Free EQ Ear Training Game

Learn to hear which frequency band of an equalizer has been boosted or cut. Practice with pink noise or with your own music, at four levels of difficulty.

Online Audio Frequency Ear Training

Mixing gets faster when you can name a frequency by ear: you hear that a voice is boxy and reach for 500 Hz without sweeping around. That skill is trained by listening to one band at a time and checking your guess.

What Can You Do in the Ear Training Tool?

  • Explore: click any of nine octave bands, from 63 Hz to 16 kHz, and hear what boosting or cutting it does. A short note names the character of each band.
  • Quiz: ten questions per round. One band is changed; you compare it with the original and choose the band.
  • Four levels: from four bands with a 12 dB change to nine bands with only 3 dB.
  • Boosts, cuts or both: cuts are harder to hear than boosts and closer to real mixing work.
  • Your own audio: train on a song you know well in place of pink noise. The file stays on your device.
  • Results: after each round you see which bands you missed and how far off you were; your best score per level is remembered in this browser.

How to Get Better Quickly

Start in Explore and spend a few minutes switching between bands until each one has a sound you can name. Then take the quiz on the easy level, and move up when you score eight or more out of ten. Keep the volume moderate and the sessions short: ten minutes a day does more than an hour once a week, and tired ears stop hearing differences. After each answer the buttons stay active, so you can listen to the band you chose and to the right one before you go on. The method behind this is described in Audio Ear Training: How to Hear Frequencies.

Who Is It For?

Mixing and mastering engineers keeping their ears in shape, producers and podcasters who want to fix muddy or harsh recordings without guessing, and students of audio engineering. Once you can hear the problem band, the 3-Band EQ is the place to correct it.

How to Use the Ear Training Tool in 3 Steps

Step 1

Start the Sound

Press Start the sound. Use pink noise, or choose a song of your own.

Step 2

Explore the Bands

Click the bands and switch between Original and With EQ until you know what each band sounds like.

Step 3

Take the Quiz

Switch to Quiz, pick a level and answer ten questions. The result shows which bands to practice.

Ear Training

Sound

Use headphones or good speakers at a moderate volume. Small phone and laptop speakers cannot reproduce the lowest bands.
The band you click is
Quiz settings

These two settings apply to the quiz: how many bands there are and how big the change is, and whether the band is boosted, cut or either.

Score: 0 / 0

Your Result

Band Asked Correct

Shortcuts: Space switches between Original and With EQ, the number keys choose a band, and Enter goes to the next question.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the Ear Training tool really free?
Yes. The Ear Training tool is free to use, with no sign-up and no daily limits.

Why is EQ ear training useful?
Because it replaces searching with knowing. If you can hear that a recording has too much energy around 250 Hz, you fix it in seconds. Without that skill you sweep an equalizer back and forth and often change the wrong band.

What is pink noise, and why is it used?
Pink noise contains all audible frequencies with the same energy in every octave. Because no band is louder than another to begin with, a boost or a cut is equally easy to hear anywhere, which makes it a fair training signal.

Should I practice with pink noise or with music?
Begin with pink noise, where the change is clearest. Then switch to music you know well: it is harder, because a song does not have energy in every band all the time, but it is what you will be listening to when you mix.

Why are cuts harder to hear than boosts?
A boost adds something that stands out; a cut removes something, and the ear adapts quickly to what is missing. Most corrective mixing consists of cuts, so they are worth practicing.

How long should I practice?
Around ten minutes a day at a moderate volume. Hearing tires quickly, and tired ears make the differences seem smaller. Regular short sessions bring more progress than rare long ones.

Why can I not hear the 63 Hz or the 16 kHz band?
Small speakers and many earbuds do not reproduce 63 Hz, and the ability to hear 16 kHz declines with age. Use headphones for the low band, and do not worry if the highest one is faint.

Is my audio uploaded, and where are my scores kept?
Nothing is uploaded. Your audio file is opened and played in your browser, and your best scores are stored in this browser only; they are not sent anywhere.

Do I need to install any software?
No. The tool runs in your web browser on computers, phones and tablets.