Aspiring recording engineers, live sound techs, mastering engineers, acousticians, and even critical music listeners who want to understand what they truly hear—and what they’ve been missing.
For decades, a peculiar but revered set of compact discs has occupied a near-mythical status among audio engineers, producers, and mastering specialists: Dave Moulton’s Golden Ears tutorial series . Specifically, the complete collection comprising Volumes 1 through 4 , spread across 8 CDs in CDDA (Compact Disc Digital Audio) format, and often referenced by the catalog code SCDS (likely an internal distribution or label designation, sometimes standing for “Studio City Digital Sound” or similar), remains a cornerstone of critical listening education. What Is Golden Ears ? Unlike traditional music theory or mixing tutorials, Golden Ears is a structured, progressive ear-training curriculum designed to teach engineers how to hear with analytical precision. Created by Dr. David Moulton—a respected audio educator, acoustician, and author of Total Recording —the course systematically isolates and drills the perceptual building blocks of professional audio work. Dave Moulton Golden Ears Tutorial Vol.1-4 8CD CDDA SCDS