Also the monitoring system really plays a role here. Try playing on good speakers/headphones and try to memorieze how -25db sounds and -21db sounds like. Also keep in mind the level of the sounds that you're picking, because for certain sounds -21db would be pure silence, and on some tracks you could hear everything clear. (hopefully i make sense).. Cause the volume is not normalized to a certain level, so you have to keep in mind the level of your artist sounds choice. 😆

What Kristian T said. That's what I've been taught and it really does make a big difference. We don't realize when our monitors or room boost certain frequencies (resulting in DB gain) because we think that's the baseline. (I think I'm remembering the following right.) The same boost in a higher frequency will sound louder.

Thanks for pointing out @Lindsay Craig! Definetly the acoustics of the room are of paramount importance when listening on speakers! 😊

Thanks for the response! I'm running Sound ID Ref with a pair of DT 990s so the sound is fairly consistent. The only thing that's inconsistent is where the volume rests on my interface. I bet if I was conscious about leaving it generally in one position I would likely get used to the volumes and not start the exercise so blindly.

Try playing at lower volume levels,so your ears can focus on the details and so you can keep them fresh for longer and practice everyday, eventually you will get it. DT 990's should be perfectly fine for critical listening.

What would be really cool would be if you could train within SoundGym solely on, for example, -21db vs -24db. Or can you?

@Aaron Walker Do you know about the compare answer feature? For those that don't , You can press the “C” key immediately after selecting your answers (right or wrong) so you can hear and compare the differance between them.

The C key works for EQ Knight, Dr. Compressor, DB King, Filter Expert, Delay Control, Distorted Reality &Reverb Wizard , very helpful indeed

You have about 2~3 seconds to press (not hold) the C key after answering (if its already advanced to next question, you missed it). You can also use the arrow keys to select between the samples, press C again to continue with game.

Fair enough, although I would argue that it *may* be a good tack (at least for some users) to be able to practice identifying -21db vs -24db (or 400Hz vs 800Hz cut, or whatever), along the lines of the way one learns to touch type. How does one learn to touch type? You beat the crap out of a couple of keys, and then you move on to another couple of keys, occasionally adding in those original keys, until you learn them all. It's worked well for a long time. Might that also be true for (this genre of) ear training? I'm not sure. Worth a shot :) Another example.... learning intervals... I've never seen a program that just throws every possible interval at you from the get-go. You start by, for example, beating 3rds into your ears, then 6ths, and 4ths & 5ths. All I'm saying is, there may be other, easily implementable methods to work on this learning.

And lest someone think that I'm dumping on the program, I'm not. I've given it my money, so that says something. I'm just pointing out that to create a section, perhaps called targeted practice, where you can concentrate on a certain (and configurable) range (for example), would be easy to implement (I say that as a person who has professionally created functional and complex programs and websites), and would probably benefit the clientele, thereby increasing the value to the user (and justifying higher fees :) ) lolol

I find the current practice mode to be reasonably helpfully enough. Plus, for me at least, I consider playing the games to be the practice.

As others have posted, factors like your monitoring level (keep it consistent) and the samples (ie vocals, Elec Guitar, etc) also impact how you perceive the level changes in the game.

Also, see this detailed demo/tutorial for DB king https://www.soundgym.co/learn/watch?id=gxqbx8yFMA

Based on my experience, I’d recommend: playing with your monitors (or headphones) at the same output level every time. Use the compare feature for every answer (“C” key). Select the same sample (ie Piano) every time you play the game until you pass level 10, then you have the option to go back down up to 10 levels and play with a different sound, or just continue with whatever the selection is or changing it to whatever one you want.

Improvement may not always be very linear (mine wasn’t), over time thought, you’ll get better for sure. (and then you’ll get to levels with stuff like -17 vs -16, -21.5 vs -19.75 immediately followed by +8 vs +7.5) Cheers!