Mission 008
How We Hear
Ears, brains, and why context changes everything.
Your ears are biased measuring instruments. Mix around their quirks.
+40 XP🏅 Sound Scientist
// WHAT IT DOES
The outer ear funnels sound to the eardrum. The eardrum vibrates and pushes three tiny bones in the middle ear, which amplify and pass the motion to the cochlea — a fluid-filled spiral lined with hair cells.
Different positions along the cochlea respond to different frequencies. Hair cells convert that vibration into nerve signals. The brain reads the pattern as pitch, loudness, location, and .
Your hearing is not flat. You're most sensitive around 2–5 kHz (baby cry / consonant range) and less sensitive at the extremes. Low and high content needs more energy to seem 'equal'.
Think of it like → Your ear is a violin's body, not a perfect microphone — every frequency gets coloured before it reaches your brain.
▸ WHY YOU CARE
- • This is why mixes change at different volumes (Fletcher-Munson).
- • Why ear fatigue is real — and dangerous past 85 sustained.
- • Why presence around 2–4 kHz feels 'forward' even at low boosts.
// SEE & HEAR IT
EAR TRAINING
SoundGym-style musical drills. Train the ear producers actually need.
▸ HOW IT WORKS
▸ Signal flow — watch the dot
▸ SIGNAL FLOW
Glowing dot = your signal travelling through Live.
▸ LISTEN FOR
- • The 2–5 kHz 'presence' bias in your perception.
- • Volume-dependent EQ balance shifts.
- • Stereo image collapse when you nod your head (HRTF in action).
▸ WALKTHROUGH (5 steps)
- 1. DO: Play a mix at 60 dB then 90 dB SPL.▸ LISTEN: Loud version has obviously more bass and treble — same mix, different ears.
- 2. DO: Listen to a sine sweep at constant amplitude.▸ LISTEN: It seems quieter at 50 Hz and 15 kHz than at 3 kHz — your sensitivity is not flat.
- 3. DO: After an hour of loud mixing, take 15 minutes off and re-listen.▸ LISTEN: Things you thought were 'fine' suddenly reveal problems — your ears were tired.
- 4. DO: Reference a mix at 65 dB SPL, then at 85 dB SPL.▸ LISTEN: Bass and highs feel louder at 85 — Fletcher–Munson curve.
- 5. DO: Mix for 15 minutes, then take a 5-minute silent break.▸ LISTEN: Returning, you hear problems your fatigued ears were hiding.
▸ COMMON MISTAKES
- ✗ Mixing too loud and adding too little bass.
- ✗ Ignoring ear fatigue and trusting late-session decisions.
- ✗ Skipping low-volume checks.
// QUIZ (QUICK)
Question 1 / 40 correct
What structure in the ear separates frequencies along its length?