Critically Listening to a Whole Album

One of my classes in the studio 1 unit at SAE Institute Dubai was all about listening critically. This means to pay
attention to details that one would not notice at the first listen, but when you hear it once, you cannot miss it
again. Be it a good thing or a bad thing, it makes the difference between professionalism and amateur work.
By training our ears to listen and judge specific frequencies & sounds, we help ourselves to ensure a better
outcome in our end product, whatever it may be within the audio field.

In one of our classes, we listened to the whole album titled ‘DAMN.’ in one sitting. Listening to all 55 minutes
of it in one stretch was truly eye opening, or should I say, ear opening. We were able to listen to exactly what
the artist was trying to convey to the listeners throughout the album. We were able to appreciate all the efforts
put into the album by the artist and all those who worked behind the scenes that go unannounced and aren't
given enough credit they deserve. We as audio students were also able to appreciate all the different production
techniques used throughout, and got some ideas we could implement into our own work. 

This is one of the reasons it is important to always use a reference track while mixing a song. This will ensure
you have a mirror to look into to remind yourself about the end product you are trying to achieve.

References:

Critical Listening: How to Train Your Ears. (2020). Retrieved 7 Feb 2020, from https://www.shure.com/en-US/headphones-earphones/amplify/critical-listening-how-to-train-your-ears

Kendrick Lamar: DAMN. (2020). Retrieved 7 Feb 2020, from https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/23147-damn/

The Importance of Critical Listening as an Audio Engineer. (2020). Retrieved 7 Feb 2020, from https://soundgirls.org/the-importance-of-critical-listening-as-an-audio-engineer/