Midrange Basics by Stephen Kelly

Stephen Kelly is a London-based engineer, producer and founder of understandingaudio.com. His goal is to help you take giant leaps forward on your audio journey.

Originally from Dublin, Stephen’s experience ranges from working in some of Europe’s top studios; taking creative lead on sound design for numerous award-winning animation series, to working as a consultant for Fortune 500 companies.

Throughout all of those experiences, he has never stopped working with artists and bands in the music industry from across the globe and creating free tutorials to help others like him.

If you want to share your journey with him and let him help you with proven techniques and strategies for success, then join him at understandingaudio.com.

Download the package

Click here to download the Midrange Basics package.

Then unzip it and use the import button to load the exercises in TrainYourEars.

The .zip file contains two folders: one with "Guess" mode exercises, and the other one with "Correct" mode exercises.

Stephen Kelly’s introduction:

Separation of the various frequency ranges (lows, low-mids, high-mids and highs) is not an exact science. Many engineers and many various equalizers will give you a different definition and they very often overlap. For the purposes of these exercises, we will assume that the low-mids are between 250Hz and 2kHz, with the high-mids starting at 2kHz and running to just around the 6kHz mark.

The fundamental frequencies of a lot of instruments lie in the low-mids (250Hz-2kHz). If you want to achieve definition, clear out the mud and really separate your mix well, you will need to get familiar with the frequencies in this range.

The high-mids (2k-6k) contain complex harmonics that our ears pick up on very easily. Loudness, brightness, clarity, presence and speech intelligibility are all associated with this range, so it’s essential that we train our ears to differentiate between the various frequencies in this range.

Most people usually master low-end or high end frequencies first and then start to get more attuned to what is going on in the midrange. Being able to further differentiate and fine tune between the low and high-mids can take a lot of work, but is worth it in the long run.

There are two exercises folders. One contains "Guess" mode exercises (1-13) and the other one "Correct" mode exercises (14-26).

Enjoy!

For more information about Stephen Kelly and free audio tutorials, visit his website www.understandingaudio.com.

List of Exercises

1. Low Mids - 250Hz or 500Hz (Guess)

Practise differentiating between the low-mid frequencies of 250Hz and 500Hz in Guess Mode.

2. Low Mids - 500Hz or 1kHz (Guess)

Practise differentiating between the low-mid frequencies of 500Hz and 1kHz in Guess Mode.

3. High Mids - 2kHz or 4kHz (Guess)

Practise differentiating between the high-mid frequencies of 2kHz and 4kHz in Guess Mode.

4. High Mids - 4kHz or 6.3kHz (Guess)

Practise differentiating between the high-mid frequencies of 4kHz and 6.3kHz in Guess Mode.

5. Low Mids - 250Hz to 500Hz (Guess)

Practise differentiating between various low-mid frequencies in the 250Hz to 500Hz range in Guess Mode.

6. Low Mids - 500Hz to 2kHz (Guess)

Practise differentiating between various low-mid frequencies in the 500Hz to 2kHz range in Guess Mode.

7. High Mids - 2kHz to 4kHz (Guess)

Practise differentiating between various high-mid frequencies in the 2kHz to 4kHz range in Guess Mode.

8. High Mids - 4kHz to 6.3kHz (Guess)

Practise differentiating between various high-mid frequencies in the 4kHz to 6.3kHz range in Guess Mode.

9. All Low Mids - 250Hz to 2kHz (Guess)

Practise differentiating between various low-mid frequencies in the 250Hz to 2kHz range in Guess Mode.

10. All High Mids - 2kHz to 6.3kHz (Guess)

Practise differentiating between various high-mid frequencies in the 2kHz to 6.3kHz range in Guess Mode.

11. All Midrange 1 (Guess)

Practise differentiating between various frequencies across the entire mid-range in Guess Mode.

12. All Midrange 2 (Guess)

Practise differentiating between various frequencies across the entire mid-range in Guess Mode.

13. All Midrange 3 (Guess)

Practise differentiating between various frequencies across the entire mid-range in Guess Mode.

14. Low Mids - 250Hz or 500Hz (Correct)

Practise differentiating between the low-mid frequencies of 250Hz and 500Hz in Correct Mode.

15. Low Mids - 500Hz or 1kHz (Correct)

Practise differentiating between the low-mid frequencies of 500Hz and 1kHz in Correct Mode.

16. High Mids - 2kHz or 4kHz (Correct)

Practise differentiating between the high-mid frequencies of 2kHz and 4kHz in Correct Mode.

17. High Mids - 4kHz or 6.3kHz (Correct)

Practise differentiating between the high-mid frequencies of 4kHz and 6.3kHz in Correct Mode.

18. Low Mids - 250Hz to 500Hz (Correct)

Practise differentiating between various low-mid frequencies in the 250Hz to 500Hz range in Correct Mode.

19. Low Mids - 500Hz to 2kHz (Correct)

Practise differentiating between various low-mid frequencies in the 500Hz to 2kHz range in Correct Mode.

20. High Mids - 2kHz to 4kHz (Correct)

Practise differentiating between various high-mid frequencies in the 2kHz to 4kHz range in Correct Mode.

21. High Mids - 4kHz to 6.3kHz (Correct)

Practise differentiating between various high-mid frequencies in the 4kHz to 6.3kHz range in Correct Mode.

22. All Low Mids - 250Hz to 2kHz (Correct)

Practise differentiating between various low-mid frequencies in the 250Hz to 2kHz range in Correct Mode.

23. All High Mids - 2kHz to 6.3kHz (Correct)

Practise differentiating between various high-mid frequencies in the 2kHz to 6.3kHz range in Correct Mode.

24. All Midrange 1 (Correct)

Practise differentiating between various frequencies across the entire mid-range in Correct Mode.

25. All Midrange 2 (Correct)

Practise differentiating between various frequencies across the entire mid-range in Correct Mode.

26. All Midrange 3 (Correct)

Practise differentiating between various frequencies across the entire mid-range in Correct Mode.

Questions and Feedback

If you have any questions or feedback about this package you can contact us. We'll be more than happy to help you out.

And if you have developed some interesting exercises and want to share them with the world, that's awesome! Just send us an email and we'll publish them here :)