Who here is dealing with hearing damage?
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justhitthebutton
- gettin' sounds
- Posts: 129
- Joined: Sat Dec 11, 2004 10:00 pm
- Location: houston tx
i have been a front of house mixer for many years. some nights, when i wouldnt wear my plugs for most of the show, i would go home and lay in my bed. and the most intense ringing would start. it was scaring the shit out of me. i mean i was running mixes in a small club at no more than 101-103 a-wieghted, but here i was in the pitch darkness with ringing. well with that said i have figured out what it was that was causing that. my bed was against one wall, instead of out in the middle of the room. couple that with the pitch blackness that i kept my room and voila...ringing. if one of your senses is blocked (vision), then the others can become heightened. i now live in texas, run foh for a venue where the average mix is 107-110 a-weighted. i wear my plugs religiously and have had very little ringing. i wonder if the altitude change has helped any? during recording, i keep the volume very low until the band comes in to hear the tracks. and i always always always put on a pair of gun muffles before walking out into the studio for anything at all. one snare hit and my left ear just pops like it ripped in half and flapping against it. im going to an audiologist soon. just to make sure.
can it really look better than it sounds?
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Cyan421
- takin' a dinner break
- Posts: 192
- Joined: Sat Nov 05, 2005 3:56 pm
- Location: Idaho (On The Causeway to Neverwhere)
One beer is like 6-10 db increase in my tinnitus.bobbydj wrote:Alcohol *definitely* aggravates tinitus.majortom wrote:Past studies have found that MODERATE alchohol use is good for hearing(it is a vasodilator which allows more blood flow to the very small vessels in the auditory canal).
Yeah were the plugs in the car for sure. My car tested at 95! db at 5 mph!! crazy stupid loud car. Needs new motor mounts.
"What a wonerful smell you've discovered"
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MoonPool
- audio school graduate
- Posts: 12
- Joined: Thu Nov 10, 2005 8:08 am
- Location: Allston, MA
- Contact:
Hearing Loss
I have two issues. The first is a notch centered around 3.4k according to the audiologist. The second is a constant ringing in my ears. Weirdly, the ringing is not from overexposure to loud noises, like cymbals and snare too close to my ears or the 4x12 cabinet behind me for many years, but is attributable to a virus. I had a very bad cold about three years ago and the ringing began. When the cold went away, the ringing stayed behind. I went to several ENTs before someone actually made any sense. Most were dismissive.
The one who had something of interest to say asked if I had chicken pox as a child. I had. He explained that the virus remains in the body and becomes active when your health dips below a certain threshold. In adults it usually shows up as shingles until you hit around 45 or 50. Then it manifests as a ringing in the ears (normally permanent)and you still have the possibility of shingles and of the ringing getting worse. He also suggested that this added to the notch in my hearing because it wasn't centered around the frequency he said was 'textbook' for musicians who have played in bands for years.
What was strange for me at the time was that three other friends all came down with it at exactly the same time (the cold and the ringing). And two of them were not musicians and didn't spend their early years in clubs. We all immediatley went the conspiracy theory route until we realized we had all had chicken pox as kids.
It gets a bit annoying when I'm trying to listen for some things, like extraneous noise on a track on a day when the ringing is louder than usual, but I have learned to cope and I get no complaints on my mixes. I now use the musicians' earplugs crafted by the audiologist that reduces the volume by 15db across the spectrum. Best $125 I spent in years. I mix at low volumes and the type of music I play works best when I go directly into the soundboard, so I don't have the loud volume issue there anymore.
One last odd thing. The ENT Dr told me to take magnesium. Apparently the US Army has done studies that show folks with hearing damage have less magnesium than folks without. As a result, they dose their gunners with magnesium rather than provide them with earplugs or shooters headphones. I have no idea how true that is, but it is an interesting concept. I don't remember all the exact details as this was three years ago and I was more concerned withmy ears than what the Army was doing.
The one who had something of interest to say asked if I had chicken pox as a child. I had. He explained that the virus remains in the body and becomes active when your health dips below a certain threshold. In adults it usually shows up as shingles until you hit around 45 or 50. Then it manifests as a ringing in the ears (normally permanent)and you still have the possibility of shingles and of the ringing getting worse. He also suggested that this added to the notch in my hearing because it wasn't centered around the frequency he said was 'textbook' for musicians who have played in bands for years.
What was strange for me at the time was that three other friends all came down with it at exactly the same time (the cold and the ringing). And two of them were not musicians and didn't spend their early years in clubs. We all immediatley went the conspiracy theory route until we realized we had all had chicken pox as kids.
It gets a bit annoying when I'm trying to listen for some things, like extraneous noise on a track on a day when the ringing is louder than usual, but I have learned to cope and I get no complaints on my mixes. I now use the musicians' earplugs crafted by the audiologist that reduces the volume by 15db across the spectrum. Best $125 I spent in years. I mix at low volumes and the type of music I play works best when I go directly into the soundboard, so I don't have the loud volume issue there anymore.
