Ear Training: Guess the Boosted Frequency

Knowledge Base

Why Ear Training Beats Reading Frequency Charts

Knowing that "muddy" lives around 300 Hz is useless if you can't recognise 300 Hz when you hear it in a real mix. This game builds that recognition directly: it boosts a real frequency band on real noise through your speakers or headphones, and asks you to name it, the same skill as sweeping an EQ to find a resonance.

How Difficulty Levels Work

• Easy Mode (4 Bands · +18 dB): Obvious wide boosts across Bass, Low-Mid, Upper-Mid, and High Air. Ideal for beginners building basic frequency zone awareness.
• Medium Mode (7 Bands · +12 dB): Standard 7-band breakdown (Sub-Bass, Bass, Low-Mid, Midrange, Upper-Mid, Presence, Air). Great for daily mix warm-ups.
• Hard Mode (10 Bands · +6 dB): Precise ISO 1/1 octave bands with subtle +6 dB boosts. Trains your ear for fine surgical EQ cuts and boosts on vocals and instruments.

FAQ

Q: Why pink noise and not a song?
A: Pink noise has equal energy per octave, so a boost stands out cleanly without melody or rhythm distracting your ear. Once bands get easy to identify here, try the same exercise on a track you're mixing.

Q: I keep confusing neighbouring bands, is that normal?
A: Yes, especially between Low-Mid and Midrange, or Upper-Mid and Presence. They're close enough in character to blur together at first. That confusion is exactly what this game is training out of your ear.

Learning to hear frequency

Recognising frequency by ear turns equalisation from searching into reaching. Someone who has trained can hear that a recording is dull at four kilohertz and go straight there, while someone who has not sweeps a boost around until something sounds worse and works backwards. The skill is entirely learnable and unusually quick to develop.

Boosted pink noise is the standard exercise because pink noise contains every frequency at a perceptually even level, so a boost anywhere is equally noticeable. Starting with wide bands, an octave or more, builds recognition of general regions before the harder work of distinguishing neighbours.

Anchor each region to something you already know. Low mids around 200 to 400 hertz are where recordings sound boxy. Around three kilohertz is where a voice becomes present, and where it becomes harsh if pushed. Above ten kilohertz is air. Attaching a word you would actually use in a session makes the frequency retrievable when you need it.

Practise briefly and often. Ten minutes daily produces far better results than an hour once a week, because this is auditory memory rather than knowledge, and it consolidates with repetition and sleep. Most people notice real improvement within a fortnight of short daily sessions.

Train on the equipment you work on, and on real material as well as noise. Every set of headphones and every room emphasises some regions, so learning frequency on the system you use daily means what you learn matches what you will hear while working. Once wide bands feel reliable, switching from noise to music and speech is what makes the skill usable.

Vocabulary

Pink noise. Noise containing equal energy per octave, which the ear perceives as evenly balanced across the spectrum. Used for ear training and system checks because no region stands out to begin with.

Octave. A doubling of frequency, so 100 to 200 hertz and 1000 to 2000 hertz are each one octave. Hearing works proportionally, which is why frequency ranges are described in octaves rather than in fixed numbers of hertz.

Presence. The frequency region around three to five kilohertz where speech intelligibility and forwardness live. Raising it brings a voice toward the listener, and overdoing it produces harshness and listening fatigue.

Boxy. A description of the muddy, hollow quality caused by excess energy roughly between 200 and 400 hertz. Common in untreated rooms and in close-miked sources, and one of the most useful regions to learn to recognise.