#Music pro ear trainer software#

Lead vocals are often a good candidate, but lead synths, horns, or other main melody instruments can also be suitable. To combat this, pick a focal element in each song and compare the levels of those elements. Increase a song’s level and you will perceive it as having more bass and treble decrease its level and it will become more midrange focused. Tonal balance and perceived loudness are inextricably intertwined, making it more difficult to get to grips with the impact of a track’s tonal balance on its loudness. Whatever the case, find the loudest sections of two songs and compare them to easily adjust gain and put them on equal footing. Perhaps this is the final chorus, or the main drop after a big build. It can be difficult to find the average loudness for a song with wide dynamic variation, so it often makes sense to focus on the loudest section. The training exercise Adjusting overall dynamics Dynamics are a bit easier to dispense with, so let’s discuss those first. By level matching, say, multiple songs on a single album, you can make mixing and mastering decisions to ensure consistent loudness and clarity for your release.Īny level matching difficulties will center on tonal balance and the overall dynamics of the song. And make no mistake, this is a skill that can pay dividends down the road. A momentary or short-term LUFS meter, such as those found in Insight 2, can be a great help when developing this skill, but you’ll likely ultimately find that your ears are the best judge. Simple as it may sound, level matching two songs is one of the most fundamental listening skills a mastering engineer must develop. This is a skill that can take a long time to hone, but the rewards are worth the effort!Ģ. When you feel like you’re getting a good grip on the different frequency ranges, you can try some ear training apps like iZotope’s own Pro Audio Essentials, or other products like those from PureMix, SoundGym, or Quiztones. As you step through different presets, also pay attention to the level relationships between adjacent octaves. Try bypassing the plug-in periodically, paying special attention to the relationship of the energy in the octave or dual-octave band you’ve been auditioning to the energy of the whole song.

#Music pro ear trainer software#

Load some of your favorite music into your audio editing software and listen to it while slowly stepping through the presets (you can also do this manually in an EQ of your choice). These 15 Ozone equalizer presets will allow you to step through the individual octaves, or if you’d prefer to start with broader frequency ranges, dual-octave groups.

If you’ve never done much frequency-based ear training, these are a great place to start. More specifically, the ability to quickly identify which frequencies or frequency ranges are either deficient or poking out too much will allow you to make corrective EQ moves more efficiently.īroadly speaking, the range of human hearing can be split into ten octaves. Train your ears to identify specific frequency ranges to EQ more effectivelyĪ fundamental listening skill for a mastering engineer, and one which closely relates to level matching, is being able to judge tonal balance. Luckily, our brains are great at learning and adapting, so here are five ear (and brain) training tips to help you listen like a mastering engineer.

They turn sound vibrations in the air into neurological signals, but it’s your brain that does the real hearing. When you think of the most important tool in a mastering engineer’s arsenal, what comes to mind? An equalizer? A compressor? Top-notch conversion, monitoring, or room acoustics? These are all certainly very important, but without a great set of ears behind them, they’re virtually worthless.īut in truth, your ears are only really one part of the story.