Access the iTunes Equalizer Settings

If you want to change the universal equalizer in iTunes for your entire music library and all songs in it, the incredibly adjustable iTunes Equalizer Settings can be accessed quickly in one of two ways:

How to Access iTunes Equalizer Settings

The two ways to access the equalizer in iTunes are as follows:

• Pull down the ‘Window’ menu and choose “iTunes Equalizer”
• OR: hit Command+Option+2 if you prefer keyboard shortcuts

The first option will be universal in Mac OS X and Windows, the keystroke works in Mac OS X but may be slightly different in Windows versions of iTunes.

From here you can tweak things how you want, and the changes take effect immediately, so having a song or something playing at the time of adjusting settings will demonstrate the difference. For those without audio production experience, the whole EQ thing can be a bit daunting, so it’s best to play around and find what works for you. There are also some very self explanatory preset configurations if you’d rather just select one based on a music genre or desired effect (treble boost, bass reduction, etc) and be done with it, those are accessed from the pull-down submenu within Equalizer and range from “Acoustic” to “Spoken Word” to genre specific settings like “Rock” and “Electronic”.

My settings are based loosely on what was dubbed “the best iTunes equalizer settings”, but it’s a good idea to adjust your settings based on your speakers and the type of music you listen to most often.

Setting the iTunes EQ it does not change music you have on your iPhone or iPod, but you can do that too directly on the iOS device so that your mobile music has custom equalization as well.

Do note that older versions of iTunes will be slightly different, and Apple moved the EQ adjustment button from the bottom of the iTunes window in newer iTunes releases to where it is now in the menu bar. In it’s place is now where the Genius button is.