Can you trust your own hearing? In this video I'll show you a simple hearing test that will reveal that nobody can really agree on what is being said, so make sure to let me know what you hear in the comments below.
I always find it fascinating that people can never seem to agree when it comes to sound and what sounds good. Some people will say that a particular pair of studio monitors, or headphones sound great, and that another pair sounds bad, while others will say the exact opposite. Why is that? Why can people never agree?
The fact of the matter is that you can't really trust your own hearing. We all have vastly different hearing, and will therefore perceive sound very differently. As a music producer, it is therefore very important to use visual aids when mixing, as well as having other people reference your mix. You might have heard the expression "use your ears". That's a good piece of advice. After all, the best tool you have are your ears. If something sounds good, it's usually good. That said, there might be certain frequencies you're not very sensitive too, which others might pick up or vice versa. My point is, you might have slight hearing damage without even being aware of it. Some people are more sensitive to higher frequencies and others are more sensitive to lower frequencies. By taking a hearing test, you can get a audiogram, showing the curve of your hearing. This hearing test will let you see which frequencies you are less sensitive too. That can come in handy as it will allow you to compensate for that slight hearing loss. if people say your mix is always too harsh up top, and has too much high-end, but it sounds fine to you, it might be that you have a slight dip in your upper-frequency hearing range. Being aware of this will allow you to compensate for that. I'm not saying you shouldn't use your ears of course. I'm just saying you can't always trust them 100% and that you should use visual aids like spectrum analyzers and the Izotope tonal balance 2 etc.
The Yanny or Laurel audio clip is not a traditional hearing test but it serves to show how differently people can perceive sound. It can also tell you something about which frequencies you are most sensitive to.

Visual aids can be helpful when mixing and mastering music. Particularly the Izotioe tonal balance plugin. It will show how much energy is in the different frequency bands, compared to other commercial tracks. You can check it out here:

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