Less Guessing, More Mixing: Practical Ear Training for Confident Mix Decisions

[00:00:00] Welcome back to Mix Sessions. In the last couple of episodes, we worked our way through the problems in your room acoustics down to calibrating your speakers, calibrating your ears with reference music, and now we go into continuous training.

If you look at top performers in any discipline, let this be sports athletes.

You will find that even the most advanced top of the world athletes still have a regular coach and exercise every single day. It is very important that we stay sharp, keep our ears engaged.

So, today we are going to do some practical ear training.

Why is that important? Can you work without it? Well, of course you could, but that means you introduce a lot of guesswork. And guesswork means you might, uh, take quite some time finding the problem frequency and What ear [00:01:00] training does, it gives you the confidence to quickly go and decide and find the frequency that you wanna pull without having to search for long time. First and foremost, that takes some tedious workflows out of it, and it reduces the mixing time dramatically.

In other words, you get to, to the end of the mix before you get fatigued, while you're still at your very best. So there are lots of advantages to keeping your ear sharp and just from learning from top performance, uh, we know that we still need to coach ourselves and that's what EAR training does.

So today we do some practical exercises together, and I wanna show you some, uh, ear training exercises that I built.

Today we do the beginner's journey for ear training.​

In this first exercise, we want to listen to different pitches and find the higher one of the two.

And we're starting with a very easy [00:02:00] level.

So let me show you how this works. Um, in this little exercise, uh, we simply hit play. After a couple seconds, we start to hear pitch A, followed by pitch B, and then it goes back to A and then back to B. And then our job is to pick whether A has a higher pitch than B, or B has a higher pitch than A, or they could both be the same.

So let's go through it. Let's have a listen.

And again.

Okay. And in this case, it's very obvious to me. Uh, we are listening to two frequencies from the low mid range, and in this case, B clearly has the higher pitch that I picked this up pretty quickly, and in my mind I just sort of imagine where it goes. [00:03:00] So it becomes particularly obvious on the transition point between A and B.

So that's really what gives it away. Let's keep going and try a different one. Okay, so in my ears, tell me that A has a higher pitch than B. Let's move on. Let's do one or two more.

Hmm. Okay. So in this case, A has a higher pitch than B, the way this is designed, at the end you would get some feedback, uh, you see how many you got wrong or right, and then also some recommendations. For example, maybe it's time to have a break and so on.

Good. So I think, uh, my ears are definitely warmed up. Let's see if we can continue [00:04:00] with, uh, a harder section. And this time around, it's the same frequency ranges. But the difference between the two pitches is going to get smaller, and smaller and smaller. So the, the frequency will be pretty close together.

Let's give this one a try.

Hmm.

Okay, so as you can hear, the interval between these two pitches is now no longer a couple of semitones, but, uh, now actually a couple of cents. b in this case is the higher pitch again, uh, not by much, by just a couple of cents. Let's try that again.[00:05:00]

Okay. Yep. Um, both frequencies were a little bit lower, but again, B was higher than a let's go another one.

Mm. Okay. So as they're getting closer and closer, it becomes harder to distinguish whether there is a pitch between A and B, or whether they have the same. In this case, it was actually an answer C. A has the same pitch as B.

Okay. Uh, you see where we're going with that. Um, these kind of exercises, they're particularly useful for me when I mix and when I [00:06:00] find pitch differences between, let's say main vocal and a backing voice or harmony, uh, or pitch differences between instruments. That could be that a string on, let's say a bass guitar wasn't tuned to perfection, so it might not sound on every note, but every once in a while when they play a pattern, you hear that there's a pitch just a little bit off. That can be just a couple of cents sometimes, but um, yeah, me, it throws me off. Even if listeners don't actually pinpoint that there is a problem with the pitch. Subconsciously, they feel it. Um, and therefore it's really important to me to get those things right. There's other examples where the pitch becomes very, very important particularly if we have samples on the kick with a long sustain, such as eight oh eights and 9 0 9 kicks, anything with a longer sustain on a kick becomes very tonal. And this pitch now stands in [00:07:00] contrast to the bass instrument, bass synthesizer, or bass guitar. And if they're , in some kind of an unpleasant interval to one another, uh, there's really upsetting to my ears.

And I find that, uh, if that's not resolved, the mix is not gonna come together. So there's. A range of different possibilities where hearing accurate pitch in relation to one another helps you to pinpoint tuning issues. And in an ideal world, all of this should be resolved in recording of course, but the reality is that it's not always the case.

I think it's time we move on to another section so there's different areas. So this first one is, is a very straightforward one and it's therefore, um, designed to be relatively easy, but you'll see it gets harder and harder. So we stick with some ear training for beginners at this point. Uh, just to show you what we do in the next chapter where we talk about, um, pitch [00:08:00] recognition. So pitch recognition is the ability to pinpoint a single frequency without having an A and a B.

