Stereo Separation BAD on Macbook PRO

[jazzpiano]

This is really weird, and I've never seen anyone have this problem.
When I play a CD in my Macbook Pro that has stereo separation panned
hard Left and Right, the instrument that should only be in the left
channel is in the right as well (but to a lesser degree) the reverse
is true for any instrument panned hard right.

When I play the same CD on my CD player these signals are not in any way
crossing over to the other channel.

I have already check the UNVIVERSAL ACCESS panel and have unchecked
the "PLAY STEREO AUDIO as MONO" option.

This problem is important because PLAY ALONG CD's for musicians are
mixed so that if you turn the stereo playback hard right you shouldn't
hear the piano track (hearing only the bass and drums in the left
channel, and if you turn the playback hard left you lose the bass,
(hearing only the piano and drums).
If you're pianist, you practice with the piano track missing of
course. if you're a bass player you practice with the bass track
missing.
Needless to say, files imported into itunes have this mixed up stereo
leakage problem.
Any one have a solution?

 

[swinnie]

Any one have a solution?

Use headphones.

 

[jazzpiano]

Headphones have the same problem as well as any signal coming from the headphone jack and routed to external speakers.

 

[jazzpiano]

Use headphones.

The signal problem is the same... whether using headphones OR external speakers

 

[grahamnp]

Do you have crossfade turned off? Sounds like its on.

In iTunes:

Preferences -> Playback -> Crossfade, uncheck or adjust to your liking

 

[electronique]

Do you have crossfade turned off? Sounds like its on.

In iTunes:

Preferences -> Playback -> Crossfade, uncheck or adjust to your liking

Wait what?
Crossfade is to fade one song in to the other (like a DJ) - Not to fade each stereo channel into one another..

 

[grahamnp]

Oh sorry! I use a crossfeed plugin and got them mixed up

 

[ender land]

Do they have the problem if you just play the CD through iTunes (without importing)?

It's possible they are losing that strict fidelity in the conversion process being imported into iTunes. You can't shed data without some sort of loss.

 

[jazzpiano]

Do they have the problem if you just play the CD through iTunes (without importing)?

YES!


This problem happens even when playing the CD in the computer CD/DVD drive! It's very strange. Not too noticeable in most music mixes because panning hard left and right is rare, but these "play along" recording are where I noticed it.

 

[jazzpiano]

Interesting new bit of information.

Interesting new bit of information.
When playing the same "play along" files on my Iphone on external speakers, and when I pan hard left and right, the files sound exactly like they should. No problem, no leakeage of the left asnd rigt channels to eack
So the files are encoded correctly in ITUNES.
It seems like some weird hardware issue with my Macbook Pro.

I can't believe nobody else has seen this problem.

Of course it'd be very difficult to spot this problem unless one listened to music that was mixed like this, and used headphones.

I suspect it's more common but not easily noticed