The same short clip plays twice, A then B. One of them is turned up. Nothing else differs: the same stem, the same moment in it, the same fades. Every stem is brought to the same loudness first. Tap A is louder or B is louder; tap A or B to hear that clip on its own. Level 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Difference 3 dB 2.5 dB 2 dB 1.5 dB 1.25 dB 1 dB 0.75 dB 0.5 dB It never goes below 0.5 dB — on music that is a trained ear's limit. The answer is right or wrong. The level you hold is the smallest difference you hear reliably. Listen to the whole clip, not only the first hit.

Quick drills: Which is louder?, Q width, Name the ring

Three short drills — a level difference down to half a decibel, the width of a bell, and the band of a ring before it howls — and how their levels and points work.

Open SoundSense

On this page

Which is louder?
Q width
Name the ring
On a phone speaker

The quick drills ask one small thing, fast. Each runs on the eight-level ladder (see The level ladder and pre-listen) with no pre-listen or picture, so every answer counts in full. You find them in the Mix Engineering row.

Which is louder?

The same short clip plays twice, A then B. One of them is turned up. Nothing else differs: the same stem, the same moment in it, the same fades. Every stem is brought to the same loudness first. Tap A is louder or B is louder; tap A or B to hear that clip on its own.

Level	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
Difference	3 dB	2.5 dB	2 dB	1.5 dB	1.25 dB	1 dB	0.75 dB	0.5 dB

It never goes below 0.5 dB — on music that is a trained ear's limit. The answer is right or wrong. The level you hold is the smallest difference you hear reliably.

Listen to the whole clip, not only the first hit.

Q width

A bell boost at a frequency and gain the prompt shows, for example "A +9 dB bell at 800 Hz. How wide is it?" Pick Wide, Medium or Narrow. The A/B button switches between the processed and the dry sound.

Levels 1–4: Q 0.7, 2 and 6. From level 5: Q 1, 2 and 4 — closer together.
Gain: 9 dB on level 1 down to 5 dB on level 8.
Every width plays exactly as loud as the original, so the wide bell is not simply the loudest. Listen to how much of the sound changes.
Centres are taken from the bands the stem carries, between 100 Hz and 6.3 kHz.
The answer is right or wrong. The reveal draws all three widths and marks the one you heard.

Name the ring

A feedback ring builds over the music. Pick its third-octave band — the fader you would pull down on a graphic EQ — before it howls.

Level	Bands to choose from	Seconds until it howls
1–3	3	8 → 7
4–5	4	6.5 → 6
6–8	5	5 → 4

Rings sit between 250 Hz and 5 kHz, like a vocal mic in front of a wedge. On levels 1–3 the ring sits on a band's centre; from level 4 it can sit off-centre, still inside its band.
The clock runs only while the clip plays.
Points: the right band is 100. With five bands, a neighbour gets 50; with four, 25; with three, a neighbour gets nothing — otherwise always picking the middle would pay.
If it howls before you answer, you can still name it, but the answer counts one band further off. The howl is held for 1.5 s, then the clip stops.
♪ Hear correct plays the ring steady, at a comfortable level, for a few seconds.

Name the ring is also the first step of the show-day warm-up — see Run a Daily Shift and climb the ranks. For the full soundcheck version, with a stage, a room and an EQ to cut with, see Ring out a wedge in the Ring-Out Simulator.

On a phone speaker

All three work in phone-speaker mode. Q width and Name the ring then ask from 400 Hz up, and bass stems are left out. See Listening devices and phone-speaker mode.