It’s called The Vowel Technique.īasically, your voice can help you find problem areas in the frequency spectrum. The other technique to train your ears is one you can do any time you’re mixing. Step 3 – Ear Training with the Vowel Technique These are just the best options I have found. I am not affiliated with any of these companies. It will get you MUCH further than a new plugin ever could. Some free, some paid.Ĭompared to the cost of a new piece of gear or a new plugin, it’s worth investing in some ear training software. The first is with with dedicated software. There are two ways to quickly train your ears – and I’d recommend you use both. Rather than using the ‘boost-and-sweep’ technique to find that element, I can instantly identify it (around 6kHz). If I couldn’t identify the frequency of the ringing, it would take me much longer to find it.Īnother example – on a vocal, I might hear that the aggression of a voice is pleasing, and I want to enhance it. It might not be exactly 800Hz, but that gives me an area to start in when I try to tame it with EQ. It’s a great skill to have, as it can significantly improve the quality and speed of your mixes.įor example, if I notice a ringing on a drum, I can hear that it’s around 800Hz. It’s worth the small amount of time it takes. But you can significantly speed up that process through focused practice. Over time, you will learn how to identify different frequencies by ear through mixing. I used a drastic boost to make the differences obvious. Each example included a narrow boost of 10dB for some of the frequency ranges in the table above. Here are some examples of different frequency ranges boosted on an electric guitar. It’ll help you with your frequency ear training. Eventually this will all come from memory.įeel free to save this image to your computer and print it. It will help you to learn how the various ranges within the spectrum sound. Study the chart below and keep it on hand when mixing. Next we can break down the spectrum into much smaller ranges and describe the tonal character of each range. But, for the sake of simplicity, learn these 5 key ranges first. I usually split the midrange down into 3 sections (Low Mids, Mids and High Mids) and the highs into 2 sections (Treble and “Air”). There are five key areas of the frequency spectrum: Sub Bass, Bass, Midrange, High Mids and Highs. Having the ability to pinpoint certain frequencies is great, but if you don’t know how that relates to tone, it isn’t much help. But 1kHz (1,000Hz) and 1.1kHz (1,100Hz) sound very similar.Įvery frequency range can be described as having a certain tonal quality. But 100Hz in the top end is nothing.ġ00Hz and 200Hz sound very different. That’s ten times larger!Ī 100Hz difference in the low end is HUGE. In the first case one octave is 100Hz, but in the second case one octave is 1,000Hz. Instead of counting up in a normal fashion (10Hz, 20Hz, 30Hz, 40Hz, 50Hz etc.), we count in a ratio of 1:2 (10Hz, 20Hz, 40Hz, 80Hz, 160Hz etc.).Īn octave above 100Hz is 200Hz. We don’t measure the range of human hearing in a linear way ( more info here). This means as the frequency increase, the gap between octaves grows. You might already know that the frequency spectrum is logarithmic, not linear. “Logarithmic? What in the world is that?”īefore we go over the important frequency ranges within the range of human hearing (and how they sound), we need to briefly cover some sciency stuff. I will show you how to do this in step 2 – but before you can identify frequencies, you need to understand the frequency spectrum. Your goal in training your ears is to be able to hear a frequency and identify it by ear (within a reasonable margin). To be honest, it took me years to really grasp the entire frequency spectrum! I knew one was higher than the other – but that was about it. I had no idea what 10kHz sounded like compared to 500Hz. I can remember when the frequency spectrum seemed very daunting. Train your ears with dedicated software.You don’t need to enter your email address or anything.īut if you just want to learn about Ear Training specifically, keep reading. Until now, everyone has been teaching production totally backward. We put together a brief training that covers a totally new approach to music production. I’m guessing you’re here because you want to make your mixes sound professional. Get industry-quality every time (steal this framework) Step 3 – Ear Training with the Vowel Technique.Premium Frequency Ear Training Software.“Logarithmic? What in the world is that?”. Get industry-quality every time (steal this framework).
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