Do you have Golden Ears?

[Tomás Mulcahy]

This is an excellent, and free, tool from Philips to improve your critical listening skills.
http://www.goldenears.philips.com

[Hugh Robjohns]

It is good... but it takes forever to work through!

H

[gingertimmins]

It's pretty fun. the basic level is a bit....basic...
To Hark back to the windows 10 thread in the Pc forum, my touch screen works really well on this!

[Barry Garlow]

I don't know if i have golden ears, but i have incredible hearing.

A few years ago i was suffering from, lets say, unsteadiness, not dizziness, but as if i'd just got off a boat.

The GP thought it was something to do with my ears and refered me to the Audiology department, part of Tunbridge Wells hospital group.

I met this guy, an amazing white coated boffin with all this weird equipment stuck on a big portacabin at the back of one of the blocks. He did strange things to me like putting a skull cap on me and firing electronic pulses, putting me in a pitch black room with a floating table and a red laser spot on the walls while testing my hearing... this amongst other things like a full hearing test with lots of weird steampunk looking equipment.

I was there for a couple of hours, very interesting actually. At the end of it he told me that i had the most amazing hearing that was almost up to the baseline devised back in the 50s(?) i think.

This baseline was created by taking a load of 16 year olds who lived and had always lived in the countryside; somewhere nice and quiet. The idea was that these people would be right at the top of their game as far as human hearing sensitivity was concerned.

They tested all these kids and took a mean, and that is the UK standard baseline for perfect hearing.

And i had that

He said he'd never tested a middle aged man with such perfect hearing.

So there!

[TheReson8or]

I don't know if i have golden ears, but i have incredible hearing.

A few years ago i was suffering from, lets say, unsteadiness, not dizziness, but as if i'd just got off a boat.

The GP thought it was something to do with my ears and refered me to the Audiology department, part of Tunbridge Wells hospital group.

I met this guy, an amazing white coated boffin with all this weird equipment stuck on a big portacabin at the back of one of the blocks. He did strange things to me like putting a skull cap on me and firing electronic pulses, putting me in a pitch black room with a floating table and a red laser spot on the walls while testing my hearing... this amongst other things like a full hearing test with lots of weird steampunk looking equipment.

I was there for a couple of hours, very interesting actually. At the end of it he told me that i had the most amazing hearing that was almost up to the baseline devised back in the 50s(?) i think.

This baseline was created by taking a load of 16 year olds who lived and had always lived in the countryside; somewhere nice and quiet. The idea was that these people would be right at the top of their game as far as human hearing sensitivity was concerned.

They tested all these kids and took a mean, and that is the UK standard baseline for perfect hearing.

And i had that

He said he'd never tested a middle aged man with such perfect hearing.

So there!

Speak up man, you're mumbling!!!

[Folderol]

I don't know if i have golden ears, but i have incredible hearing.

A few years ago i was suffering from, lets say, unsteadiness, not dizziness, but as if i'd just got off a boat.

The GP thought it was something to do with my ears and refered me to the Audiology department, part of Tunbridge Wells hospital group.

I met this guy, an amazing white coated boffin with all this weird equipment stuck on a big portacabin at the back of one of the blocks. He did strange things to me like putting a skull cap on me and firing electronic pulses, putting me in a pitch black room with a floating table and a red laser spot on the walls while testing my hearing... this amongst other things like a full hearing test with lots of weird steampunk looking equipment.

I was there for a couple of hours, very interesting actually. At the end of it he told me that i had the most amazing hearing that was almost up to the baseline devised back in the 50s(?) i think.

This baseline was created by taking a load of 16 year olds who lived and had always lived in the countryside; somewhere nice and quiet. The idea was that these people would be right at the top of their game as far as human hearing sensitivity was concerned.

They tested all these kids and took a mean, and that is the UK standard baseline for perfect hearing.

And i had that

He said he'd never tested a middle aged man with such perfect hearing.

