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Ear Training and Critical listening
Behind the ability to listen is another world. When you discover the ability to self-analyze all those different sounds, you are rewarded with a new appreciation of how amazing sound really is. For those who can learn to dissect perceived sounds, it will be like you can “see” in a whole new way. Let’s review some techniques, methods, and practices that will help develop your ability to listen critically, and how it can compliment your engineering skills.
Using Your Head
You carry a myriad of acoustic signal sources and resonating cavities with you all the time, right in your head. Some are sounds you can make and are easily repeatable. For example, it could be your default pitch when you whistle, or even the nominal frequency of your speech when you talk ‘monotone’ or without inflection. These references can be super handy; especially when you learn to recognize that other sounds may be referenced to intervals of these. Even your limitations can be built-in references. What’s the highest note you can sing? The lowest? What note causes you to trip into falsetto? What’s the lowest note you can whistle? These can all be useful relative references, as long as you check them periodically against a known source for accuracy.
Intervals
Many sounds around us include the octave harmonic, which can sound like the same frequency. If you don’t know what an octave is musically or technically, you might be able to remember it when you recall the first two notes in the song “Take Me Out to the Ball Game.” These are an octave apart, where the second note is double the frequency of the first, or eight musical half-steps higher. Every third slider on a 31-band graphic EQ is an octave higher. Thirds (like each consecutive slider on a 1/3 octave graphic EQ) are approximately triads. This is a rough comparison, but will get you in the “ballpark”.
Familiar Sounds
Sounds you hear every day can correlate to frequencies you may have memorized, and don’t even know it. Somewhere around you, in your every day routine, are tones that you might even subconsciously tune out. These can be very helpful as reference tones if you can pay new attention to them and feel their familiarity. The hum of a motor, or the predominant oscillation of a nearby machine. As a kid I remember the loud pitch of the vacuum cleaner, and humming it would seem to make it less obnoxious in my head. And then also noting how humming a slightly different pitch would create a ‘beat’ (a low-frequency resultant rhythm of cancellation) that would annoy my sister. This was one of my early recollections of a frequency I didn’t know the numeric value of, but could reproduce fairly closely from memory.
EQ Changes with Volume
The ear has a different frequency response curve at different volumes where listening to the same song at a quiet level will reveal different nuances than when played at loud levels. The ear’s response curve is non-linear, and that curve even changes relatively depending on overall volume level. Keep this in mind when listening, especially to pieces you love. Even if you play it at a very quiet level, the high-frequency information will often reveal details that you didn’t know were even there. Listening like this can help you appreciate how complex a great song and mix really are.
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Chris Gille is also known as “Papa Audio,” or audio & systems director in the production department of Willow Creek Community Church.
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