So we're not after an interval, but we look at, in which area is a change introduced, for example. So therefore we need to tune our ears into the different areas. And uh, first up, I would like to look at only very broad three bands. And this is really in tune, pun intended, uh, with. My philosophy of zooming in and zooming out in the mix.

So when we look at the broad frequency spectrum of bass, mids and highs, this is typically something that I would consider in a zoomed out perspective. And, um, even for advanced engineers, this is therefore a really important thing to consider. Alright, so let me talk you through a couple of exercises over here.

Uh, when it comes to recognizing frequencies, [00:09:00] we do this in three different steps over here. And the first one of course is going to be sine waves as before. So lemme just talk you through a couple of examples. You will see for most of you, this will be super easy. What frequency range is the following sound in?

Wow, that is high. Clearly very high. Um, okay. However, it's also sound that we are very, that we very rarely hear by itself because this is a pure tone. Um, in the highs, it sometimes reminds me of the sound of a dentist drill. Alright, let's try another example.

Hmm. Okay. This is a very typical mid-range frequency. Let's keep going. Okay.

Mm-hmm. Okay. This is clearly higher, but still from the mid range register somewhere in the middle. [00:10:00] Um, so I deliberately don't try to think about the exact number at this point because I'm trying to teach myself to mentally zoom out and think about it broadly. So here's the funny thing. If we heard the previous mid frequency, which was in the lower mids to mids.

This one sits closer into the upper mid range, and now that I heard the lower mid frequency, the temptation is to place this one here in the highs, but it wasn't, it was still in the mid range. Do you see where the problem is here? So that's where ear training can keep me on track. Where naturally having, being exposed to one sound can sort of bias how I hear the next one.

And that's where ear training brings me back down. Let's, let's listen to the next one. Hmm. Yep. Very clearly a base frequency. Um, again, you will see that there will [00:11:00] be a couple of bass frequencies that then are played in contrast to mid frequencies from the lower mid range, and suddenly it no longer is as obvious as it seems to be, uh, in these three bands.

I guess that really shows the point of it. But, let's not spend too much time on this. We now heard a high frequency, then two different mid frequencies and one bass frequency. Now let's repeat the same thing, but change the contrast.

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We now move on to the next section where we first play some pink noise. And pink noise is a sound that has all the frequencies, from the one hertz to two hertz, three hertz, up to the upper hearing range of the human ear.

With random phase angle and volume, and in the case of pink noise with a gradually [00:12:00] falling frequency response towards the highs. This time we first gonna hear the pink noise, and then it will again go between A and B.

And when B sounds, an EQ is going to boost one of the three ranges. It shouldn't be to heart because we just found the sine waves to be rather simple. Let's jump into it.

Okay. Okay. So this is one of those exercises, uh, that you don't wanna do for several hours straight, you need to set yourself a comfortable listening volume, of course, for that as well. So. [00:13:00] The boost in B was clearly from the mid-range, but where exactly was it?

Well, I try to associate the sounds that we hear with things I, I recognize, and for example, pink noise, I associate the sound with being on a train. The background noise is similar to pink noise, so when I attach a picture, a visual picture to this sound, it helps me to remember that. Next time I hear it, that sort of keeps me on track.

So I use the trick of association here. Let's keep going. Let's try one more example, um, with pink noise. Uh.

[00:14:00] This is so interesting because in this case it was a bass rise, which had a very different sensation than hearing the bass as a sine wave in the previous exercise. It's very different in this case, the bass boost. Um. Sounds more like a rumble, uh, with not a defined pitch like the sine wave had, and it's therefore very different.

Um, rumble is one of the things we tend to be less sensitive to, um, due to the Fletcher Manson curves or curves of equal loudness.

And it turns out that at moderate and quiet listening volumes, we hear less bass than there actually is.

So how do we overcome this? Well, at times bring the speaker level up a bit higher and watch what's going on in the bottom end, but then of course, drop the level back down. Let's do one more on that.[00:15:00]

Okay, so that was back in the mid range and so on. So all of this now serves a certain purpose. We need to tune our years to hear these different sensations. And when, when I hear sine waves, that's one bucket of sensations that I get when I hear EQ'd noise, it is a different sensation, and all of this helps me to make better decisions in music.

So therefore, we now need to move forward and actually apply the same thing to music. In this example again, we have the three broader bands, bass, mids, and highs, and we're going to listen to a piece of music in A, and then an EQ is introduced in B, and we now need to figure out what has been [00:16:00] changed in in B.

So the options are either there's a bass boost or a bass cut. It could be mid boost or cut, or a high boost or a high cut. Let's see what this is. Let's see if we can figure that out.