So there!

That's all very well, but did you find out what was causing the unsteadiness?
Seriously, you've just described something I get from time to time.

[damoore]

After all that testing, I would be experiencing unsteadiness too.

Thing is though, did he test to see if you could distinguish between an oboe and a cor anglais being doubled by a clarinet? That would be one viable definition of "golden" ears. Especially if you can do it at "p".

[Barry Garlow]

What was causing the unsteadiness? I was spending quite a bit of time at a screen then, and had a bad posture. He suggested that it might be my neck muscles and that i should try and improve my working environment, chair, position of stuff, bigger better screen etc.

It was something we spoke about when he was winding up the session; that there was a health time-bomb approaching because of the use of screens and the implications for posture.

You have to take care of your posture and neck. The muscles in the shoulders and neck have been implicated in various seemingly unrelated conditions.

But also my general health wasn't that great, diet not so good, working too much, not sleeping enough etc.

I had a sort of general physical clean up and dropped some weight, wlaked more etc and also (importantly) went back and thought about some Alexander Technique classes i took in the 80s... with all that it seemed to go away bit by bit. Still get it now and again but its not at worrying levels, just the odd "wooops-wayhay" now and again.

But as with all things weird, if its worrying you Folderol, then go and see the quack and don't take no/pill for an answer.

Sorry, didn't mean to hihjack this thread.

[The Red Bladder]

I too get bouts of unsteadiness sometimes. It worries me sometimes and it also can be accompanied by double vision and a lack of top-end hearing. Nobody knows where this comes from, but I have noticed that it comes in the evening, usually after I have had several beers.

[Guy Johnson]

Hmm, yes. Me too, almost exactly.

[Hugh Robjohns]

I've always put it down to an allergic reaction to the kind of aluminium used in the tinnies...

H

[John Reid]

did he test to see if you could distinguish between an oboe and a cor anglais being doubled by a clarinet? That would be one viable definition of "golden" ears. Especially if you can do it at "p".

If that's what you're worrying about, then perhaps it's not an audiologist you should have the appointment with.

[molecular]

I realise this is mostly a bit of fun, but nonetheless I'd find it interesting to know what "level" of critical listening skills the more seasoned pros on here think that people should be aiming for at what stages...

I haven't completed this philips one yet (I started it on headphones in a fairly noisy home environment and hit an error on the treble section of silver so I figured it would make more sense to do the rest in the actual studio!) - but I've also used Harman Kardon's How To Listen software as well.

But I like to have something to aim at, and if there do turn out to be any elements of this I have any difficulty with it would be useful to know beforehand what I should be working hard to improve on, and what might be a perfectly normal shortcoming that will improve with experience, for example...

up until I packed it in at home I genuinely found most of it so far quite straight forward. But should I expect to complete it without any problems in the studio, or does golden ears in this context actually mean golden ears or what?

and if anyone with a decent skills base should be able to complete this without significant problems, is there anything similar that goes above and beyond? (I don't know how difficult HK's gets, as was just mucking about for a bit with it).

and if I decided to use this as a teaching tool for high school pupils as an interesting bit of fun during music workshops, where should I set the bar for someone with NO experience (but presumably, as mentioned, supernatural HF sensitivity)...

Any thoughts?

[ConcertinaChap]

Hopefully not but just possibly labyrinthitis. Do get yourself checked out.

CC

[Exalted Wombat]

and if I decided to use this as a teaching tool for high school pupils as an interesting bit of fun during music workshops, where should I set the bar for someone with NO experience (but presumably, as mentioned, supernatural HF sensitivity)...

Any thoughts?

Why do you need a bar? Everyone gets as high as they get. Then you do some teaching, maybe they get a bit higher.

[molecular]

and if I decided to use this as a teaching tool for high school pupils as an interesting bit of fun during music workshops, where should I set the bar for someone with NO experience (but presumably, as mentioned, supernatural HF sensitivity)...

