen. I haven't named it on iTunes yet, but I call it Aurvana2 (yeah, imaginative). [Edit: I just overwrote Aurvana with this without thinking. Oh well no harm.]

Can you see that it's adapted from Aurvana? What changes can you spot? Certainly I upped the bass (can handle it what, sue me). Now I was pondering wtf was going on. Why is it, given that everything else in Aurvana is the same, that pushing 1k up to its level in Aurvana2 makes the earphones crackle like I'm standing next to a generator?

Take a moment to think why.

The reason lies at the end. The highs 8k and 16k. I already mentioned I liked highs but they need not have been that obvious. The cumulative effect of the frequencies' boosts will affect the mix. Once I dropped 4k, 8k and 16k, the boost in 1k and 2k (just a minor one) was no problem.

By the way, you can choose not to touch the preamp. Another personal preference.

Now that I've shown a few EQ graphs and hopefully given you an idea of how EQ works, let's go into my last section, setting your own EQ.

You may feel stupid when I tell you that EQ is set by trial-and-error. Damn! I could have figured that out for myself, why does he have to be the one to tell me?!

Good question.

My method is simple. Simple and tedious. Set the preamp to 0, and bring every frequency down to -12, the lowest volume. Play your favourite song that you think could represent a large piece of your song library, or else could clue you in on more than one type of music at once. One Winged Angel, the famous piece played during the epic fight between Cloud and Sephiroth in Final Fantasy VII, is my personal favourite. Orchestral and metal. What else could you ask for?

Oh, plenty.

One by one, bring each frequency up to the max. Hear what it does to your music. Brighten it, blacken it, love it detest it, do it till ya know it.

After that, it's a simple job of raising the frequencies, left to right, to what you think are ideal levels, and see how they stack up. Edit, listen. Edit, listen. Edit, listen.

After you're satisfied, that's not the end of it. Go through your library. Play songs that you think will test the mix. Songs of different genres, different emphases, and so on. Edit, listen. Edit, listen. Edit, listen. I can easily jump through 20 or 30 songs during this part of the test.

Simple but tedious.

If you have any problems, do email me and I'll try to help you. But please, I'm not some uber pro audio engineer. I can't guarantee I'll solve your problem. And before you email pointless emails, I'm talking about iTunes here. Not Quicktime or Winamp or WMP or whatever mad player you have. ITUNES.

Like it hate it, comment. Good luck.

Great is my wrath toward thee, incompetent fools

What's wrong with my Nokia phone?

The Nokia 6280 is a fantastic phone. I will vouch for that. It has almost everything a techie needs, save for WiFi. And honestly with its comparatively small screen and age (+-2 years old), I find that exclusion reasonable. However it also holds a notorious reputation of having many firmware issues. This time, the phone turned off by itself, and refused to switch itself on again.

In my previous post I lamented about how I was prevented two days in a row from picking my phone up from the Suntec Nokia Service Centre. Today I finally managed to collect it at 3+ in the afternoon. Sitting at one of the low stone light posts at Tower Four's bus pick-up point, I re-programmed everything manually. Everything was in my miniSD card, so it didn't take too long, and I was very satisfied with myself, and my newly repaired phone.

When I got home, I plugged it up to the charger, to prepare my phone for the weekend.

And the same power-off shit happened again.

Now people who see me more often should know that it takes a hell lot to get me seriously mad. Therefore I like to jump on cases like these where I can practise being firm and playing my anger levels on the poor soul at the other end of the line. Because I've had it with being too nice, too gullible, too pacifiable, too much of a yes-man.

ANYHOO. I rang Suntec's retail side just to get the repair side's number (fuckers don't put repair shop number put retail store number cheebye... lucky Suntec they're next to each other). The woman answering hummed and hawed for awhile, and then kindly suggested that I sent it in for inspection again.

I would have loved to say that I emptied my ammo on her and tore her apart good and proper, but apart from saying "There's no fuckin' point" in more civilized terms, I didn't do much else. After some silences on both our parts, she said she would inform her manager about this and ask him to call me back.

