Missed the previous posts in the series? Catch up with Part One and Part Two.

So you’re planning on buying some new toys, or shifting your set up around, but how will you know if you have actually made things better?

First things first, you need some test material. Several hi-fi manufacturers make CDs of test tracks, but I suggest finding a small selection of material you know really well and covers the range of music that you enjoy. My personal selection includes: The Cinematic Orchestra, Björk, Led Zeppelin and Steve Reich.

Burn these tracks on a CD and take it with you when you go shopping (any decent hi-fi or pro audio shop should have a listening room to try out equipment).

Wherever possible shut your eyes and ask a friend or shop assistant to switch (or rearrange) equipment so you can be sure you are listening with your ears and not your eyes or bank balance.

Guidelines

You don’t need to be an expert to listen for the changes you have made, just trust your ears and listen out for the following:
Click to read the rest…

Following on from the previous quiz on Percussion Frequencies, we’re opening up a new quiz today: covering Frequency Bands and Harmonics.

Once you’ve got to grips with the starting material in the Frequency Fundamentals course, you should find you’re getting a good sense of where different frequencies lie in your hearing range. The second half of the course then introduces the 10 standard bands of frequencies used when analysing audio and making adjustments to the frequency balance:
Click to read the rest…

If you’ve been working on the Frequency Fundamentals series here at EasyEarTraining.com, you may be looking for a way to practice the skills it teaches. Fotios has created a special quiz for the first half of the series, covering drums and cymbals.

The Frequency Fundamentals course takes you from the most basic concepts, through to a working knowledge of the 10 core frequency bands which cover the human hearing range. The following two articles use sounds from a standard drum kit to get you started listening for frequencies:
Click to read the rest…