ear training — learning at the elbow of the internet

5 Ear Training Exercises to Listen Like a Mastering Engineer

by Ian Stewart, iZotope Contributor August 12, 2020

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.

But in truth, your ears are only really one part of the story. They turn sound vibrations in the air into neurological signals, but it’s your brain that does the real hearing. 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.

6 Strategies for Taming Midrange in a Busy Mix — Pro Audio Files

Achieving a well-balanced midrange in a recording is one of the biggest challenges of mixing. Beginning producers especially tend to struggle in this area. The ranges of many instruments overlap quite a bit, and some negotiation will always be necessary to help them share space in a mix. Muddy room resonances only complicate things further. When we have a session with a busy arrangement and high track count — a pretty common occurrence in digital recording — midrange problems can multiply out of control.

Audio Dynamics 101: Compressors, Limiters, Expanders, and Gates

Audio Dynamics 101: Compressors, Limiters, Expanders, and Gates:

In this article, we’ll demystify the compressor and other dynamics processors. We’ll cover the four main types of plug-ins used to control dynamics: limiters, compressors, expanders, and gates. We’ll discuss the mathematical processes behind these tools, how they affect the sound, and the best scenarios in which to use them.

Expanders are my least understood tool. Gates are kind of troublesome as well. This is a good description of what they do.

5 Ways To Play Like Bill Evans — KeyboardMag

5 Ways To Play Like Bill Evans — KeyboardMag:

Bill Evans single-handedly changed the sound of jazz piano—literally, with his left hand! His four-note, rootless chord voicings consist of guide tones (thirds and sevenths), along with chord tones, color tones, extensions, and/or alterations.

This was a challenge. Read some, look at the printed music, imagine what it sounds like, find the example audio on SoundCloud.

I made it work.