Studio Mix ยท free drill

Frequency ID: Vocal

The bands that make or break a lead vocal.

Free drill, no account

Frequency ID: Vocal

The bands that make or break a lead vocal.

8 rounds, about two minutes. Headphones help. Nothing is saved until you choose to.

What you are training

A vocal has four bands that decide whether it sits forward or sinks: low mud around 200 to 300 Hz, honk around 800 Hz, presence around 3 to 5 kHz, and air above 10 kHz. Most vocal EQ decisions live in those four places, and most amateur vocal mixes are wrong in one of them: too much mud from a close mic, or a presence boost that turned sibilance into pain. This drill applies a boost or a cut to a real vocal phrase and asks you to name the band. Because the source is a voice rather than noise, you learn what each band sounds like on the instrument you will actually EQ, which transfers to the session in a way that noise-only ear training does not. Expect the 800 Hz and 3 kHz rounds to be the ones that separate a trained ear from a guess.

After this drill, the plan: The daily plan starts you on vocal mud and presence, the two bands behind almost every "my vocal sounds amateur" complaint, then adds air and honk.

Try another Studio Mix drill