hearing irregularities and workarounds?

[thethingwiththestuff]

murine, eh? unfortunate name.....but i'll keep an eye out for it.

"hold on guys, i really gotta murinate. ya know, in my ears."

[thieves]

I've had this problem this fall/winter with my left ear as well, it comes and goes but always seems to be bad when i'm really congested... and i can't remember any time before july or so where i didn't feel like i had a cold of one sort or another. my only advice is that don't do the ear candling thing. i read up on it and it does some scary stuff with pressure in your ear and could really mess things up.

[oyrgawd]

I got my hearing tested when I got fitted for Westone earplugs. I had it done for free by students in the Speech and Hearing Science department of the school I was at. They did lots of tests. I ended up with a frequency response plot of myself for each ear. Each ear is pretty different, which I sorta knew already. If I was real uptight, I would tape that to my screen next to Inspector or something.

In the fitting process, they pointed out that my left ear canal has a narrow opening and a sharp turn in it, while my right ear canal is pretty wide open. This might partly account for the response differences in each ear. Nothing I can do about it but turn my head often when mixing and keep an eye on the meters for balance.

Oh, and candling is bunk. The wax it seems to yield is wax from the candle. And you're burning a wax funnel whose tip is sitting in your earhole. Not wise. I tried it once and it sort of tickled. Still, not wise.

[ajmogis]

I would second the recommendation of the Murine system. Some funky/oily ear drops to break down wax build-up and a rubber bulb syringe to flush the gunk out. I have to do this periodically myself, especially if I've been wearing earplugs a lot.

[thethingwiththestuff]

thanks for all the tips guys. i'm going to shell out for an appointment to see an actual doctor next week, and i'll see what he recommends for personal maintenance after that.

did i mention i'm a heavy smoker? ........

this constant tweaking of panning balance is driving me crazy and has to stop! its like i'm chasing my own tail. but my left eye cant quite see the high part...of the tail... ya know? its like that, i guess.