Ear training exercises, part 1 - instructions

As an audio engineer, it is very important for us to train our ears. Throughout the semester, we will use a range of tools to help us with this training.

For the first ear training project, we will use software and training methods developed by Jason Corey, from his book Audio Production and Critical Listening: Technical Ear Training

Here are the instructions for this ear training exercise (we will also review this in class):

1. Download the EQ practice modules from this site and run the software on your computer.

2. Select and audio output device from the list of options on the lower left of the user interface for the software. Turn audio on, select pink noise in the monitor section, and set the output level to an appropriate volume. It is probably best to do this exercise with good quality headphones.

3. You will complete two different practice types of this assignment. Before starting either of the exercises, spend some time just listening to 12 dB of boost at various frequencies, applied to pink noise. Turn audio on, and click on 'your response' to hear the effect of the EQ. Once you feel comfortable with the different frequency bands, you can move on to the first exercise.

4. For the first exercise, you can leave all the software settings at their defaults. This is a frequency matching drill where the software has applied a +12 dB boost to a randomly chosen frequency (scaled by octaves). Your goal is to figure out what frequency has been boosted and match it with your own EQ setting. You can compare the 'question' to 'your response' to see if they match. Once you think they match, you can click on 'check answer' to see if you are correct. Your score will be automatically calculated as your proceed, and you can reset the counter at any time. Once you have a collection of 10 or more answers that you are satisfied with, please take a screen shot that includes the EQ software, and your system date and time.

5. Exercise two is very similar to exercise one, except it require more attention in terms of memory. The only software setting you need to change is the 'practice type' in the upper left hand corner. Change it to 'matching memory' which will also reset the grade counter. This will be the same as the previous drill, except once you change your EQ setting, you can no longer audition the 'question' EQ - instead, you must remember the sound of the frequency boost. Once you think your EQ setting and the question EQ settings match, you can click on 'check answer' to see if you are correct. Your score will be automatically calculated as your proceed, and you can reset the counter at any time. Once you have a collection of 10 or more answers that you are satisfied with, please take a screen shot that includes the EQ software, and your system date and time.

6. Once you are satisfied with your scores for each of the two exercises, please email the two screen captures to me.

General info / suggestions:

For more info, please take a look at Jason Corey's excellent book, Audio Production and Critical Listening: Technical Ear Training - also available in the Cook library in print and eBook format. For this exercise, I would suggest the following pages:
Intro pg. ix-xv
Getting started with EQ practice, pg. 37-49
Chapter 1

Don't try and do all of this in one session - this would probably be frustrating and counter productive. Try to work on this for a shorter period of time more often, maybe 15-20 minutes every other day, depending on how difficult you find the exercises.

If the exercises above are too easy, you can change the 'gain combinations' to some of the other settings, or email me for setting that will be more challenging.

Good headphones are highly recommended, and headphone info is located here

Info for making a screen image capture are here (for mac) and here (for windows). Please include the EQ software and the computer date and time in the screen capture.