Mm, very interesting. Very interesting. So. The EQ Boost was just as dramatic as it was in the eq in the noise section, [00:17:00] but the sensation that I'm getting hearing this through music is again, very, very different. So music reacts very differently and in this case, my ear latches onto a certain sound within the music, and it's usually one instrument that is changed more than the others.

And, uh, there's a cowbell in there and that was really the instrument that gave it away to me. So let's just listen one more time, we go back to the top focus on that cowbell.

Okay, so in this case, this is a mid boost, uh, which not to me really. Um. Brought out this [00:18:00] cowbell. But uh, it also affected of course, other things like that organ to some degree, uh, the snare of course, and also, uh, to some degree the bass. But it's usually one instrument that sort of jumps forward a bit more than others.

And in this case, to my ears, the cowbell was really, really obvious. So let's try another one. So just for reference, um, we are boosting seven db, which is a relatively large boost actually.[00:19:00]

Okay, good. Um, so what about the differences? Uh, B sounded brighter. So there's a boost of high frequencies here, the high hat, the shakers, and of course the cowbell as well, but on other things. So, um, yeah, your ear will latch onto those things. And this was a 7 dB boost, so again, quite significant. Alright, so from here we move on to, uh, repeating the same thing. However, this time we are going to break it into five bands. And we start with the bass frequency, the low mids, the mids, high mids, and the highs. And first again, I'm would now go through sine waves and then again go through EQ'd noise and eventually e EQ'd music.

And you'll find that when you go through that. It's trains the ear to hear the same frequency range through different lenses, so to speak. You, you, you observe it through the sine wave [00:20:00] lens and then you get the sensation of what it sounds like through pink noise. And then in music it's sort of, that's what brings it all back together.

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I would like to talk about one of the things that is probably the most important aspect of mixing, getting the volume balance right. And for that, um, there's a range of exercises that I want to, uh, start having some fun with you with.

So how about we just go into the first level exercise over here in which we are going to hear a bass and drum groove. And this groove is going to change again between A and B. So A is our reference point, and then in B there's a level change introduced. So let's figure that one out.[00:21:00]

Hmm. Okay, good. Um, the tricky part is to say whether the bass got louder and the drum stayed the same, or maybe the bass stayed the same and the drums got quieter. Um, so sometimes you could look at it from two different angles. In this case, the bass actually remained the same, so no level change there.

However, the drums were quieter in B. So in this case, it's this one over here. So I, I feel quite a different vibe when the drums drop and level. It feels like it's not just quieter. It feels like the drummer hits less hard and plays a bit more subtle or with a bit more [00:22:00] feel.

While louder, the drums feel really weighty and as if somebody very strong hits the, the snare and the kick. So it's a hard hitting sensation, which is also, uh, really useful when you mix drums for different genres. Alright, let's try another example over here.

Okay. Okay. [00:23:00] So in this case it was actually no difference at all. No change in level. So, yeah. Um, we would now continue this, uh, exercise and gradually decrease the volume difference. Four DB is relatively obvious, so that's a great warmup exercise.

Then we step it down to three dbs and funny story, some of the resources online quote three, DBS as the smallest volume differences that humans can perceive. Well, I find this very questionable. Personally. I have a different opinion, but how about you tell me in the comments what you think, or even better give it a try and see how far you can push it.

Can you hear three DB differences? Two DB differences? It then goes. Smaller, even 1.5 down to 0.5 DB differences. That's where most people say, look, there's really inaudible. But I've had so many situations in a mix situation [00:24:00] where we decided that something needed to change and I introduced half dB differences and they said: Stop! That's it. That's all I wanted. So I believe that on a subconscious level, even people who don't have the training can perceive the differences. So the key is to get in tune with your subconscious perception and consciously control that.

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So if today's session has revealed any blind spots in your listening, I'd like to invite you to join the system. It is something that I built to keep my own ears up, but of course it's available to everybody.

So I've built this entire ear training mix course with these drills, and the way it's designed is it's an open system that I'm going to add and add and add to it. So at this point, I think it's got about 400 and a few exercises in it, and that's just the beginning.

So, um, this course of course is available here at the Mix Artist Academy. The links are in the navigation. There are the [00:25:00] courses. You'll find the Ear Training for Better Mixes course right there.

And to celebrate the recent launch of the Mix Artist Academy, I would like to announce a little reward.

Um, everybody who subscribes from now on till a week from now, you are going to receive a code, a coupon code to receive this course for A$99 instead of A$129. That's for everybody who subscribes within the next week.

In addition I will also organize a get together online with me where we can talk about mixing in general, but most importantly, ear training. An online session, um, where you and I can meet and have a conversation.

So if this is something that you're interested in, this is only gonna be available to everybody who signs up for the next week. You'll get the course for $99 instead of $129, and I will invite you to a personal session.

I hope [00:26:00] you have a bit of fun today. Stay tuned for next week, See you then.

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