Advanced Audio Ear Training for Mix Engineers

Dan Thompson

Authored by Dan Thompson

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Course Code: OMPRD-262

Focused listening skills take priority in this undergraduate music production course, where you’ll train your ears to identify instruments, frequencies, spatial placement, and processing choices. Through analysis of professional mixes, you’ll refine perception of reverb, compression, sonic character, and global instrumentation across diverse genres.

Level 2
Intermediate
Modality
Online
Duration
12 Weeks
3-Credit Tuition
$1,575
Semester Starts
Apr 6
Accreditation
NECHE

Key Learning Outcomes

  • Identify instruments, ranges, and key mix frequencies by ear to make faster, more confident mix decisions
  • Analyze professional mixes to understand how instruments interact harmonically and spatially across genres
  • Hear and distinguish specific reverb, delay, and compression settings—including timing, dynamics, and stereo behavior
  • Differentiate recording and processing choices by listening for changes in tone, space, and transient detail
Overview Syllabus Requirements Instructors Related Music Career Role
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Course Description

Advanced Audio Ear Training for Mix Engineers continues a process you began in Critical Listening 1: developing the ability to hear and identify the key features of a well-balanced, artful, and professional-sounding mix. This course will open your ears to gain a heightened level of music listening and awareness, while expanding your production palette and vocabulary.

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In this course, you'll learn how to identify various instruments across different genres—such as classical, big band, world music, and electronica—as well as instruments from around the world, including Latin America, the Caribbean, Brazil, India, and the Middle East. The course will examine the ranges of these instruments and their key mix frequencies, in addition to panning, mix concepts, and sound stages.

Advanced Audio Ear Training for Mix Engineers also provides an in-depth exploration of natural and artificial reverb, delay, and compression settings, and their effect on mixes and what we hear. You will study advanced sonic stamp, with in-depth comparisons of microphones, mic pre-amps, and amplifiers, as well as stereo mic configurations. Throughout the course, you will analyze professional recordings and strengthen your listening skills through advanced audio ear training drills.

By the end of this course, you will be able to:

  • Identify and contextualize orchestral, big band, world, and electronic instruments by listening for harmonic range, ensemble role, and mix placement
  • Recognize advanced spatial cues—including panning, soundstage depth, phase interaction, and delay-based localization—in complex stereo mixes
  • Evaluate microphone types, stereo configurations, and signal paths by ear, distinguishing their impact on harmonic content and sonic character
  • Hear the effect of sonic stamp: the impact that microphone and even mic-preamp choices have on the music and instruments you record
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Syllabus

Lesson 1: The Orchestra

  • The Orchestra: Position and Setup
  • Strings
  • Harmonic Range
  • Woodwinds
  • Brass

Lesson 2: The Big Band

  • The Big Band
  • Brass
  • Reed Winds
  • Rhythm Section
  • The Mix

Lesson 3: Orchestral Percussion

  • Percussion
  • Definite Pitched Percussion
  • Indefinite Pitched Percussion

Lesson 4: World Percussion

  • World Music
  • Latin America/Carribbean
  • Jamaica/Trinidad-Steel Drum (Steel Pan)
  • Brazil/Africa
  • India/Middle East

Lesson 5: World Music Instruments: Part 1

  • World Music Instruments
  • Latin America/Caribbean
  • Brazil/Africa

Lesson 6: World Music Instruments: Part 2

  • World Music Instruments
  • India/Middle East
  • Other Regions

Lesson 7: Electronic Music

  • Electronic Music
  • Analog vs. Digital
  • Digital Timbres
  • Listening into the Mix

Lesson 8: Delay Revisited

  • Delay
  • Delay as Panner: Inter-Aural Cues
  • Phase
  • Delay-Based Effects
  • Flanging
  • Chorusing

Lesson 9: Reverb Revisited

  • Room Acoustics
  • Pre-Delay
  • Other Parameters

Lesson 10: Compression Revisited

  • Compression
  • Attack
  • Release
  • Peak Limiting versus Dynamic Compression Copy
  • Dynamic Limiting
  • Mis-settings and Artifacts
  • Stereo Compression

Lesson 11: Microphones

  • Microphones
  • Transducer Types
  • Advanced Sonic Stamp Properties
  • More Microphone Properties
  • Harmonic Distortion-Tube vs. Solid State
  • Stereo Miking Techniques

Lesson 12: Final Listening Evaluation/Advanced Sonic Stamp

  • Listening Review
  • Listening Examples
  • Advanced Sonic Stamp
  • Where Do I Go from Here?
  • Additional Resources
  • Growing Your Current Setup

Requirements

Prerequisites and Course-Specific Requirements 

Prerequisite Courses, Knowledge, and/or Skills
Completion of Critical Listening 1 or equivalent knowledge and experience is required.

