Free EQ ear training tools
Short answer: yes, you can train your ears for EQ for free, in a browser, on a desktop or on a phone. Which one depends on what you want from it.
- Free in a browser, nothing to sign up for: eqtrainer.app for quick band guessing, SonicSandbox for the most free games, or the free demo at Critical Listening Lab.
- Free on your own music: SonicSandbox in a browser, EarQuiz Frequencies on Mac, Windows or Linux, or EQ Academy on Mac or Windows once you’ve done 30 levels.
- On a phone: MixSense (iPhone, Android and web) has a free tier; Quiztones and EQ Perfect (iPhone) are free downloads with in-app purchases; Freqy (Android) has a free trial, then limited daily training.
- More than EQ, with a free tier: Reverie Mix (15 rounds a day) or SoundGym (three games per workout).
- EQ on real mixes, from naming bands to fixing the problem instrument: Mix Chops, in a browser.
I make Mix Chops, one of the tools below, so weigh that. Everything here about the other tools was read from their own websites and app store listings on 4 October 2026. “Not stated” means the maker’s pages don’t say. Free tiers and prices change: check the maker’s page before you rely on one.
At a glance
| Tool | Runs on | What’s free | Account for the free part | Your own music | Trains |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| eqtrainer.app | Browser | All of it | No | No (uploads listed as a possible feature) | EQ |
| SonicSandbox | Browser | All of it, 18 games | No (one tracks your stats) | Yes, free | EQ, dynamics, effects, panning, music theory |
| PAS Media Academy | Browser | Two trainers | No for level 1; free account for level 2 | No | EQ |
| Free Audio Lab | Browser | All of it (with ads) | No | No | EQ, on pink noise |
| Audiodrillz | Browser, desktop only | Games play with no price shown | Not stated | Not stated | EQ, compression, effects, panning |
| Mix Chops | Browser, computer or phone | Daily session and levels 1 and 2 of every exercise; every level during early access | No | Not yet (planned) | EQ |
| Critical Listening Lab | Browser | An EQ demo | No for the demo | Not stated | EQ, dynamics, space and more (paid) |
| Reverie Mix | Browser, computer or phone | All 7 exercises, 15 rounds a day | Yes (one round without) | Not stated | EQ, compression, stereo, phase, loudness |
| SoundGym | Browser | The same 3 games in each workout | Yes | Not stated | EQ, compression, panning, space |
| EQ Academy | Mac, Windows | All of it | Mailing list sign-up | Yes, after 30 levels | EQ: frequency, gain, Q, mid/side |
| EarQuiz Frequencies | Mac, Windows, Linux | All of it (open source) | No | Yes, free | EQ |
| MixSense | iPhone, Android, web | Core exercises and daily sessions | Not stated (accounts by email or Google) | Not stated | EQ, compression, balance, effects |
| Quiztones | iPhone and iPad (Mac app is paid) | Free download; which quizzes are free is not stated | Not stated | Yes; on iPhone, whether free or Pro is not stated | EQ, frequency, gain |
| Freqy | Android | 7-day Pro trial, then limited daily training | Not stated | Yes; whether free or Pro is not stated | EQ |
| EQ Perfect | iPhone, iPad | Free download; what’s free is not stated | Not stated | Not stated | EQ |
What “free” means here
Different things, tool to tool:
- Free all the way through: eqtrainer.app, SonicSandbox, PAS Media Academy, Free Audio Lab, EQ Academy and EarQuiz Frequencies. Audiodrillz shows no price at all.
- A free tier, with more in a paid one: Reverie Mix, SoundGym, MixSense and Mix Chops (whose Pro isn’t on sale yet).
- A free demo: Critical Listening Lab.
- A free trial, then limited daily training: Freqy.
- A free download whose maker doesn’t say how much is free: Quiztones and EQ Perfect.
A free tier is fine to learn on. What changes between them is how far it goes, and whether you have to sign up first.
eqtrainer.app
A free web page by a solo developer: listen to a boosted frequency, hold to hear it bypassed, set your guess and submit, ten rounds a game. Pink noise or music, four difficulty levels, an adjustable boost and Q, a daily challenge, and a mode for phone speakers. No sign-in. The developer says the website will stay free; a mobile app is listed as planned, and uploading your own tracks as a possibility.
