The Graphic Equalizer in Windows Media Player

The graphic equalizer (EQ) tool in Windows Media Player (WMP) 11 is an audio enhancement tool that allows you to shape the audio that plays through your speakers -- not to be confused with the volume leveling tool. Sometimes your songs can sound dull and lifeless, but using WMP (or an audio editor that has an EQ tool), you can improve the quality of sound produced by boosting or reducing a wide range of frequencies.
In this short tutorial, we'll show you how to access the graphic equalizer tool and use it to change the audio characteristics of the MP3s you playback.

As well as using presets, you'll also learn how to use your own customized EQ settings to fine-tune audio for your particular setup.

Accessing and Enabling the Graphic Equalizer

Launch Windows Media Player 11 and follow these steps:

1. Click the View menu tab at the top of the screen. If you can't see this main menu at the top of the screen, then hold down the [CTRL] key and press [M] to enable it.
2. Move your mouse pointer over Enhancements to reveal another sub-menu. Click on the Graphic Equalizer option.
3. You should now see the graphic equalizer interface displayed on the lower part of the main screen. To enable it, Click the Turn On hyperlink.

Using the EQ Presets

There are a set of built-in EQ presets in Windows Media Player 11 which are useful for different types of music genres. Rather than having to tweak each frequency band manually, you can choose equalizer presets such as: Rock, Dance, Rap, Country, and many others. To change from the default preset to one of the built-in ones:

1. Click the down-arrow next to the Default hyperlink and choose one of the presets from the drop-down menu.

1. You'll notice that the 10-band graphic equalizer will automatically change using the preset you selected. To change to another one, simply repeat the above step.

Using Custom EQ Settings

You may find that none of the built-in EQ presets are right and you'll want to create your own customized setting to perfectly enhance a song. To do this:

1. Click the down-arrow for the presets menu as before, but this time select the Custom option at the bottom of the list.
2. While playing a song (accessed via the Library tab), move the individual sliders up and down using your mouse until you have achieved the right level of bass, treble, vocals, etc.
3. Using the three radio buttons on the left-hand side of the equalizer control panel, you can set the sliders to either move in a loose or tight group. This is useful for managing wider frequency ranges in one go.
4. If you get in a mess and want to start again, click the Reset hyperlink to zero all EQ sliders.