Creative Labs Nomad Jukebox Zen Xtra MP3 Player Logo
Aaron Lee Reed Posted on Dec 04, 2007
Answered by a Fixya Expert

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Creative zen xtra 60GB mp3 player question...

I was wondering if anyone knows what is causing my mp3 player to mute vocals and only play the instruments. It's like listening to karaoke, but I'm not doing anything to my files to allow this. Is there something I'm doing that is causing this?

  • Aaron Lee Reed Dec 04, 2007

    Jon-

    My computer came with a couple of preset songs, that play normal on the computer speakers, so I transferred just those songs (3 in total) to my mp3 player and I still get that Karaoke sound when I'm playing a song with vocals. I've checked my mp3 players EAX settings and I've set it to off, no luck. I've even tried the equalizer route, but the vocals sound hollow, as if they are singing in a tunnel. I checked rate at which my mp3 picks up songs and have set it to 128 as the knowlege base requested on the creative site, nada.

    When I spoke to the technician about this problem he said that it could be my headphone jack, that it's worn out, but I'm looking at it and it looks fine. If I do have a karaoke option on my mp3 player, I haven't a clue where it's at. I'm hoping you might have some other suggetions for me. I even thought it was a firmware problem, so I cleaned, formatted and re-installed the up-to-date firmware software to my computer and it's still not happening for me. My other problem is that I'm trying to install the original firmware software, but everytime it loads up it says that it's not plugged in. Maybe you can shed some light on this also, my system says that I have the 20gb jukebox and so does windows 10, so I'm just getting more confused by the minute. Your help on this would be greatly appreciated.

  • Aaron Lee Reed Dec 04, 2007

    Tech8-

    I have a couple of headphones and unfortunately they all sound the same coming out of this mp3 player, nothing happens when I insert the headphone into the jack, it goes in smoothly without coming back out. I've used the same headphones on my other creative zen mp3 players, and they run perfectly. I was hoping it wasn't my mp3 player, but it might be.

    Cheerz!
    Aaron

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2 Answers

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  • Posted on Dec 04, 2007
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It has a 4 band eq wlith presets
maybe the vocals are to low

Is it
possible you recorded something
with L or R channel
not centered or set to low

here is a link to manual
http://www.amazon.com/Creative-Nomad-Zen-Xtra-Jukebox/dp/B0000EW9M8

  • Anonymous Dec 04, 2007

    Try inserting the headjphone
    in and out a few times try it
    with a little head cleaner or
    alcohol on the tip if it pops
    or is scratchy or tries to
    come up it may be the
    headphone jack
    Can you take it back and
    get a replacement if so I
    would do so promptly

  • Anonymous Dec 04, 2007

    I would try to exchange it if possible,without
    getting into to much detail other than what you
    discussed about the headphone with the technician

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  • Posted on Dec 04, 2007
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First thing I'd do is compare the sound coming from your MP3 player to the sound of the same songs playing from your computer speakers, to eliminate any possiblility of the audio files being at fault (I realise you haven't altered them yourself but they could be faulty at source)

Then check the graphic equaliser in your player and see what the current setting is. Most audio devices these days come with a range of presets and these often include a karaoke setting so I'd check thats not been toggled by mistake.

Then have a play with your EQ settings to see if you can bring the vocals back up in the mix, vocals tend to lie in the 1-2kHz range of the audio spectrum so give it a boost in this region. You might also want to try cutting the bass end, too much bass energy in a mix can steal your headroom and lead to parts dropping out unpredictably like this. N.B. if your player only offers EQ presets rather than a proper hands on EQ then look for presets with names like Mid boost or Bass cut, even a general POP preset should be OK, just avoid things like Dance, Hiphop and the like.

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