The Magic Tea Towel
Background
The “Magic Tea Towel” is a practical technique used in our live training sessions to teach both listening skills and confidence in using equalisation.
We take a two channel mono source, say an acoustic guitar or piano recording, and plug it into two separate channels on the mixer, set the gains identically so that both channels are the same in volume through the PA speakers.
Then we equalise the first channel, usually a simple and dramatic eq of say +8dB at 2.5Khz for example, and then cover it with a cloth or tea towel.
The participant then has to match the tone of the second channel to the first by listening to each channel one at a time (using the mute buttons), and then equalising the second channel. When they feel they have the two channels sounding the same, we remove the ‘magic tea towel’ to ‘reveal’ the covered channel and compare the two eq settings to see how close they were.
This method teaches the participant to trust their ears and to equalise tonally, not by numbers on the knobs. As their skill increases, we make the altered first channel more complex and more subtle, developing the listening skills and the ability to interpret what they are hearing onto the console controls.
This teaches them how to identify generic tonal characteristics in audio and to quickly be able to relate that to equalisation settings on an audio console.
Magic Tea Towel Downloads
As a SYNK subscriber, when you download the Magic Tea Towel MP3 file, channel 1 (left) is already altered. We will tell you the type of eq we have done, eg: “there’s a 6dB boost in the hi mids”
What you do is plug the output of your computer or ipod (or whatever you have transferred the MP3 onto) into two channels of your sound desk, set the gains identically and then do exactly as described above, compare the two channels and equalise the second to match the first.
Once you feel confident, come back to the SYNK site and enter your answer in your account. We will then send you our answers, so that both yourself and the SYNK team can see how you are going. Over time your confidence and skill increases, and we are able to work with you highlighting areas to focus on as well as analysing the results to see if there are any issues needing addressing.
As your listening skills advance you will be able to access additional Magic Tea Towel files that have changes to compression, gating, reverb and delay, to become confident with dynamic processors and effects.
