Want To Develop Golden Ears?

Good From Poor
What hearing skills does an audio engineer need to mix live and/or recorded sound?

It may be that many sound mixers do not possess a “golden ears” level of critical listening skill. However, does this directly lead to a lack of audio mixing skills? I don’t believe so.

Many (if not most) mixers know what the live or recorded sound “should” sound like. At least they know “good” sound from “poor” sound, and probably correct many types of problems because of their experience.

This situation is somewhat similar to an electric bass player (like myself) who can read chord charts to a blues song and play a credible bass part, even though I can’t play “by ear” (reproducing anything I hear or think without mistakes and without hesitation).

I can play bass lines of songs and sound decent, and therefore participate as an active viable musician. But if I could play “by ear.” I would have more control over the sound and more freedom to create and improvise music.

In this regard, I firmly believe that a highly developed set of “golden ears”- type critical listening skills would free the sound mixer from many limitations, allowing for greater control over producing high quality sound, as well as fixing many types of audible problems (within the electronic control of the equipment, of course).

So just what is critical listening? A definition found in a glossary at the Foundation For Critical Thinking, “Critical Listening: A mode of monitoring how we are listening so as to maximize our accurate understanding of what another person is saying.”

Perhaps this definition can be modified for sound mixing. “Critical Listening: A mode of monitoring how we’re listening, so as to maximize our accurate discernment and understanding of the physical qualities of the sound we are hearing.”

The sound could be a voice, a musical instrument, acoustical characteristics of a room or space, a musical group, a play, a movie, a worship service, etc.

While “monitoring how we are listening,” we’re not simply listening for enjoyment, but instead we’re focusing our ears and minds to constantly check the physical qualities of the sound. Is the EQ right? Is there distortion? Wait, what’s that instrument behind the lead vocal? And so on.