One last odd thing. The ENT Dr told me to take magnesium. Apparently the US Army has done studies that show folks with hearing damage have less magnesium than folks without. As a result, they dose their gunners with magnesium rather than provide them with earplugs or shooters headphones. I have no idea how true that is, but it is an interesting concept. I don't remember all the exact details as this was three years ago and I was more concerned withmy ears than what the Army was doing.
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A.David.MacKinnon
- ears didn't survive the freeze
- Posts: 3822
- Joined: Wed May 07, 2003 5:57 am
- Location: Toronto
- Contact:
it seems I caused some confusion regarding Alcohol; I did NOT say it helped tinnitus, I said that it helped to maintain hearing.
In regards to tinnitus, you are most likely expeiencing some sinus reaction to what you're drinking which will then increase your awareness of the ringing(like when you have a cold.
MERTMO: the comment about "distortion" in your ear, I actually had this a few years ago, you should get it checked out again, it turned out that I had an ear drum that separated into 2 distinct parts (believe it or not related to wearing ear plugs so much). The distortion was the outer and inner rubbing together(especially at certain frequencies that caused them to vibrate,earverb??). The doc told me for months nothing was wrong, until it became infected. He eventually found it and removed the outer part (an easy in office procedure). It made me f'in crazy!!
Last, I called my ENT doc and asked him if there was anything new on the front with treating tinnitus, he said they finished a big study recently that showed improvement with tinnitus by using MELATONIN. The same dose that you would take for sleeping(I think 3 mg). If you try this take it at night only as it's to aid in sleeping. He said it was the first promising thing in helping tinnitus in a very long time.
Good luck,Todd
In regards to tinnitus, you are most likely expeiencing some sinus reaction to what you're drinking which will then increase your awareness of the ringing(like when you have a cold.
MERTMO: the comment about "distortion" in your ear, I actually had this a few years ago, you should get it checked out again, it turned out that I had an ear drum that separated into 2 distinct parts (believe it or not related to wearing ear plugs so much). The distortion was the outer and inner rubbing together(especially at certain frequencies that caused them to vibrate,earverb??). The doc told me for months nothing was wrong, until it became infected. He eventually found it and removed the outer part (an easy in office procedure). It made me f'in crazy!!
Last, I called my ENT doc and asked him if there was anything new on the front with treating tinnitus, he said they finished a big study recently that showed improvement with tinnitus by using MELATONIN. The same dose that you would take for sleeping(I think 3 mg). If you try this take it at night only as it's to aid in sleeping. He said it was the first promising thing in helping tinnitus in a very long time.
Good luck,Todd
rattle, tinnitus etc
huh? oh...
I, like someone else already said, am comforted to hear that other people experience the "rattling" "blown speaker" sound. I do foh for loud rock shows, and it rarely pops up then, but things like cel phones up to my ear and certain people's voices (my screaming nephew) set it off like crazy. I have played in loud bands and not worn ear protection when I was younger, but this problem never came up until after a year or so of learning live sound, with no protection. Now I (seriously) never leave the house without plugs.
I seem to remember a tapeop interview with Stephen Merritt, describing an auditory condition that he has which sounded similar.
Two things to add to the discussion... to the first post in this topic, the absence of 32hz and 16k sounds like the speakers possibly aren't reproducing the tones, or the material doesn't contain them . 32hz is definitely in the range you "feel" more than hear. Most nearfield monitors don't do much under 50. I "perceive" 16k more than actually "hearing" it too. It's way up there. Most hearing loss from loud spl starts in the 3k-6k range, says my audiologist.
Also, the audiologist recommended Gingko Biloba for tinnitus. I now take it daily, it does seem to clear my ears (and head).
I, like someone else already said, am comforted to hear that other people experience the "rattling" "blown speaker" sound. I do foh for loud rock shows, and it rarely pops up then, but things like cel phones up to my ear and certain people's voices (my screaming nephew) set it off like crazy. I have played in loud bands and not worn ear protection when I was younger, but this problem never came up until after a year or so of learning live sound, with no protection. Now I (seriously) never leave the house without plugs.
I seem to remember a tapeop interview with Stephen Merritt, describing an auditory condition that he has which sounded similar.
Two things to add to the discussion... to the first post in this topic, the absence of 32hz and 16k sounds like the speakers possibly aren't reproducing the tones, or the material doesn't contain them . 32hz is definitely in the range you "feel" more than hear. Most nearfield monitors don't do much under 50. I "perceive" 16k more than actually "hearing" it too. It's way up there. Most hearing loss from loud spl starts in the 3k-6k range, says my audiologist.
Also, the audiologist recommended Gingko Biloba for tinnitus. I now take it daily, it does seem to clear my ears (and head).
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The Real MC
- steve albini likes it
- Posts: 399
- Joined: Fri Feb 04, 2005 6:50 am
- Location: Tranquil secluded country
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I'm hearing impaired from a birth defect, 60% loss in both ears. But my musical inclination was a natural talent I discovered early, and it took some adaptation and a very good hearing aid before I felt confident about recording and mixing. Today I get very good feedback on my music, you'd never guess that I have hearing loss. You *CAN* do it.
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