50 minutes later, I called in again, directly demanding to speak to the manager.

So far the manager's been nice about it, the reason why this post doesn't have five times the foul words it has now. Apparently the peeps at HQ tore apart my phone replaced half its components and put it under inspection for one whole day. Moment I come back, it happens.

How? We'll see. Sunday I'll meet him personally. Stay tooned.

Collecting thy phone? I preventeth thee!

Today is the second consecutive day I have been prevented from getting my serviced Nokia phone back into my tender loving hands.

Yesterday someone from the Suntec service centre where I'd sent in my phone called to inform me the phone was ready for collection. I rushed down after a late class and dinner, to find that they had closed an hour earlier. CLOSING AT 8? What the hell kind of service centre are you?

Today, I was debating hard with myself whether to collect or not. I was going down to Bras Basah anyway to collect Tech65's name cards, and even though it would be out of the way, I would be in no rush at all.

Screw it, I thought, I can make it in time. My friend was going to Lido, so I could ride with him then take the MRT down to Suntec. Still can make it la. So we got out of the cab and I think it was one of my fastest briskwalks ever, right to the MRT station, and I reached into my pocket for my wallet to tap the EZ-Link.

It was not there. Only a dollar coin - change from the taxi.

I freaked and did a sharp about turn to search for my wallet, thinking I had dropped it somewhere along the way. Because I distinctly remembered holding onto my wallet as I exited the cab. Or did someone pickpocket me? My old habit started rising again. I started musing that I'd never been pickpocketed before, and that this would certainly be an intere-- OY WAIT! I NEED TO FIND MY FUCKIN' WALLET!

The moment I reached the alighting point and found no trace, I called Comfort Lost and Found. At times like these it's good to know you have normally useless numbers in your SIM card.

Well they located it just as I reached home, free cab ride home courtesy of my mom. I spoke to the driver and apparently he lives in Jurong, wowee, and if he was going to come to Tampines, I should at least pay his cab fare lah boss.

In the end he said if there was any passenger to Bedok or Tampines he would call me, if not he would call me all the same to inform me of the situation.

This shit luck is temporal, this shit luck is temporal, this shit luck is temporal, this shit luck is temporal...

Arrivederci, caro Pavarotti

And Il Maestro finds his peace.


Perhaps it's selfish of me, as is the rest of the opera world mourning for the one tenor everyone knew. It was the same with Pope John Paul II, Mother Teresa, etc. Millions weeping for the world's loss of this fine person. If the world still needed them, I don't think they would have passed on.

Nevertheless I could not help but shed tears as I watched the clip lancerlord put up on his blog of Pavarotti singing his signature Nessun Dorma in Paris, 1998. Honestly it was nothing to wow about, but seeing him hit the high note without even flinching, and the look of ecstasy on his face as the orchestra's closing sequence filled in, tears just started leaking. He's gone, I heard in my mind. Gone.

Bloggers all around the world are paying this great man tribute by posting Youtube clips of him (97% of which will be Nessun Dorma from his later years). Allow me to go old-school and talk about how he brought me into the world of opera.

Before I discovered opera in '03, he was who he was to everyone else. A huge rotund man who always seemed to be smiling, singing in a really weird voice. Not only that, two other guys joined him with those same strange voices, and they called themselves The Three Tenors.

After deciding to research opera at the library@Esplanade, I dug the opera Turandot up. The first version I got was Maria Callas, a really old 1950+ recording in which the audio quality begged to be improved. I recalled that there were other CDs of the same name but with different casts, so one week later I went back. And I picked the legendary Turandot recording of Pavarotti, Joan Sutherland and Monsserrat Caballe without even knowing what treasure I held in my hands. To date, it's the one and only opera recording that persistently sits unmolested in my iTunes library. Unmolested but not untouched - I listen to it all the time. I just listened to it yesterday.

I soon discovered that pairing him with Joan Sutherland almost always (I'm saying almost only because I don't feel I've heard enough to definitively say always) produced benchmark recordings. I'd joined an opera listserv, and found that the Three Tenors era was already a huge decline in his voice, that his prime was in the early 70s. Thus I searched, and thus I found brilliance par excellence.

