Do you use custom equalizer settings?

glennmagusharvey

I generally don't.  I just let it come out as whatever.

 

Though one thing I've found useful with some electronica/dance/trance/etc. type stuff, as well as music influenced by it (listen to "Only My Railgun" for an example), is "dulling out" the higher harmonics that can often really clog one's mind.  Yes, they're really bright and shiny, but like things that are bright and shiny, when you have too many of them they start producing a somewhat obnoxious glaring effect.

So as a result sometimes I use this setting:

As my name for it -- "Gentler GB Chiptune" -- implies, I came up with it one day when listening to Game Boy music.  My specific Winamp plugin doesn't render .gbs files as harshly, but I don't have it on foobar2000, so the sound comes out noticeably harshly, and the "tsh" noises also sound a bit like sneezing at times.  (Is that a snare or a cymbal, anyway?)  Apply this and it sounds a bit better.

Y'know how people sometimes say, on Youtube uploads of music from 8-bit games, to set the quality to 240p?  Yeah, it actually has a similar effect.  It dulls the harsher parts of the sound while retaining the very simplistic and clear pitches.

Formaldehyde

I use it, mostly to lower midrange, increase bass, and give the high ends a bit of a boost. It's perfect for listening to metal.

DYRE

I've had a lot of terrible pairs of headphones, so I've needed to use custom equalizer settings to make music actually listenable before.  But my current headphones are acceptable, so it's not really an issue and I haven't found any other need to change equalizer settings.