At the present stage of development of audio equipment, computer and mobile devices that can be used to listen to music, it is impossible to imagine that at least one of the users or avid music lovers would not use the equalizer. Naturally, when it comes to playing music tracks on a computer, users immediately start looking for the appropriate settings and ... do not find them (and if they do, they don’t know what to take off). In this regard, it is worth considering some questions about how to configure the equalizer on a computer with Windows 7 or with any other OS on board. But first, brief theoretical information on the use of such a tool should be given.
What is an equalizer: a general concept
Equalizers used on computers in the form of additionally connected or stand-alone software, by analogy with their "iron" counterparts, are designed to gain control in managing the selected frequency ranges of reproduced audio recordings.
Depending on the type, they can have from three (bass, mid and high frequencies) and more ranges that you can change for each channel independently or use predefined templates and settings for such purposes. Some of them can be equipped with additional modules that allow you to apply the general volume enhancement of the track being played in the form of a pre-amplifier (Pre-Amp), frequency dividers (Crossover), various stereo panorama expanders, both for the entire track (Stereo Enhancer), and for separately Taken range (for example, X-Wide Bass). Many users, as they say, have their eyes run up from the presence of such a large number of customizable parameters, since they do not exactly imagine how to set up the equalizer on Windows 7 and in similar systems, not to mention that they simply don’t know where exactly look for settings for these parameters. Let's try to figure out where all this is located and how to set the required options to get the highest quality sound.
Where can I find equalizer settings in Windows?
First of all, it should be clearly understood that not one Windows OS has its own equalizers in the form of independent software.
Such modules can, however, be found in the sound settings or in the players built into the system shell (previously it was only a standard Windows Media player, and in newer systems the “Groove Music” applet also appeared). But if you have a Realtek soundcard on your computer, you can always use the mixer settings that are installed with the sound adapter drivers. We will focus on this later, but for now let's move on to the standard Windows settings.
Speaking about how to set up the equalizer on Windows 7 and higher, for starters we can advise you to call the standard sound section from the “Control Panel”, select the device used for playback by default and go to setting its parameters through the properties. If you need to configure another device, through PCM, you must select the item for displaying hidden and disabled devices.
How to adjust the equalizer on Windows 7 or similar systems?
Among all that will be presented there, first of all, you need to pay attention to the Enhancments tab.
Here in the settings of the “native” parameters there are not so many as we would like. Firstly, using the first tool, Bass Boost, you can automatically increase the low frequencies a little, and secondly, by activating the Loudness Equalization item, you can apply a general volume increase, but only by increasing some levels of frequencies that you cannot rebuild yourself. As you can see, the options are very scarce.
Realtek Sound Card Settings
But the owners of Realtek sanmodules (as well as the owners of professional and semi-professional sound cards) were much luckier, because there is an equalizer in the settings of the mixing console! How to adjust the equalizer on Windows 7 in this situation?
If you are a beginner in this business, it is better to pay attention to the predefined templates at your disposal (rock, pop, jazz, radio, etc.), after which the corresponding sound schemes will be installed automatically. On the other hand, you can experiment with the settings yourself, raising or lowering the levels of the selected frequency ranges by using special faders. When the track sounds, as it seems to you, in the best case scenario, the created scheme can be saved as a user template for future use.
How to configure the equalizer on Windows 7 for clear sound and the basics of working with players
But you should not get carried away with increasing the volume of the allocated frequency. The fact is that this can affect not only the quality of the reproduced audio material, but also lead to much more tragic consequences when the speaker diffusers cannot withstand overloads (most often at low and high frequencies) and simply break. Anyway, with too much amplification of frequencies, distortions, wheezing, locking and other side effects may appear. Who will like it?
But let's see how to set up the equalizer on Windows 7 so that the tracks on your computer sound optimally. To get crystal clear sound during tuning, you should start from the type of your acoustics. So, for example, what's the point of raising high frequencies of the order of 20 kHz if your speakers are not designed to play them? In addition, if you want the music to sound quality and lively, do not get carried away with preamps.
In the same popular AIMP player there is such a tool. But how to adjust the equalizer on Windows 7 on a laptop in order to obtain the optimal playback mode? Again, with an excessive increase in the overall volume level directly in the equalizer, you can achieve the opposite effect described above. In addition, you can experiment at the same time as amplifying the frequencies in the player, but applying a decrease in the overall volume level in the system itself. But it’s better to start your own experiments by setting all frequencies to zero (the default scheme is Flat or “empty”), and then alternately add or remove the necessary bands by level.
Note: if you don’t like the “native” equalizers of soundcards, systems or players, you can install additional plug-in formats VST, DX, RTAS, AAX, etc., or use stationary equalizers like Equalizer APO, which will not depend on a specific player, And they will be able to adjust the frequencies for all reproduced sounds, including the current sound scheme used in the Windows settings.