Official page: eqtrainer.app.
SonicSandbox
An independent project by Zach Snider, free with no subscription: 18 games across EQ, dynamics, effects, panning, signal-chain order and music theory. The EQ games include a frequency quiz (boosts, cuts or both, from ±12 dB down to ±2 dB), matching a hidden EQ curve, and picking which of two curves is on. Every game can play pink noise, one-shots, loops or your own files, and you can upload a whole folder of your music for free. A free account tracks your rounds, streak and stats.
Official page: sonicsandbox.app.
PAS Media Academy
Two free browser trainers from a sound and media college in South Africa. One plays a synth pad with one band cut by 9 dB and you name the missing band; the other plays pink noise with one band boosted by 9 dB. Four choices a question, ten rounds a session. Level 1 needs no account; level 2 and saved scores need a free one.
Official page: PAS Media Academy ear training.
Free Audio Lab
A free, ad-supported site of audio tools with one EQ game: pink noise with one band boosted by 12 dB, and you pick from five bands (60 Hz, 250 Hz, 1 kHz, 4 kHz and 10 kHz). No sign-up and no daily limit. Pink noise only, so it’s a first step rather than training on music.
Official page: Free Audio Lab ear training.
Audiodrillz
Twelve browser games, three of them EQ (name a boosted frequency, name a cut one, name the filter type), plus gain, panning, compression, distortion, delay and reverb, on genre loops, instruments or noise. The games play with no sign-in or price shown. It says it’s desktop only for now. The site doesn’t name its maker, and its terms are dated 2019.
Official page: audiodrillz.app.
Mix Chops
Mine. EQ ear training in the browser, on a computer or a phone, with no account needed. It’s a path of seven exercises that goes past naming bands: Identify the band, Sweep to find a boost, Hunt a ringing resonance and cut it, Restore an EQ move, fix a sound with cuts only, re-judge a solo move in context, and Fix the Mix: find the one instrument that’s muddy, boxy or harsh in a full mix and cut it there. The music is split into stems, so a problem can sit on one instrument. The daily session and the first two levels of every exercise are free; Pro isn’t on sale yet, and while Mix Chops is in early access every level is open.
Its limits: it trains EQ only, and you can’t load your own music yet (that’s planned for Pro).
Critical Listening Lab
A browser course across EQ, dynamics, space and more, mostly paid. Its free EQ demo needs no sign-up: pink noise with one band boosted or cut, flip between flat and the quiz and pick the band, starting at 12 dB and getting harder as you get it right. The demo doesn’t save a session; a free account saves your results. Paid plans are early-bird priced in dollars (the page doesn’t name the currency): $19.99 a month, $169 a year or $399 for life.
Reverie Mix
Seven browser exercises on real music: EQ frequency, a high-pass by ear, compressor attack and release, stereo image, phase and loudness matching. One round is free with no sign-up; a free account gets all seven exercises, 15 rounds a day, with no card. Pro is US$12 a month or US$120 a year, for unlimited rounds and more.
Official pages: reveriemix.com, pricing.
SoundGym
Browser games across frequency, compression, panning and space, in a daily workout. Free members get the same three games in each workout, with basic training sounds; Pro opens every game, five per workout. Pro comes as monthly, yearly and lifetime plans in US dollars, with prices shown once you’re signed in. More on it, and on the paid tools, in SoundGym alternatives.
Official pages: soundgym.co, Pro.
EQ Academy
A free desktop app from Mastering The Mix for Mac and Windows, with the longest free EQ path here: 100 levels in 10 sections, where you match your EQ to a hidden target, starting with one band’s gain and building to frequency, Q, mid/side and several bands. Song import unlocks after 30 levels. To get it free you join their mailing list.
Official page: EQ Academy.
