Worthwhile diversion... Ear training.

[Mark Seaton]

Hi guys,

I was hoping someone would throw together something like this so those in the home/hi-fi community could get a hint at what audio professionals consider required skills. The link was posted during a discussion on the Live Audio Board, and I believe many DIYers and those trying to improve their system could benefit from a little playing with this.

The program is called the Simple Feedback Trainer. It is intended to help train you to be able to identify feedback frequencies. In the audio trenches where they have to make even the bad sounding stuff work, those problematic frequencies must be cut to keep the system from howling. When you download the program you can set the options and then click start. I would make sure and limit the frequency range to that of your computer speakers as well as the ISO frequency centers. You only need to click on the fader of the frequency band to select what you think the frequency is. Keep clicking until the tone stops and another starts. The bottom info bar confirms what the last frequency was and how many guesses you've made.

While these sorts of exercises don't imporve the sound of your system directly, they very well may help you better identify what frequency ranges are causing problems you are hearing. The fancy and much more elaborate (and expensive) way to train your ears is with the Golden Ears CDs which sell for a few hundred dollars. In the home environment the set geared for studio work are probably most applicable.

What a great way to procrastinate or otherwise burn time :roll::

Simple Feedback Trainer

[jonathanb3478]

I recall a quick blerb in Stereophile, several years ago (I was still a subscriber at that point), regarding a series of CDs that was geared to music appreciation and general audio concepts. Things like hearing the effects of compression and heavy compression on audio tracks, listening to different types of distortion at different levels and frequencies, as well as other things.

I checked out the Golden Ears CDs that you mention, and I am quite positive those are not them. Would love to identify the series that was mentioned in that article, and see if it is still around. I remember that it was offered in a few parts @ ~$60 a piece. It was so long ago, that I do not really trust that memory, however.

Thanks for the utility, I downloaded it and will play with it later. :T

[Dennis H]

Jonathan, you may be thinking of the Stereophile Test CDs 1, 2 and 3. Scroll to the bottom of: https://secure.stereophile.com/stere...cordings.shtml

[jonathanb3478]

Jonathan, you may be thinking of the Stereophile Test CDs 1, 2 and 3.

I can see where 2 has some things that are a long those lines, but this was definately a couple hundred $, if you got all the parts. There were not a ton of them (like 10 or more), only a few (like 4 or 5). Each one was pretty costly (again, these memories are several years old, and could be a good bit off).

They went in depth. From what I remember of the article's description, they were a lot like a lecture series on CD. Very "academic", you know (well, how could you. lol)? That is why I was rather excited when I noticed the "Golden Ears" reference. It is very much a long those lines. But definately not them, unless they have changed a bunch over the years.

I have the vast majority of my old Stereophile issues, maybe I could locate that article. It would be a neat trick. One article in a few incomplete years worth of issues.

[SteveCallas]

That's pretty cool. I think my average guesses is pretty good after 20 goes (1.35), but my average time is pretty bad (6.7s) seeing as individual tones only occur for flashes of time in real music. Practice makes perfect though :B

[jonathanb3478]

Found it!

It was in a John Marks' "The Fifth Element" from '03. That is much more recent than I had thought. Turns out it was a 10 part lecture, in 4 "volumes" that were $39.99 each. The total for the sets was "less money than most people spend on a pair of interconnect cables" at $160.

This is a series of "lectures" by David Moulton and his collegues. Very cool. Not "Golden Ears", but fairly similar.

[Mark Seaton]

That's pretty cool. I think my average guesses is pretty good after 20 goes (1.35), but my average time is pretty bad (6.7s) seeing as individual tones only occur for flashes of time in real music. Practice makes perfect though :B

Ideally I would think you would then want to move onto some listening exercises with shaped pink noise to further correlate to the average spectral balance we hear. I think many would be surprised how close some seasoned, studio experts can be with an EQ and pink noise running through a system with nothing more than their ears.

This is no way to say that we shouldn't measure, but rather these skills can be invaluable in hunting down room acoustic problems, overall or more subtle balance issues, and narrow band annoyances. While a common theme from many sources, Keith Yates was the one who impressed upon me most the importance of these skills, even when having the best of test equipment.

[SteveCallas]

Ideally I would think you would then want to move onto some listening exercises with shaped pink noise to further correlate to the average spectral balance we hear

How would one go about doing that? Anything convenient like this program? Recording pink noise tones to a cd and then having someone randomly play them back for you while you guess might work, but well, that's kinda just asking to get made fun of :B

[PMazz]

Anyone ever try the ABX Comparitor program? I have yet to find the time to try everything on it, but it sure is interesting.

Pete