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You know we have lots of thread with the title ‘Best sounding xxxxx’ and x can be all sorts e.g. chip amp, volume pot, speaker, 300B, or a cable (haaaaaa haaaa haaaaaaa), etc.
But our ears are part of the chain. So what about our ears ?
I read that ears can be trained, improved. Anybody tried it?
For example, for musicians: https://www.masterclass.com/articles/how-to-train-your-ear
But our ears are part of the chain. So what about our ears ?
I read that ears can be trained, improved. Anybody tried it?
For example, for musicians: https://www.masterclass.com/articles/how-to-train-your-ear
7 Ear Training Techniques
Ear training practice is an effective way for musicians to improve listening skills. Just dedicating a small amount of time to these skills per day can be enough to keep your inner ear strong:- 1. Pitch ear training: Train your ear to recognize notes by playing the same note over and over while singing or humming it, and associating the sound with its name in your mind. The more clearly you can hear a note in your head, the better you’ll become at identifying pitches.
- 2. Scale ear training: Scales are another component of music that are crucial for every musician to understand. Each scale contains seven notes per octave, with an eighth note repeating the tonic at the next pitch. Key signature identification of all major scales and minor scales will help you determine which key a piece of music is in, and is essential for creating harmonic chord progressions and great melodies.
- 3. Interval ear training: Interval identification is an important component of ear training. Learning all the intervals within an octave can make it easier for you to identify and replicate melodies later on. Know the intervals forwards and backward to train your ear to easily pick up on them. Interval training improves your ear’s ability to identify the space between two pitches, so you can quickly figure out things like which notes span an octave, or which are compound intervals (larger than an octave). A firm understanding of the distance between pitches enables you to build sets of chords that are pleasing to the ear.
- 4. Chord ear training: Three or more notes played at a time form a chord. Training your ear to know which type of chord you’re hearing or which notes sound good together can help you produce better sounding chords in your music, and even create certain emotional effects. For example, major chords are more associated with positive feelings, where minor chords are often used in music to present negative emotions. Listen to different chords and try to identify whether they are major, minor, diminished, or augmented.
- 5. Chord progression training: After learning how to recognize the chord qualities that make up a particular chord progression, you can determine whether a song is in a major key or minor key, which is another helpful component of setting the mood for a musical piece.
- 6. Functional ear training: Hearing a particular pitch within a piece of music and recognizing its role within the tonic (the keynote or starting note within any major or minor scale) can help you better understand why the music is composed the way it is and what mood it elicits. Once you start to recognize certain patterns between different kinds of music, the easier it will become to identify in more music over time.
- 7. Melodic dictation: Sometimes seeing a melody is another way to get your ears to remember it. This ear training exercise involves transcribing or playing back music you’ve only heard by ear, and seeing the notes you’ve just heard. Dictation makes you more adept at visualizing notes, which is a necessary skill for composing or improvising.
I think those are actually the trainings for our brain.
I wonder if the ear itself as a physical device can be improved like our muscle. I also wonder if everything else is the same, physically larger ears sound better than smaller ones.
I wonder if the ear itself as a physical device can be improved like our muscle. I also wonder if everything else is the same, physically larger ears sound better than smaller ones.
Galu will be by shortly to demonstrate. 🙂
imo, employing such things will undoubtedly exacerbate the whole audiophile "listening to music" vs "listening to the gear" debate, albeit in one's own mind. For me it would lead to constantly testing my ears. Right now the test is "what can I still actually hear". 🙂
imo, employing such things will undoubtedly exacerbate the whole audiophile "listening to music" vs "listening to the gear" debate, albeit in one's own mind. For me it would lead to constantly testing my ears. Right now the test is "what can I still actually hear". 🙂
My ears work best late at night...often I'll wake up in the morning and my wife remarks about the thunder or winds that kept her awake during the night. I don't hear her until I put my hearing aids in. Sometimes I sleep so soundly that I think I smell embalming fluid...
How about Tone training?
I dont even know how you'd go about it. Click across the different waveform output of a synth VCO - "See? they each sound different!" Not very useful. Acoustic vs Electric guitar - "See? they each sound different!". Not very useful...
Let's say someone gave you the paid task to design a curriculum (not baiting anyone here) to teach tone. How would you do it? Where to begin? Formant synthesis? Resonance? Harmonic waveform contruction? Still all seems to be at a very gross level; certainly no where near the subtleties people seem to be able to pick out. The 'ol 1K vs 10K vs 100K speakers / guitar comparison.
