Quick start
- Put Earshot last on your master bus, after everything else, including any limiter.
- Play your song and click a place: Phone Speaker, Car Stereo, Neighbour's Party...
- Press HEAR ORIGINAL to flip back to your mix. Flip between them as the song plays.
- Switch Earshot off (or remove it) before you bounce your final mix.
The window
- Places: 17 tiles in five rows. Click one to hear your mix there. The up and down arrow keys also step through them; they're the only keys Earshot uses, so your DAW keeps its shortcuts.
- HEAR ORIGINAL: plays your untouched mix, bit for bit. It crossfades over 12 ms, so there's no click.
- Amount, Mix, Output: the three knobs (below).
- Footer: a link to the Brightwork shop.
Places
| Group | Places |
|---|---|
| Everyday speakers | Car Stereo, Phone Speaker, Laptop, Cheap Earbuds |
| On location | Boombox, Outside the Club |
| Through a wall | Neighbour's Party, Upstairs Apartment, Underwater |
| Old broadcast | AM Radio, Transistor Radio, Megaphone, Old TV |
| Old formats | Worn Vinyl, Pocket Cassette, VHS Tape, 78 RPM |
Each place matches its level to your mix, so you're comparing tone, not loudness. Switching places fades out, swaps and fades back in over 24 ms.
Knobs
| Knob | What it does |
|---|---|
| Amount | How strongly the place colours the sound. |
| Mix | Blends the place with your mix. |
| Output | The level of the place sound only. Your original is never changed. |
What to listen for
- Phone Speaker and Laptop: is the bass line still there? A phone speaker has almost nothing below the midrange; if the bass line disappears, it needs more upper harmonics, not more low end.
- Car Stereo: is the low end boomy? Cars exaggerate the bottom octave.
- Neighbour's Party and Upstairs Apartment: only the kick, the bass and the loudest hook come through a wall. If you can still follow the song, the arrangement works.
- AM Radio and Transistor Radio: is the vocal still clear with only the mids left?
Earshot and Gild
Earshot's places are the same as the listening modes in Gild, our mastering plugin, and sound the same. If you have Gild, you already have them on its Space tab.
If something's wrong
- My bounce sounds like a phone: Earshot was still on. Switch it off before you export.
- The arrow keys don't change places: click Earshot's window first, so it has the keyboard.