Most people who equalize the bass, treble, and mid-range frequencies of their music probably do so because they love tons of bass and their headphones don’t deliver, or some variant of that. Maybe the song is too treble-y, or you’re trying to pick up the lyrics, so you turn down everything except the mids. In…
Leap Motion released an $80 motion sensor on Monday, which works with Mac and Windows. On launch day, Leap’s Airspace app store had 14 music apps for doing silly things like punching notes as they fly out of a song, or more serious things like playing the piano, harp, or drums in thin air. We predict that…
You can buy a camera that doubles as a phone and music player, as if your smartphone weren’t already amazing enough for enjoying music on the go. In the home, Apple AirPlay has delivered unity of speaker and app on the cheap, even with Android — and if that’s not enough for you, there are…
Some people like to hear music precisely as it was recorded, which is why the most expensive audio equipment purports to do absolutely nothing to affect the original audio signal. Others like to tweak their sound, often in the bass range. Reducing bass frequencies stops music from bleeding through walls and waking up babies, which…
For almost as long as scientists have devised ways to store digital music in ever more efficient ways, other scientists have agonized over how to “repair” that work. This typically involves trying to replace what the process of acoustic compression has removed — compression that is necessary for the files to fly around the internet…
The processing power of smart phones — a huge step up from the MP3 players of old — gives practically anybody access to near-professional-grade audio effects. What used to require expensive high-end audio equipment can now be done with the so-called “phone” in your pocket, just by downloading an app. Assembling the top picks for this category was tricky. Many options…
Smartphones are tricky things. They essentially cram an entire computer into a tiny chassis you can carry around in your pocket, which is pretty convenient. But for music fans, sound quality can suffer as manufacturers cut corners with the audio electronics in the interest of saving space and money. On top of that, the Android…
Spotify is many things to many people, but one thing it lacks is an equalization feature for letting you adjust bands of bass, midrange, and treble. Enter Equalify.me, a Spotify plug-in that nestles a 10-band equalizer neatly into the Spotify interface on Windows computers. It’s free (donations accepted), and it works, as we know from…
Smartphones and tablets are the best music players ever in many ways, but their sound quality can leave a bit to be desired. They simply weren’t built from the ground up solely for the playing of music. Sub-par headphones or speakers, signal noise from compact designs, and other factors can disturb the smooth flow of…
Ouch Mobile’s down-to-earth 10 Band EQ audio processing app loads songs from an iPhone’s music library, then lets you tweak each graphic equalization band up or down by up to 8 decibels. Unlike other equalizers for the iPhone that we’ve tested, 10 Band EQ ($1) changes the sound immediately after you move a slider. You…
The Audioforge Equalizer app for iPhone aims to boost or trim seven different frequencies by up to 12db, which makes for a pretty dramatic change in the sound of your music. However, an ineffective graphic EQ feature and odd track-loading interface sour the mood. Audioforge Equalizer ($3) is a pretty app, and its equalization features…
Elephant Candy’s entry into the iPhone audio processing apps market, eQu, is the most polished of those we’ve tested to date, with helpful presets, full AirPlay support for playing audio throughout the house, and a nice-looking, user-customizable interface. The attractiveness of EQu ($3) is anything but skin deep. Its fully-parametric equalizer gives you complete control…
