FAQ

What is free?

Signed in with a verified Squaresmile account (no card) and no licence, SoundSense opens on the free plan: one session of 10 questions a day in each of EQ, Delay, Pan, Level, Compression, Haas Effect and Name the ring; the Ring-Out Simulator at Beginner level; Review of those modules' misses; streaks and the first rank. Progress syncs to your account and carries over when you buy. The details are under Free plan in the overview. The old demo link now opens the free plan.

What is recorded, and what is synthetic?

The mix games play recorded instrument stems — drums, bass, guitar, keys and vocals — and Mix Balance uses ten complete multitrack songs. Loudness plays stems too. Pitch, Tempo and the other psychoacoustics drills use precise test tones, noise and clicks, because that is what those effects need. Stems stream on demand and are cached after first play, so repeats are instant.

Do I need headphones?

For Binaural Beats, yes — each ear needs its own signal — and for the sub-millisecond cases in Haas Effect. They are strongly recommended for the hearing check. Phantom Center and Precedence Effect are loudspeaker effects that headphones reproduce, so they work either way. Everything else works on decent speakers too.

Is SoundSense a subscription?

No. It is one purchase through Gumroad (€49), claimed to your Squaresmile account. See Licences and paid tools for how claiming works.

Can I get a refund?

The Terms (§ 7) set out the statutory 14-day right of withdrawal for consumers and when it expires early for digital products. To use it, write to support@squaresmile.de. Details in Licences and paid tools.

Is it for live sound or studio?

Both. Ring-Out, Phase, comb filtering in Delay, Precedence and the show-day warm-up are aimed at people who mix rooms; EQ, compression, reverb, width and loudness are the calls of any mix.

Is the hearing check medical?

No. It is not a medical test and cannot measure your hearing in dB HL. It compares your two ears with each other and with your own earlier checks on the same kind of headphones — there is no score. If one ear is clearly worse, or something has changed, see an audiologist or an ENT doctor. Details in Use the hearing check.

Will it work on my phone or iPad?

Yes. Every module, the Daily Shift, the Ring-Out Simulator and the hearing check run in the browser on phone, tablet and desktop. On a phone you ring out by tapping a band and using one cut control — see Ring out a wedge in the Ring-Out Simulator. Once loaded, SoundSense works offline.

Which languages does it speak?

The app speaks 11 languages — English, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Dutch, Polish, Portuguese and Chinese — and follows your account language. This help is in English and German.

Does my progress follow me between devices?

Yes. Mastery, levels, streaks, badges, ranks, your review, your named listening devices and your results per device sync with your Squaresmile account, record by record — a device that was offline no longer overwrites anything when it comes back. A badge on the dashboard shows when sync is behind. The one exception is hearing-check results, which stay on the device. See Account sync.

What counts as a "correct answer" for unlocks?

Only a correct answer. Partial points raise your score and mastery but do not add to the correct-answer total that unlocks Intermediate (50), Advanced (150) and the Ring-Out Simulator (150). In the ladder games, an answer given with pre-listen or a drawn aid never counts as correct — see The level ladder and pre-listen.

Why did my mastery drop after one bad session?

Mastery is the average of your last 20 answers in that module, so recent form counts. It recovers the same way it fell.

Will the new games lower my rank?

No. A rank you have reached is kept — it never drops when games are added or when your mastery dips. The new games do count toward the next rank: to reach Legend, every scored game needs 80 % mastery. See Run a Daily Shift and climb the ranks.

Why do my levels differ between headphones and speakers?

Because each game keeps its level per listening device. What you can hear on studio monitors and on a phone speaker is not the same, so the two are counted apart and one never pulls the other down. See Listening devices and phone-speaker mode.

Are the EQ characters copies of famous gear?

No. EQ Characters uses our own curve models, tuned to published curve shapes and described by what they do — "boost and cut at once", "the harder you push, the narrower it gets". They do not emulate any unit. The same goes for the compressor, delay, reverb, saturation and gate in the match games. See EQ Characters.

Can I train only a few games?

Yes. A custom session lets you pick the games, 5, 10 or 20 questions and the listening device, and start the same session again with one tap. See Custom sessions.

Can I do more than one Daily Shift a day?

No — one per day. The dashboard card shows it as done until tomorrow. You can keep training any module for as long as you like.

Where did the answer buttons go?

If a module loads with no way to answer, the stems are probably still loading — there is a loading state while they arrive. If it stays blank, see Troubleshooting.