Any thoughts?

Why do you need a bar? Everyone gets as high as they get. Then you do some teaching, maybe they get a bit higher.

I entirely agree! I mostly want a bar for myself because I am the sort of prat that keeps track of how many Qs I get right on university challenge each week. And as mentioned - every now and again some kind of test or challenge like this gets posted on forums and it's very rare for anyone to actually admit to, or explain, what they think counts as a good level, a beginners level, an easy challenge or a very high level challenge, so I am hoping to coax some thoughts on this from anyone willing to confess to not being able to do something, or at least that it was hard. (again, I haven't finished the test yet)

Re: teaching - I am probably talking about specific elements of it here, and I am wondering if anyone on the forum has experience of talking about this kind of thing with 12-14yr olds. Not because I think they *need* a bar, but because this is the kind of area of knowledge that has the potential to be very off-putting if something too difficult or boringly easy is presented. So maybe I more mean - has anyone had a good experience of using this sort of thing with that age range? or would anyone suggest not going near it with a bargepole?

[Exalted Wombat]

I skimmed through the tests until the right answer stopped being glaringly obvious. Then it started teaching me something. If there's a fault in the site's design, it's that it could be a bit more "intelligent" and get you to YOUR learning zone a bit quicker.

[Tomás Mulcahy]

OK, full disclosure:

For me it stopped being glaringly obvious at the bit where you have to differentiate between 128k and 192k (can't remember now if that's at bronze or silver). The choice of audio material is problematic. Does anyone else find the singers vocal tone distracting? Even at "full" bitrate there are aspects of his tone that sound just like mpeg compression artifacts.

I like the way it's laid out, while I did get impatient at the lower levels of obvious stuff, it is nice to prove to myself that I can still hear these things

[Dave Rowles]

I'm struggling with the Golden level in the frequency bands. I can tell it's changed, and I'm pretty certain I'm right with a but or a boost, but I'm just failing on knowing the bands.

[Exalted Wombat]

For me it stopped being glaringly obvious at the bit where you have to differentiate between 128k and 192k (can't remember now if that's at bronze or silver). The choice of audio material is problematic. Does anyone else find the singers vocal tone distracting? Even at "full" bitrate there are aspects of his tone that sound just like mpeg compression artifacts.

That statement contains much food for thought, for all of us!

[Dave Rowles]

OK, full disclosure:

For me it stopped being glaringly obvious at the bit where you have to differentiate between 128k and 192k (can't remember now if that's at bronze or silver). The choice of audio material is problematic. Does anyone else find the singers vocal tone distracting? Even at "full" bitrate there are aspects of his tone that sound just like mpeg compression artifacts.

I like the way it's laid out, while I did get impatient at the lower levels of obvious stuff, it is nice to prove to myself that I can still hear these things

It took me a good long listen to hear the difference on that part. In the end it was the tiniest lift in the low end that did it for me. But yes, the material didn't make it easy.

[Tomás Mulcahy]

Hi Dave! Re bands: I used to be much better at that when I did live sound a lot. Got to be pretty instinctive on the graphic. But without that regular practice I'm not so instinctive. I think frequency bands might be similar to pitch memory. So one needs to practice those, regularly. It's cool not to have to be sweeping the eq on boost all the time.

[Jeraldo]

Thing is though, did he test to see if you could distinguish between an oboe and a cor anglais being doubled by a clarinet? That would be one viable definition of "golden" ears. Especially if you can do it at "p".

Once you see them, you can imagine the sound.

[Zukan]

Hopefully not but just possibly labyrinthitis. Do get yourself checked out.

CC

My father and I flew to Florida to spend a week deep sea fishing with my brother. I developed Labyrinthitis the day I got there. Suffice to say, I couldnt go fishing as I could barely stand straight. 2 days in the nausea kicked in. Antibiotics and some ear cream thingy sorted it out.