Textbook(s)

Media and Subscriptions

  • Tidal subscription

Software

  • Full-featured Digital Audio Workstation (DAW), such as Pro Tools (Studio or Ultimate), Logic Pro, Cubase Pro, Ableton Live (Suite or Standard), Reaper, Reason, or FL Studio (Producer or Signature). Note that GarageBand is not acceptable.
  • Real-time analyzer (RTA) plugin, such as BlueCat FreqAnalyst (free), Voxengo SPAN (free), etc.
  • Deeply sampled orchestral libraries covering all standard families, such as Orchestral Tools Berlin Orchestra Created with Berklee
    • Recommended: In addition, sample libraries covering a wide range of instruments from around the world beyond those typically found in a standard Western orchestra, such as one of the following: 
      • East West RA, Silk, and Stormdrum 2 or 3 (all included in the EW Composer Cloud subscription, which also includes orchestral libraries)
      • UVI World Suite
      • Best Service Ethno World 6
  • Virtual audio routing software. Options include:
  • Word processing software, such as Microsoft Word, Google Docs (free), Apple Pages, Apache OpenOffice (free), etc.
  • Recommended: Real-time analyzer (RTA), such as:

Hardware

Student Deals
After enrolling, be sure to check out our Student Deals page for various offers on software, hardware, and more. Please contact support@online.berklee.edu with any questions.

General Course Requirements

Below are the minimum requirements to access the course environment and participate in Live Classes. Please make sure to also check the Prerequisites and Course-Specific Requirements section above, and ensure your computer meets or exceeds the minimum system requirements for all software needed for your course. 

Mac Users

  • macOS Monterey 12.0 or later

PC Users

All Users

  • Latest version of Google Chrome
  • Zoom meeting software
  • Webcam
  • Speakers or headphones
  • External or internal microphone
  • Broadband Internet connection

Instructors

Dan Thompson
Dan Thompson

Author

Daniel M. Thompson is assistant chair of Music Production and Engineering (MP&E) at Berklee College of Music, where he has taught advanced production, recording, and mix techniques, as well as music technology for more than two decades.

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An independent writer/producer and Latin Grammy Award-winning recording engineer, his credits include work on records, feature films, and numerous network and cable television series and movies, including ER, The Sopranos, Melrose Place, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Touched by an Angel, NCIS, and Monk, to name just a few.

Dan has authored articles on music technology for EQ and Electronic Musician, and has been a presenter and clinician on music production topics in the US, Europe, and Central and South America, including at the Panama Jazz Festival.

His book Understanding Audio: Getting the Most Out of Your Project or Professional Recording Studio (Berklee Press/Hal Leonard) is a required textbook for Berklee College of Music's MP&E classes, as well as for numerous other music production and engineering programs throughout the US and abroad. Read Less

David Lefkowitz
David Lefkowitz

Instructor

David Lefkowitz has been teaching in higher education since 2000. He has taught courses such as physics, acoustics, electronics, sound design for visual media, music theory, audio technology, digital audio, advanced recording, and advanced mixing. David served as the assistant department chair for the Audio Production department at the New England Institute of Art. He also moderated/coordinated for the Boston area Pro Tools User Group (PTUG) and has presented at the Parson’s Expo and at other events. He is a Pro Tools certified expert instructor.

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Under his independent business name, Lefko Productions, David worked on records with international and regional artists including Johnny A, Stuart Kimball, the Beloved Few, Entrain, Kol B’Seder, Dany Silva, Bana, and the Mendes Brothers. Bana and the Mendes Brothers were featured in the Putumayo World Disk Series. Dave was a principal business partner of Renaissance Recording Company, a commercial recording facility in Boston’s Back Bay where he worked as the chief recording engineer.

David's passions are composition and songwriting and he is currently producing his fifth full-length album. David is additionally skilled as a playwright, a show producer, a show director, and as a musical artist. Unyfi, David's audience-centered comical rock arts show featured his compositions. Unyfi performed at the Regent Theatre and at A.R.T. Oberon in 2015. Recently, David has been venturing into sound design and so far has worked on various films including Archie's Betty, Celling Your Soul, and Whaling City. David also produced and directed a film dedicated to the legendary Boston rock club "The Rat," featuring a variety of Boston rock artists including the Dropkick Murphys. He is a member of the Audio Engineering Society (AES) and Broadcast Music Inc. Read Less

What's Next?

When taken for credit, Advanced Audio Ear Training for Mix Engineers can be applied towards the completion of these related programs:

Related Certificate Programs

Related Degree Majors

Related Music Career Role

Employers look for skills learned in this course, when hiring for the following music career role:

Live Sound Systems Engineer

Questions?

Contact our Academic Advisors by phone at 1-866-BERKLEE (U.S.), 1-617-747-2146 (INT'L), or by email at advisors@online.berklee.edu.

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