All good things must come to an end, and for Pavarotti, the best ended over 30 years ago. But he had a different goal - one of bringing opera to the masses, to the everyman, to the average person. That if opera was to be represented by one name, it would be him, and he would show them beauty.

Absolute beauty.

Goodbye Maestro, and thank you. Thank you very much. Rest in peace.

In the I.C.U.

Call me sheltered, call me innocent. Yesterday was the first time I've walked into an ICU unit. As a visitor. Though I hope I don't have to even walk in to visit someone again, and sure as hell pray I'm not lying on one of the beds.

It was my aunt. Stubborn by nature, she insisted on making her annual pilgrimage to China despite having some respiratory conditions. Even as a Christian, I respect her rock-solid faith in Buddhism.

In the end it worsened to pneumonia, almost completely obstructing her lower throat/windpipe with phlegm and consequently almost shutting off her access to something as simple as a simple breath of air. They had to do tracheoscopy to help her breathe with a ventilator (I'm so so sorry if I got the term wrong. Basically that ball-shrinking procedure where they cut a hole in your throat to shove a tube down and help you breathe. Simple stuff).

I was abit reluctant to go yesterday because I had a ton of schoolwork that I'd happily neglected, and of course my hobbies to take up what remaining time I had. Besides, I thought to myself, I'm not all that close to my aunt.

I'm glad I was forced to go. I didn't exactly fall on my knees and beat my breast wailing in despair, but when I saw my aunt, it seemed like my whole body fell into a ringing silence. Like the millions of cells stopping their tasks midway to stare in mute shock. Just an expression. I wasn't shocked, just had a sinking heart. Again (d'oh I hate it when I can't express myself properly), it's a literal expression of what I felt inside, not shit-she-ain't-gonna-live sinking heart. I know my aunt's a very strong woman. Inherited it straight from my granny.

When she raised a rather weak hand to wave, I felt my remaining breath squeezed out of me, and my lips and eyelids twitching slightly. In English, probably the closest word would be heartbreaking.

I said about 2 seconds worth of silent tongues, while clasping her hand. I just felt uncomfortable holding her hand and like either staring at her or at the machines. It was a bit of a struggle because I knew that physical touch in the Christian realm does have meaning. But I decided to just go by faith and pray from the outside. Hey, if tongues can at the very least cross half of Asia to save a loved one from the tsunami (testimony la not me), I don't see why it can't pass through simple Perspex (WHATEVER THE MATERIAL IS LA). My parents were gesturing for me to go out to the lounge area, meaning out of the whole ward, to wait since I was done greeting my aunt, and it was hard to communicate to them that I wanted to stay outside the room. And they didn't make it any easier by not seeming to understand the meaning of a shaking head. I was abit embarrassed to be showing so much concern for my aunt. Dumb I know but I was, but nevertheless I rooted myself there while they spoke to her inside.

When we were all done, we went back out to the lounge to chat with my cousin about the details of her condition. And the scene outside bordered on surreal. I saw a Malay lady greet a younger woman and weeping in her arms, children running round irritatingly (I told myself if they bumped into me I'd gladly take that excuse to admonish the father), another Malay lady donning her outfit to execute her evening prayers. Can't say it was a thrilling sight. Can't even say it's one I'll remember. But it sure did wobble me a little bit.

Birthday Splash!

Hot damn.

I spent a hundred in two days.

This is terrible. Or maybe it's not, considering that I blew 70+ bucks just going to town.

The thing is this, I could well afford such spending. My buffer cash could spring me 3 storeys high.

Until this.


Looks like we've got a history lesson to take.

So we were told sometime back by GT CEO Chris that Creative, the Creative, would be holding a product launch right at Geek Terminal! The guys went all chirpy about it and swore that we couldn't miss this event. How much more I, the diehard Creative devotee?

