The Community of Music Makers

should you wondering whether there's any point to all this, or whether it's merely a swindle in a nice waistcoat, the short answer, my dear fellow, is: there is.

ear training (here, or by way of other instruments and exercises, there's no shortage of alternatives) is real.
the before and after can be positively scandalous.
or it can be nothing much at all.
here, as in most gentlemanly pursuits, it's all terribly personal and hangs on one's natural disposition.
everyone has their own ceiling.
the pace of progress is just as personal too
two options, really: it takes a long time, or it takes a frightfully long time.

and it demands a bit of discipline. what matters most is regularity and frequency. fifteen minutes, but daily, is incomparably better than a three-hour bender once a week.

First the more carefully you listen the more distinguished your hearing will become. You could just listen to a lot of stuff, but the games help focus your hearing onto specific elements.
Second, until you recognise exactly what each of your tools is doing to sounds, you won't have the insight to be able to deliberately apply them to your musical work. Messing around with an EQ to make something sound right is one thing (and it's a good thing), but knowing what you want to do and how this particular tool will help you do it before you open a plugin is another level of ability entirely. As is being able to identify a problem and recognising that the solution isn't EQ at all.

Congratulations!

Thank you so much everyone!

Wow! Great Job!

Congrats Mario on your Golden Ears!!!

Phillipe, I used to be exactly like you. And then an engineer told me that panning on headphones goes 180º ( far left to far right is 180º ). If you get used to it it's actually surprisingly confortable!

It depends entirely on what you do most of your mixing/mastering on. If you never use headphones, then practicing with headphones is of reduced benefit. If you do most of your work on headphones, then headphones is the way to go.

If you don’t have an acoustically treated room, then headphones are the best solution. Some people use correction systems to get the best performance and achieve the most linear listening experience possible (using hardware-based DSP for correction is far superior to using software-based tools). Naturally, you also need to get used to this way of listening—use them consistently, especially when listening to music, so that your ears can adapt. Furthermore, a good pair of headphones will always cost less than a set of high-quality studio monitors combined with the acoustic treatment for a room!

Awesome deliverence.

Thank you for your feedback @Ricardo Pol :)

Hi Justus Stremmelaar :) I should start by saying that I’m no Hard Techno expert, but I’ll try to offer a little help nonetheless. I feel like there’s a lack of energy in the center (the mid-range of the signal). The stereo width is good, but it shouldn’t come at the expense of the mid-range. The vocal feels a bit too buried—I get the idea, but it’s positioned too far back, to the point where it gets completely lost toward the end. This usually happens when: there isn’t enough space carved out in the instrumental, there’s too much reverb, or the reverb’s pre-delay is set too short. I hope this helps! 😀

Hi! Thank you so much for taking the time to listen to my track and share your feedback. I really appreciate it! Your advice was genuinely helpful, and you gave me some great points to work on, especially regarding the mid-range and vocal positioning. I'll definitely keep your suggestions in mind for the next mixdown.

Thanks again for your kindness and support! Much love! ❤️

Awesome!

Very cool!

Congrats! ⭐⭐⭐