# Learn EQ by ear

> EQ explainers and practice guides by a mix engineer, each with a demo you can play: what EQ is, filters, mix problems, and how to train your ears.

Page: https://mixchops.com/learn

By [Dan Murtagh](https://danmurtagh.com/about), mix engineer and audio production teacher

Explainers and practice guides, each with a demo you can play. Hear the idea on music split into separate instruments, flip it off and on, then train it in the exercise that goes with it.

## Explainers

The ideas behind EQ and mixing, each with a demo.

- [What is EQ?](https://mixchops.com/learn/what-is-eq): Trains: Identify · What an equaliser does to a sound, on a full mix: a range of frequencies turned up or down.
- [What each frequency sounds like](https://mixchops.com/learn/what-frequencies-sound-like): Trains: Identify, Sweep · Play each of the nine bands boosted or cut, on noise and a mix, and learn a name for every one.
- [Parametric EQ](https://mixchops.com/learn/parametric-eq): Trains: Sweep, Restore · Frequency, gain and Q, the three controls on every bell band. Hear what each one does.
- [High-pass and low-pass filters](https://mixchops.com/learn/high-pass-low-pass-filters): Trains: Cuts Only · Take out everything below or above a point. Where a high-pass goes on a vocal, and when it goes too far.
- [Shelving EQ](https://mixchops.com/learn/shelving-eq): Trains: Cuts Only · Lift or lower everything above or below a frequency, and how a shelf differs from a bell and a filter.
- [Mix problems you can hear](https://mixchops.com/learn/mix-problems): Trains: Fix the Mix, Hunt · Muddy, boxy, honky, harsh, sibilant and dull: what each sounds like and where to look for it.
- [What does a compressor do?](https://mixchops.com/learn/what-does-a-compressor-do): Trains: Compressed or Dry, How Much, Attack · It turns the loud moments down. Hear it on drums with the levels matched, so louder is never the clue.
- [Mixing on headphones](https://mixchops.com/learn/mixing-on-headphones): Trains: Daily Session · It works if you know what your headphones hide. Check the low end, then train on what you mix on.

## Practice guides

How to train a skill by ear: a routine, what to listen for, and the exercise that drills it.

- [How to train your ears for EQ](https://mixchops.com/learn/train-your-ears-for-eq): Trains: Identify, Daily Session · A short daily routine: start on pink noise with a few bands, move to music, and learn the neighbours you confuse.
- [Critical listening](https://mixchops.com/learn/critical-listening): Trains: Daily Session, Restore · Listening for what is actually there: what critical listening is, why loudness fools it, and how to practise.
- [How to find resonant frequencies](https://mixchops.com/learn/find-resonant-frequencies): Trains: Hunt, Sweep · Find a ringing frequency by ear with a narrow boost and a sweep, then cut it, and practise until it gets quick.
- [Subtractive EQ](https://mixchops.com/learn/subtractive-eq): Trains: Cuts Only, Fix the Mix · Fix a sound by taking away what is in the way rather than adding more. When to cut, and how to practise it.
- [How to fix a muddy mix](https://mixchops.com/learn/fix-a-muddy-mix): Trains: Fix the Mix, Solo to Context · Mud is the low mids piling up. Find the part adding the most with the band playing, then cut there.
- [How to build a static mix](https://mixchops.com/learn/build-a-static-mix): Trains: Restore the Balance, Louder or Softer · Set the faders before anything else: an order to build it in, what to listen for, and how to check the balance.

## How the demos work

Every demo plays in your browser, most of them on music split into separate instruments, so a move can be made on the whole mix or on one part of it. Press play, then flip between the two sides. Where the point is the tone, the processed side plays at the same loudness as the clean side, so it can’t sound better just by being louder. Each demo says whether its levels are matched.

Use headphones or decent speakers. Laptop and phone speakers can’t play the lowest bands, so the low end turns into guesswork.

Looking for which frequencies each instrument lives in? That’s the [EQ frequency chart](https://danmurtagh.com/eq-frequency-chart) on danmurtagh.com. Ready to train? [See all the EQ exercises](https://mixchops.com/eq).