Question about my ears...

Hi_D_Ho_Man

Hi_D_Ho_Man

Tha' So & So ,So & So
I read through lots of material about getting a good mix. I read about how bad decisions with EQing and compression can easily ruin a mix. When i visit the mixing clinic I'm wowed in the way some of you guys seem to easily pick out whats wrong with a mix and can suggest what to do to fix it. This is obviously the benefit of trained ears and knowledge of the tools.

I imagine it doesn't matter what I know about the tools if i'm not hearing the material in detail. How do i start developing my very untrained ears? What should I be doing daily to develop a good ear.

Are the ears a sensible starting point?
 
Buy a pair of good monitors, and listen to your favorite cd's through them. If your already mixing your own music, compare what you've created to what you like to listen to. After that its all about narrowing the gap between what you like listening to (or what you want your music to sound similar too), and what your music actually DOES sound like. Once you reach this point, hopefully (if you're like me) you'll become obsessive about reading every book you can get your hands on that relates to the music your creating, and spending as many precious seconds of your life as possible in your personal studio perfecting the sound your going for.
 
Simply put, just start listening to lots of music. You don't need expensive monitors to do that.


Just listen to levels and how different producers use panning, etc. That's a good starting point.

It's like those things on highlights for kids, you tend to learn what's out of place and what isn't.

Also, you always have to ask yourself, "how can I do that" and at least give yourself an idea of how to get that in your mix.
 
Thanx for the replies fellaz. I'll mos def listen to more music on my monitors. I'm saving up for acoustic foam. bcuz my work room is pretty boomy even at moderate volume. I play around with the pans and levels as i go. I get volume and position but never seem to find depth. I do ok with instrumentals, but songs with vocals come out pretty bad most the time.
 
I've often thought it would be cool to have one of the masters of mastering post a simple say... 4 to 8 part tune already mixed then post the raw tracks to let the less accomplished try to meet the masters product.

Just a thought :cool:
 
Here's some tips:

Pick a song you like and listen to the first couple of bars. Then write down every instrument/sound source you hear. And don't stick with "drums" and "guitar". Something like this is more like it:
Kick
Closed hat
Open hat
Snare
Toms
etc.

Then when your done, try to point out when and what they are doing. For instance:
Kick on 1
Snare on 3
Hat on 1,2,3,4
Open hat every other bar on 4
Guitar riff on 2.5 and 3.5
Something like that.

Then try to listen to where they fit in the mix. If they guitars are very up-front, is that because they are louder? Or maybe because the tone really bright? Or because there's not much else in the mix taking up space? Or because the guitars are timed just in those spots where that's space?

When you do that, you can also find out what's done. Something that sounds like it's recorded in a garage will have very little treble if miced, and alot of treble if recorded direct. After a while, you'll find out that there's much more going on than you'd think at first listen.
 
^^^^^^^^
Really good tip. Made me realize that my real question was HOW should I be listening.

Anymore tips are definitely welcomed.
 
I don't have very "trained" ears (yet) but I know what's helped me a lot with learning what different frequencies sound like, and picking out boosted or cut freaquencies is a training tool called Golden Ears. I don't know where you can get it, or how much it is (I use it at school), but it helps a lot.
 
What you could also try:
Make some white noise. Take an EQ, and do something to it (1 band at the time). You should be able to make out what is changing. Noise might not be used in 99% of the applications, but something like a big narrow boost at 500hz will sound like a big narrow boost at 500hz on a synth, an acoustical guitar, an electrical guitar, or white noise for that matter. Don't get me wrong, the result will be different from source to source, but there will be consistenties (pardon my english :s)
 
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