And there we were today at GT. I was there at 7:30AM. Danny must have felt pity for my stoned face because he made me a cuppa. So schweet of him. And of course I found out that well, it says 8-12pm on the calendar, but that's just the booking time, including setup and packup. The actual event commenced at 10 (and was over before 11). So as Dan sat there browsing his tablet and Kai Yi read his book, I very smartly decided earlier not to bring any materials. Basically I stoned there for... oh I dunno, 3 hours?

Well let's skip this middle part. You can find out what happened from Tech65 - the live post, and the Channel65 episode.

Here's what happened. While we were fretting about how to 1) get our hands on the demo, and 2) gain the webbie some exposure, I'd planned long ago on getting a press kit after the event was over (at least, the main segment). Apparently, I do look older than I am, because when I asked for the press kit, the lady, who turned out to be a Corporate Comm manager (!), asked me which press I'm from.

I fumbled abit at first, but then things went smoother after I managed to establish the base of who we were and why we were there.

And then she said, bless her, 'We then we consider you press! So here's our special press offer.'

O mio Dio, the prices were jaw-dropping.

The Creative Zen is currently selling at S$249 for the 4GB model, S$349 for the 8GB model, and S$449 for the 16GB model due for later release. For the press offer, they offered either the 4GB or 8GB model, with like three types of accessories, for S$149 and S$199 respectively. Considering the thrown in accessories which don't really sell cheap, that's a more-than-50% slash.

I was like, WHY THE FUCK NOT? Got money what! Buy la!

Now let me be clear that despite the phrasing of my thought processes, this was NOT an impulse buy. Firstly, since I got to touch and play with the Zen, I think I can justifiably say that I was rationally impressed by its features. Second, I've been looking round for a good AV player for some time now. I was seriously considering getting the new PSP 1.1 due for release anytime now, because the screen is one of the largest for media players out there. Except maybe the Zen Visions, but that would be more of a comparison between a 4:3 screen and a widescreen. Now the Zen's screen isn't exactly humungous. At 2.5" I wait with bated breath to see whether I can make subtitles out or not. But as far as I could see through the demos, details were presented with utmost clarity, not to mention the breathtaking color vibrance (check out the shot of the butterfly photograph in the Ch65 video, you'll see what I mean. Even in the video you could see the strong colors, imagine the real thing). I won't say that any one particular feature hooked me, but I think the one that sealed the deal, rather, was the audio. Being all too familiar with the aural nuances of my Zen Micro, I was surprised to find myself sealed into my own island by the audio quality of the Zen. So clear was the output, I told Daniel and Kaiyi, that I could hear in excruciating detail the dismal production quality of Westlife's take on Uptown Girl (remember, bashing the band is another story here. I'm blaming the audio engineer). I do hope I don't have to re-encode my entire library for that. That would actually be impossible, not even a chore.

And here's where it all loops back again. Half my money's already spent on the Zen. I spent a hundred in two days. I owe my aunt 50 for my parents' presents, and I'm going to tithe 40.

Which leaves me with $2.

Ahhhh bummer. Fuuuckin' bummer...

All de slackerz of d world unite!

Too lazy too type properly.

Nawww of course not.

But I tell you what I was too lazy to do. I was too lazy to sit up and listen, this second half of the semester, Summer(II).

After my glorious victory in The Battle of Summer(I), I somehow switched off in Summer(II). I attribute it to my lecturers. Excuses? Maybe... But lemme be clear. Attribute does not equate blame. I don't blame them. In fact if anyone I blame myself.

Let's start with Hong Junhao, lecturer for Mass Communication Theory. I suspect that he's a fantastic academic. But his teaching is omgwtf-deplorable. 20 years in the US, Head of Buffalo's Communication Department, and (I've said this to everyone who asked, I know) speaks like he's been in US less than a year. Copies points word for word from the textbook, and can still make grammatical and typo mistakes. I think it was Pam who said, the most interesting part of the lessons were racing to see who could pick out the passages (yeah. Passages) from where he lifted first.

And then there's Dr Chen Ni. First, the textbook is a waste of money and time. It looks more like a book to promote the goodness of PR than to teach about it. And Dr Chen herself gives off an air of plastic-ness and superficiality. Now I'm really sorry to say that, because in most other aspects she's a really nice lady, but well, that's the impression I got from here, as far as lectures and PR as an academic subject was concerned.

