Train Your Ears Review (UPDATED): The Best Ear-Training Software Out There!
Product Name: Train Your Ears
Rating: 9.5/10
Price: 49€ (About $53 USD)
Short Review: After a lot of consideration, I have to say that Train Your Ears is the best ear training software I have come across. With their new 2.0 update, it’s even better than before! Every producer and audio professional can benefit from this product.
Website: TrainYourEars.com
So, what exactly does it do?
I highly recommend watching the video above to get a better idea of what Train Your Ears has to offer.
Basically, it is a piece of software that trains you to remember frequencies. This helps you pinpoint harsh sounds in your mixes and you’ll be able to correct them confidently instead of just messing around with random EQ knobs.
The concept behind this software is simple. It’s actually been used for years, but in the form of Audio Cassettes and CDs.
While producers were able to benefit from them, it was a bit inconvenient using them in these mediums. The biggest issue is that it wasn’t interactive.
How Train Your Ears solves this problem
Train Your Ears offers a simple and clean user-interface that makes it easy to practice your mixing memorization.
Here’s how the software works:
- You hear a sound.
- The sound is played again with a random EQ applied.
- It is now your job to determine what changes were made.
- Once you think you’ve found the changes, check the answer to see if you were correct.
Simple, right?
My favorite part about this software is that you can practice it in your spare time.
Within 15 minutes, you can get tested on 100 different equalizations. It’s easy to imagine how much constant exposure to EQ changes will improve your mixing skills.
Let me make one thing clear though. To get actual results from using this piece of software, you need to practice consistently – just like with anything. Make it a daily habit to do a few practices every morning, so you could get it done early in the day.
Traditional training vs Train Your Ears
The main ways to train your ears for mixing are:
- Trial and error (put in enough studio time until your tracks start sound good)
- Ear-training software/audio-tapes
For a while I thought the traditional method of training your ears was fine. My biggest concern was wasting my time with ear-training and achieving minimum results.
Train Your Ears did an amazing job at providing a piece of software that is fast, intuitive, and effective.
You can train your ears on your own time and can see some great results over time.
In no way will this software bring you from novice to grammy-winning overnight, but the difference in your mixing skills will improve from consistent use of the software.
Is it worth it or not?
The #1 reason I can recommend this software is that it is the most efficient way to improve your mixing skills I have come across.
Within about 2 weeks of regularly using the software, you’ll be able to start to notice results in your mixing.
Both beginners and pros can get use out of Train Your Ears. It teaches you critical mixing and gets you used to the ins-and-outs of the frequency spectrum.
Simple and clean
I always appreciate cleanly designed software.
To get going, no menu-diving or heavy manual-reading is required.
There are two main screens in the software: A player screen (the main screen) and the options screen (where you can tweak the software to your taste).
Why I am so positive about this software
You can practice for as little as 5-15 minutes a day and still see results..
The most popular ear-training software other than Train Your Ears is Golden Ears. I decided not to use it because it looked a bit dated, costs much more than Train Your Ears, and doesn’t blow me away with any useful additional features.
I love Train Your Ears because it’s simple and it works.
There are no surprises when you purchase Train Your Ears. The software works exactly as you would imagine. For its one-time price, you get a lifetime of skills.
If you’re looking for a nifty tool that will improve your mixing skills over time, I can’t recommend Train Your Ears enough!
It’s the best option available, has superb customer support, and is extremely simple to use.
Final Notes
Once again, here is where you could check out TrainYourEars: Click here to purchase Train Your Ears
I’m interested if any of you have tried it or are thinking about trying it. Let me know in the comment section below!
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Leave a Comment
8 comments
I feel like this software is so hard to use initially. It doesn’t come with any instructions and its extremely hard to learn from.
Now, practice from yes, but by the time you get to the point in which you can use the program you technically almost dont need it.
I think its unfair for them to create a program with literally no instructions.
Its like starting on the final level of a video game the first time you play it. So many controls twist, turns and rules and no instruction manual.
Very interesting point of view. I actually appreciate you sharing that. What aspects of Train Your Ears do you find the most confusing? I’d be happy to write up a tutorial article to help you and others out.
Hi — Thank you for responding Doug. I got the email you sent me personally, but I didn’t see any others.
So I found the program by reading ‘mastering audio’ by bob katz. In the book he recommends we try a certain exercise and i found the train your ears program online and decided to give it a go.
I suppose what I mean about it being difficult to use is that if they provided some sort of tutorial, or even an optional set of exercises that were catered towards a goal or even a system with linear progression that would take a seemingly powerful tool and turn it into something simply amazing.
The way that its marketed on the site makes it appear that it will have tutorials or something, but after buying it I literally feel like a kindergardener trying to do algebra through trial and error LOL. While I do know thats possible, it would just be simpler if somehow i knew what certain things are.
Like — I want to train my ears and become more efficient, but I don’t even know where to start.
ie: training with pink noise: do i start with just band filters or should I enable all of them.. (band, hi-pass,hi-shelf etc) and then what is a Q-factor. I have googled them, but the fact that the program doesn’t tell me what they are and what I should be training makes it extremely challenging, but If you want to get to where you want to be, then never let a simple challenge get in the way so I continue to use it.
I was expecting at least for it to tell me what they are or maybe have like
“Chapter 1: Lesson one – Band Pass Filter”
and maybe it has a few exercises with just that filter
then chapter 2,3,4 so on and it eventually adds more.
Thats what I meant when I was saying that it feels like the program is for people who already know what all that stuff is. People who just want to polish the diamond of knowledge. What about us who still have lumps of coal lol.
Feels like a deck of digital flash cards.
I don’t believe that its a bad program. I just wish that it was beginner friendly. Thank you for taking the time to respond btw.
Great response, Jason! I wasn’t too overwhelmed when I first got Train Your Ears, but I do agree that some sort of manual/tutorial series would be useful.
I’ve talked to the owner before, so I’ll ask if there is going to be some training in the near future. If not, no worries! I’ll create something here.
EDIT: Just found out there is a Train Your Ears 2.0 with help built-in. You can upgrade your 1.x version to 2.0 for free HERE.
How are you liking that Mastering Audio book btw? I’ve good things about Bob Katz.
So I upgraded and now this program is everything I could ever need or want. Thank you again doug. I’ll tell a couple friends about your site!
Awesome!
Wow Doug, thank you! You have been beyond helpful. If I could give you 5 stars I would. I’ll go ahead and get that upgrade. Thank you for taking the time to reply to my comments and thank you for starting this blog. You add value to the music community! Have an awesome weekend.
Thanks, Jason! I absolutely love reading comments like that:)