SwingDJs

straycat wrote: Just bought a nice little piece of audio enhancement software called "Hear" for my Macbook ... Thus far, I'm impressed. Just need to see how that holds up with continued use...

OK, I've downloaded the latest demo and I'm going to try it with iTunes on my home Mac.

I've been playing with Hear on my Mac at home. I like the product, and the Jazz presets can make the music sound pretty good, with a bit of tinkering. But overall, I much prefer 'Volume Logic' for the iTunes on the Mac or 'Breakaway' for Windows for improving the sound of those late 30s Swing Era tracks. I think Hear applies to the whole song, whereas Volume Logic dynamically processes the sound. So, using Hear, you could reduce certain treble frequencies for the whole track, but Volume Logic would intelligently reduce them where they are too loud. I think that's the way the programs work anyway. As for Breakaway for Windows, I'm not sure which way it work.

Haydn wrote:I've been playing with Hear on my Mac at home. I like the product, and the Jazz presets can make the music sound pretty good, with a bit of tinkering. But overall, I much prefer 'Volume Logic' for the iTunes on the Mac or 'Breakaway' for Windows for improving the sound of those late 30s Swing Era tracks. I think Hear applies to the whole song, whereas Volume Logic dynamically processes the sound. So, using Hear, you could reduce certain treble frequencies for the whole track, but Volume Logic would intelligently reduce them where they are too loud. I think that's the way the programs work anyway. As for Breakaway for Windows, I'm not sure which way it work.

I'd like to try VL - but from the sounds of things, that won't be a possibility unless I want to revert back to a much earlier OS. Breakaway.... I use at work, and it is awesome. If it was available on the Mac as an entire-system tool, I'd be using it like a shot for DJing.

Don't be in too much of a hurry to discount Hear though. It's hard to compare it to Breakaway, as it is vastly more configureable, and hence harder to set up well - a little bit of ill-advised fiddling can often result in a much worse sound than you began with. I don't think the presets (or the one's I've tried so far) are as good as those in Breakway either, but a little perserverence, and the results can be very good indeed. Having said that, I'm still getting to grips with it myself, and I have a lot to learn about using it to its fullest effect. Getting there though.

Have you noticed how Breakaway takes charge and produces a different sound, as if to say "this is how it's supposed to sound"? That's what I like about Breakaway and Volume Logic - those harsh trebles on late 30s/early 40s track that I complain about are taken care of by the programs, the bass is lifted, the sound is broader and has more depth - the programs just seem to know what to do. Hear seems to rely on the user to program it - and even after fiddling with the different options, the results are nowhere near as good as with Volume Logic. For me, at the moment, Breakaway and Volume Logic are miles better than anything else I've heard for improving the sound of old 30s and 40s music.

I might try DJing with Volume Logic and iTunes on the Mac.

Haydn wrote:Have you noticed how Breakaway takes charge and produces a different sound, as if to say "this is how it's supposed to sound"?

Oh - believe me - I have (for Breakaway, anyway - I'm unable to try VL). If I could use Breakaway on the Mac, I would, like a shot. Sadly, that ain't an option, so all I'm left with is learning to use Hear properly.

I've started actively using Volume Logic with iTunes when DJing recently, and it has made a noticeable improvement to the sound.

Warning.
I tried downloading the windows files from...
http://www.claessonedwards.com/company.htm
and my anti-virus kicked in warning of a virus in the file.

Balboa Chris wrote:Warning.
I tried downloading the windows files from...
http://www.claessonedwards.com/company.htm
and my anti-virus kicked in warning of a virus in the file.

Chris,

Sorry to hear that. I installed it on a PC in an internet cafe last year without any problems. Get in touch with Claesson Edwards for help if you want - they are normally pretty helpful. And they have their own message board -

http://www.claessonedwards.com/forum/index.php

I have done some research and discovered that the Volume Logic software is protected against cracking using another product called Themida. It is the latter that is detected by the anti-virus as it is also used to hide viruses etc. In this case it is most probably a false positive and so should be fine to use if downloaded from their site or from download.com.

Balboa Chris wrote:I have done some research and discovered that the Volume Logic software is protected against cracking using another product called Themida. It is the latter that is detected by the anti-virus as it is also used to hide viruses etc. In this case it is most probably a false positive and so should be fine to use if downloaded from their site or from download.com.

Do you mean 'Volume Logic' or 'Breakaway' (Breakaway is the current product from Claesson Edwards).

Whoops. My mistake. Yep it was Breakaway that I meant.

Anyway, having downloaded it and given it a run, I'm pretty damn impressed. It makes the music seem much more vibrant and works with not only iTunes, but Media Player as well and whatever Firefox uses to play tracks from download sites, so listening to samples on Amazon is enhanced too.

Although, not to do with this thread, I will say that although my music is in iTunes, the playback quality is inferior to Media Player. I get crackles and pops which just aren't there when I play the same files back in Media Player.

Back to Breakaway, one issue I've noticed that having only a single CPU PC means that some background software e.g Windows Defender, makes its presence felt by causing very occasional stuttering of the audio. Having a PC/laptop with mutiple cores would probably sort that one out.