People can hear things tone-wise that I cant. Is it because I havent been trained, or is it that I'll never discern that level of subtlety, like, I'll never run a 6:00 mile...no matter how much training I put myself through?
I dont even know how you'd go about it. Click across the different waveform output of a synth VCO - "See? they each sound different!" Not very useful. Acoustic vs Electric guitar - "See? they each sound different!". Not very useful...
Let's say someone gave you the paid task to design a curriculum (not baiting anyone here) to teach tone. How would you do it? Where to begin? Formant synthesis? Resonance? Harmonic waveform contruction? Still all seems to be at a very gross level; certainly no where near the subtleties people seem to be able to pick out. The 'ol 1K vs 10K vs 100K speakers / guitar comparison.
People can hear things tone-wise that I cant. Is it because I havent been trained, or is it that I'll never discern that level of subtlety, like, I'll never run a 6:00 mile...no matter how much training I put myself through?
"Train your ear to recognize notes by playing the same note over and over while singing it or humming it..."
Who wrote this anyway?? The obvious reason why individuals "can't sing" is the sound you hear thru your own ears is NOT the sound another person hears...the bone structures in your head change the pitch YOU hear as you sing...the notes, the pitch is "flat"...it is off so very slightly, that's why one will say, "Is that how I sound?". Use over-the-ear headphones & microphones to correct your pitch when matching notes (pitch) from other sources.
I learned this long long ago, (1977)? when singing to the radio with headphones on my folks Sony TC200 reel to reel with the 'sound on sound' function...
My wifes scuba group always wants me to Karaoke to "Wicked Games" by Chris Isaak ...because I have the pitch fully dialed in...
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Rick...
Who wrote this anyway?? The obvious reason why individuals "can't sing" is the sound you hear thru your own ears is NOT the sound another person hears...the bone structures in your head change the pitch YOU hear as you sing...the notes, the pitch is "flat"...it is off so very slightly, that's why one will say, "Is that how I sound?". Use over-the-ear headphones & microphones to correct your pitch when matching notes (pitch) from other sources.
I learned this long long ago, (1977)? when singing to the radio with headphones on my folks Sony TC200 reel to reel with the 'sound on sound' function...
My wifes scuba group always wants me to Karaoke to "Wicked Games" by Chris Isaak ...because I have the pitch fully dialed in...
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Rick...
Simple analogy: If you rare or never seen the face of an ethnic, you cannot differentiate their face in short time.
Example: Now BTS from South Korean is the biggest group in the world. But if you rare seen South Korean faces, you cannot differentiate who is who of their members in short time. Maybe you need a day, a week, or a month to differentiate them.
It is same in audio. You cannot hear the different about 1% and 0.1% THD with similar harmonic profile because you are never hear the amplifier with 0.1% THD.
But usually, some people do not admit that they learned it. Because it make them seem to be stupid in the past.
Example: Now BTS from South Korean is the biggest group in the world. But if you rare seen South Korean faces, you cannot differentiate who is who of their members in short time. Maybe you need a day, a week, or a month to differentiate them.
It is same in audio. You cannot hear the different about 1% and 0.1% THD with similar harmonic profile because you are never hear the amplifier with 0.1% THD.
But usually, some people do not admit that they learned it. Because it make them seem to be stupid in the past.
Of course senses can be trained and you can acquire different levels of sensibility over a period of time.
I tryed it: as a musician at first and then everyday as a technician in studio.
When studying audio engineering their was a collection of cd used to listen to different kind of treatments and recognize them by ear.
Was called 'golden ear' iirc. Identifying different level of compression was difficult for me:
Edit:this one
http://www.moultonlabs.com/full/product01
I tryed it: as a musician at first and then everyday as a technician in studio.
When studying audio engineering their was a collection of cd used to listen to different kind of treatments and recognize them by ear.