At the risk of sounding like a bored know-it-all genius, the only thing that really entertained me was the PR project. Once again I got to wield my arbitrary Premiere skills, and turned the cogs of my mind with some baffling (and blasted) decoding and encoding issues. Man, video is one of the few areas where I still trust analog more than digital. It gets really hard to praise Sony for its otherwise technologically outstanding devices when all that proprietary shit falls in. Movie suite my ass.

And so I only left my engine running to work on the PR case. After the Summer(I) fiasco(es), the last thing that I wanted on my mind was the knowledge that I was bogging my group down with my laziness.

I was so phased out of this semester that I very nearly studied for the wrong paper, until Daphne made me realize it. But then like I told her and everyone, since I started studying about half an hour earlier, I didn't really lose out, and it made little difference for me to switch then. But remember kids, do not try this at home.

Not without adult supervision. ;)

Shameless Piggy-backers

I don't usually agree with Xiaxue, especially after the whole '7 most disgusting bloggers' affair. But I was brought to this post of hers by Pingster pubed (public education you dirty bastard).

It never occured to me that it may well be another publicity stunt by her until I read comments from the other Pingsters on pubed's post. Well if it is, I'm ashamed of myself for falling for it. But if it isn't, then I wholeheartedly agree with her. You keep bugging a famous/notorious blogger to publicize an incident of your own interest, and when she doesn't you verbally whack her? Wtf kind of arse are you? Ride on others' waves, and when you fall off the wave be a super sourgrape and curse and swear at her.

And you wonder why people say they're tired of this world and commit suicide. There's your answer.

Ping.sg Video Ad

You've seen the print ads, now behold! A Ping.sg video commerciallll!!!

I took quite a few liberties from the original specifications, cos it's a different medium after all.

Now, how many follow-ups will this one generate...? :)

Oh by the way, there's no need to turn the volume up. It does get loud later. If you have (good) a subwoofer, crank it up a notch or two. :D


Online Videos by Veoh.com

For video geeks, I filmed all of this using my Nokia 6280 video recording function (which explains the horrible sound in the opening portion), and exported this from Adobe Premiere Pro to WMV format, and I can never fail to be impressed with the amount of quality and clarity maintained even with some hardcore compression there. I always forget this fact when I roll my eyes at crappily encoded videos in WMV.

Two Stories about my Aunt

These both happened yesterday.

After hearing about one of my coursemates doing the Umbrella dance, I went to check out the wacky footage myself. And subsequently I found the accursed "ella...ella" part playing on constant loop in my poor head. Lock a prisoner-of-war in a room and play this on 5.1 speakers. 5 hours later he'll probably submit a typed report of all the top classified activities of his country.

So ANYWAY, because of the school's wonderfully flawless wireless connection, I couldn't see the official MV in school, and searched for it the first thing when I came back. My aunt walked in and looked at the screen, and said, 'Oh. Is that the new song? The uh... the um-um bre-bre la-la one?'

My brother and I nearly fell off our chairs.

Later as my aunt was on the phone with her close friend, a cat mysteriously appeared outside our door and attempted to come in (I live on the 14th). My mom quickly closed the door, but the gate was open and the key was hanging on the lock still. After much persuasion and explanation I said I'd catch the cat and bring it down and she could lock the door in peace (she apparently thought I'd catch the cat by taupok-ing it and bearhugging it all the way downstairs. -__-") For someone who lived on the ground floor in Tanjong Rhu last time, she seriously knows nuts about the magic hold on a cat's neck skin.

With all the commotion my aunt, still on the phone, came outside. I cracked the door open to see whether the cat was tired of the game or still as responsive, and as rapt as ever it got up after I made a 10cm wide opening in the door. My aunt, watching from the side, was still talking to her friend, and she went 'Because these kind of things you cannot tell one mah, if it comes it WAHHHHHH~!'

I promptly slammed the door shut in alarm and we laughed until I had to sit down. Funny sia my aunt.