Train Your Ears Review: The Ultimate Ear Training for Sound Engineers?

Ear training is a significant part of musical studies that involves the connection of music theory (chords, melodies, notes, intervals, scales) with the sounds that you hear.

In order to get better at playing music, you have to train your ear to recognize this linkage, because you get to understand exactly what you are playing and to anticipate various musical structures.

For ear training to be efficient, there has to be one party asking the questions and another one answering them.

Therefore, the most efficient way you can train your ear is by using software that focuses on exactly this. Train Your Ears is a software that aims to help you understand frequencies and equalizers.

For this to happen, the steps involved are: listening to the signal, imagining what you want, translating your imagination, and finally dialling the parameters.

What is Train your Ears?

When you are a music producer or audio engineer, there are many things that can go wrong in production, especially when you are adjusting volumes and adding effects during the mixing process. One of the aforementioned effects is EQ. One of the key skills a sound engineer or music producer is expected to possess is mixing and EQing.

In the past, you had to research about EQ techniques in books and additionally spend a significant portion of your time being trained by a professional engineer. While those options are still available, you now have online learning tools such as Train Your Ears to help speed up the process.

Train Your Ears is a software that aims to help you improve on your EQ hearing and detection skills with the goal of giving you a better understanding of equalizers and frequencies so that you can make informed decisions when it comes to music production.

The software includes a variety of tests, which you can customize according to your needs, to help you improve your skills. You will be applying random equalization moves on an audio file of your choosing, then you will be required to compare the EQ version to the original audio and determine exactly where the EQ changes occurred.

My story with Train Your Ears

Using the software challenged me more than I expected, especially when it came to the exercises.

In the Guest Mode tests I took, I only got a handful of answers right, and I did even worse in the Correct Mode exercises.

Within a few days of using Train Your Ears, my results had slightly improved, although I clearly needed to put in more work. I also noticed that my ability to spot modified frequencies and to tell the differences between frequency boosts had also improved.

Key features

The software has quite a nice set of features that includes:

• Live Input

The live input feature of Train Your Ears allows you to select audio that you have on the sound card of your computer. This includes mics and external devices you might have, along with music from any other source such as YouTube and Spotify.

• Exercise Designer

This feature allows you to select, edit, or create an exercise. The Exercise Designer also indicates the mode of the exercise, as well as the number of times you have taken it and your overall score once you are done.

• Audio player

The audio player allows you to add any music you might have on your hard drive directly into the player.

• Noise player

The noise player feature comes with in-built white or pink noise to help you warm up before you kick off your session of mixing.

What to expect from Train Your Ears

• You can expect to speed up the learning process by using Train Your Ears since it exposes you to a huge variety of random equalizations.
• You can expect to have the freedom to customize the exercises provided.
• You can look forward to an easy-to-use interface.
• You can look forward to two modes of training: guess mode and correct mode.
• You can expect your skills to be challenged and improved as you continue using the software.

How does it work?

You can use the Train Your Ears software once you download and install it on your PC or Mac.

There are three sources of audio in the software: Live Input for selecting audio from the sound card in your computer, Audio Player that allows you to include music from your hard drive, and Noise Player for white/pink noise.

Audio Player

Select the “play some music” option to import your audio directly from your folder and into the player. There is a box that you can check underneath this option when you want a random song to play each time you begin a new exercise.

Noise Player

This in-built feature plays white or pink noise and allows you to warm up before you start mixing. You can also listen to it if you want to hear the difference in frequencies.

Live Input

You can either play music from your computer’s sound card or from other sources such as streaming services.

In the next section, you will be required to select and edit the general options. The general options that you can make changes to include:

• Language
• Sound card options
• Keyboard shortcuts
• VST/AU Plugins
• Total score calculation

You will then move on to the Exercise Designer where you have the option to select, edit, or come up with an exercise. You will also be shown the mode of the exercise, the number of times you have played it, and your score.

You have the option to make changes to the exercises according to your capabilities, as well as modifying their names and descriptions.

The training involves two categories:

• Guess mode

This is the original method that has been in use since the first version of the software was released. You will be required to make a guess on which frequency is being equalized. To do this, you will listen to the original signal followed by the equalized signal, and then come up with a guess on which EQ moves were used. From the results, you will be able to determine whether you are right or wrong.

• Correct mode

This newly introduced mode is more challenging than the Guess Mode. You will be required to select the frequency that has undergone equalization so that you can either cut it or boost it in order to take it back to its original signal. To do this, you will have to listen to the original signal first.

Price and plans

Train Your Ears will cost you 49€ to purchase. This is a one-time payment, which means you will have a lifetime license. It caters to Windows and Mac users.

Pros

• Train Your Ears has an easy-to-use interface.
• It is quite affordable.
• You have the option to customize the exercises so that they are more of a challenge.
• Effective in helping you improve your EQ capabilities.
• Using the software helps you to develop a frequency memory.
• It is effective in speeding up the process of honing your EQ skills.

Cons

• It may not be suitable for beginners who don’t know the basics of EQ and audio frequency.
• It requires an internet connection in order to be used

Verdict

Train Your Ears is ideal for advanced and intermediate users who already understand the nitty-gritty of EQ and want to improve their skills and hone their musical ears.

It will best suit the needs of producers and mixing and mastering engineers, but if you are audio equipment enthusiast or a musician you could also benefit from using this software.