EarQuiz Frequencies
Free, open-source desktop software for Windows, Mac and Linux, based on David Moulton’s Golden Ears method. A learn mode switches an octave or third-octave graphic EQ on and off; a test mode asks which bands were boosted or cut, ten at a time. Pink noise, music, or your own files (WAV, AIFF, FLAC, MP3, OGG), with 15 presets of rising difficulty. No account.
Official page: EarQuiz Frequencies.
MixSense
Short lessons and game-style exercises on iPhone, Android and the web, across EQ, compression, balance and effects. The free tier has the core exercises, daily sessions and progress tracking, and the maker says you can “train as much as you want, completely free”. Accounts are by email or Google. Premium on the US App Store is US$9.99 a month or US$49.99 a year. The App Store listing notes it contains advertising.
Official pages: mixsense.co, App Store, Google Play.
Quiztones
From The Pro Audio Files: frequency, EQ and gain quizzes on loops, instruments and tones, and you can import your own music. The iPhone and iPad app is a free download with in-app purchases (Pro is US$4.99 a month or US$19.99 a year); the maker doesn’t say which quizzes are free, or whether your own music is part of Pro. The Mac app is a separate US$19.99 purchase. No Android or Windows version.
Freqy
A new Android app (May 2026): name a boosted or cut band from ten, on pink or white noise or your own music, with bells, shelves, filters and notches. It’s free to download with a 7-day Pro trial, then “limited daily training” (the limit isn’t given). Pro is $4.99 a month or $39.99 a year on its site, which doesn’t name the currency. An iPhone version is “being considered”.
Official pages: freqy.app, Google Play.
EQ Perfect
An iPhone and iPad app of lessons on a DAW-style parametric EQ, with a set of free songs to train on. It’s a free download; its in-app purchases unlock units 2 and 3 and unlimited hearts, which suggests the first unit is free, but the listing doesn’t say.
Official page: App Store.
Not free, for comparison
hearEQ (Ten Kettles, iPhone and iPad) trains EQ on your own songs or its built-in tracks, and costs US$5.99 to download. TrainYourEars EQ Edition (Mac and Windows) is built around your own music and costs €49 once; its support page says there’s no demo at the moment. TrainYourEars is also compared in SoundGym alternatives.
How to choose
- Just starting: name boosted bands on pink noise first, in most of the browser tools. Then move to music. How to train your ears for EQ has a routine.
- On your own songs, free: SonicSandbox in a browser, EarQuiz Frequencies or EQ Academy on a desktop.
- On a phone: MixSense for the widest range, Quiztones for focused quizzes on iPhone, Freqy on Android.
- A little every day: the daily sessions in Mix Chops, MixSense and SoundGym, or Reverie Mix’s 15 free rounds a day.
- Past naming bands: matching an EQ (EQ Academy, SonicSandbox), or finding and fixing the problem instrument in a mix (Mix Chops).
Questions
Is there a free EQ ear training tool online?
Yes, several. eqtrainer.app, SonicSandbox and Free Audio Lab are free all the way through in a browser, with no sign-up. Mix Chops, Reverie Mix, SoundGym and MixSense (which has a web app) have free tiers, and Critical Listening Lab has a free demo.
What’s the best free EQ ear training app?
It depends on where you train. In a browser, SonicSandbox has the most free games (18), and Mix Chops ends on finding and fixing the problem instrument in a full mix. On a desktop, EQ Academy has 100 levels of matching EQ. On a phone, MixSense says its core exercises are free, with no cap.
Can I train on my own music for free?
Yes: SonicSandbox (browser), EarQuiz Frequencies (Mac, Windows, Linux) and EQ Academy (Mac and Windows, after 30 levels) all let you, for free. Quiztones and Freqy support your own music, but don’t say whether that part is free.
Is SoundGym free?
Partly. Free members get the same three games in each workout, with basic training sounds. Pro opens every game and five per workout.
Is Mix Chops free?
Yes, to start. The daily session and the first two levels of every exercise are free, with no account. While Mix Chops is in early access, every level is open to everyone.
Do I need headphones?
Headphones or decent speakers. Laptop and phone speakers can’t play the lowest bands, so the low end turns into guesswork.