Was called 'golden ear' iirc. Identifying different level of compression was difficult for me:
Edit:this one
http://www.moultonlabs.com/full/product01
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Sean Olives discusses training listeners at:
http://seanolive.blogspot.com/2010/12/how-to-listen-course-on-how-to.html
https://harmanhowtolisten.blogspot.com/
Howie Hoyt talks about his experience with learning to listen in a forum post:
https://www.diyaudio.com/community/threads/the-black-hole.349926/post-7310119
A good article summarizing perceptual training methods, although the particular context is on seeing not listening. Still probably worth reading if interested the subject of perceptual training in general: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36940041/
http://seanolive.blogspot.com/2010/12/how-to-listen-course-on-how-to.html
https://harmanhowtolisten.blogspot.com/
Howie Hoyt talks about his experience with learning to listen in a forum post:
https://www.diyaudio.com/community/threads/the-black-hole.349926/post-7310119
A good article summarizing perceptual training methods, although the particular context is on seeing not listening. Still probably worth reading if interested the subject of perceptual training in general: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36940041/
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Based on my own experience, mastering engineers and others who should have exceptional hearing abilities tend to speak softly and keep the monitoring volume very low. In fact, I have never seen a professional engineer who speaks very loudly. I think that there may be inherent differences in sensitivity to sound among individuals in terms of their actual perception.
I wonder if there have been any studies examining the correlation between speaking volume and hearing ability.
I wonder if there have been any studies examining the correlation between speaking volume and hearing ability.
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This is interesting. Lipinski is a person who is behind Mytek digital and Lipinski Sound.
LIPINSKI Sound History
Andrew Lipinski's perfect hearing abilities were recognized by the US National Bureau of Standards, where he was the only individual to achieve a perfect score on the listening evaluation of phonographic recordings (NBSIR 88-3725). His work contributed to the decision of the U.S. Congress to uphold quality standards for a unified listening code, in opposition to one proposed by then, CBS. Andrew Lipinski's only perfect score ("...one listener achieving a perfect score... A score of 10 correct of 10 selections would be expected 1 out of 1000 times"), superseded the valuation of audio contemporaries such as Quincy Jones.
LIPINSKI Sound History
Andrew Lipinski's perfect hearing abilities were recognized by the US National Bureau of Standards, where he was the only individual to achieve a perfect score on the listening evaluation of phonographic recordings (NBSIR 88-3725). His work contributed to the decision of the U.S. Congress to uphold quality standards for a unified listening code, in opposition to one proposed by then, CBS. Andrew Lipinski's only perfect score ("...one listener achieving a perfect score... A score of 10 correct of 10 selections would be expected 1 out of 1000 times"), superseded the valuation of audio contemporaries such as Quincy Jones.
Regarding speaking volume, if you have ever been around someone who doesn't know they seriously need hearing aids, you may find that they talk at a very loud volume level. Sometimes it can be closer to shouting than talking.
You know the old stereotype of the elderly guy yelling, "Speak up, sonny!"
Well, many years ago there was a guy at work who did shout and we had no idea why. One day some old hearing aids for sound reinforcement use, such as used in theaters, were discovered an upstairs storage room. This guy stopped by and was shouting as usual when somebody said, "here try these hearing aids; we found 'em upstairs and we've been playing around them."
He put them on and immediately starting talking at a very low volume. First time I ever saw anything like it; the change was so dramatic and completely unexpected.
You know the old stereotype of the elderly guy yelling, "Speak up, sonny!"
Well, many years ago there was a guy at work who did shout and we had no idea why. One day some old hearing aids for sound reinforcement use, such as used in theaters, were discovered an upstairs storage room. This guy stopped by and was shouting as usual when somebody said, "here try these hearing aids; we found 'em upstairs and we've been playing around them."
He put them on and immediately starting talking at a very low volume. First time I ever saw anything like it; the change was so dramatic and completely unexpected.
Ears do detect differences. Not sinuswaves or complex wavemixes like music or so on.
If the detected differences can be put into an order based on experience or logic.... also music comes...-) Or differences of cables and parts and designs and others;-)
Should not some train the beans in their ears;-?
Or the tomatoes;-?
Pumkins;-?
If the detected differences can be put into an order based on experience or logic.... also music comes...-) Or differences of cables and parts and designs and others;-)
Should not some train the beans in their ears;-?
Or the tomatoes;-?
Pumkins;-?
Why stop at ears?
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/skin-hearing-airflow-puff-sound-perception/
The brain adds sound information that is picked up by our skin, and that's why I always listen to my hi-fi in the nude! 😀
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/skin-hearing-airflow-puff-sound-perception/
The brain adds sound information that is picked up by our skin, and that's why I always listen to my hi-fi in the nude! 😀