Use Your Ear

EQ Workbench — Interactive 9-band parametric. · Quiz — Blind pivot trainer. · Listen — A/B reference mode. · Sweep — Manual sine + automatic

The 9 pivot points:

· 50 Hz — Depth & Weight · 100 Hz — Warmth & Punch · 200 Hz — Thickness & Mud · 500 Hz — Boxy & Gargle · 1 kHz — Nasal & Knock · 2 kHz — Edge & Clarity · 5 kHz — Presence & Bite · 10 kHz — Sizzle & Snap · 20 kHz — Air & Plastic

Each pivot mapped to perceptual adjectives — so you don't just memorize numbers, you learn what they SOUND like.

Four training modes:

EQ Workbench — Interactive 9-band parametric. Drag nodes vertically for gain, scroll wheel for Q, double-click to reset. Frequencies are locked to the pivot points (that's the whole point).

Quiz — Blind pivot trainer. The app boosts or cuts a random pivot on pink noise at Easy / Medium / Hard difficulty. A/B between processed and bypass, then pick the frequency + direction. Scoring tracks your accuracy over time.

Listen — A/B reference mode. Set gain and Q on a single pivot, toggle A/B against bypass, and read the "Boost to..." / "Cut to..." cheat sheet. Train your ear by hearing the same EQ move at multiple frequencies.

Sweep — Manual sine tone across the spectrum, plus an automatic logarithmic sweep from 20 Hz to 20 kHz with the nearest-pivot readout. Hear the spectrum, build the mental map.

Sources:

· Pink noise (Paul Kellet generator, 4-second loopable buffer) · Sine tone · Log sweep · Your own audio file · Live microphone (with feedback warning)

Hearing safety built in:

Three independent ways to instantly stop audio:

1. Mute button — instant silence, playback can resume
2. Stop button — tears down the audio source completely
3. Always: keep your master volume LOW, use headphones at safe levels

Sine tones and sweeps are internally attenuated to 15% of full scale.

Why is it free?

Tomorrow's working sound engineers are today's audio students. We want you to learn properly — not paywalled, not gated, not crippled. No ads. No data harvesting. Just a real tool.

Where next?

· Surviving Audio — Plan and design PA systems before the show · Soundtools Pro — Real-time tools during the show

Three apps, one story: train, plan, execute.