This kinda goes along with the ‘audio monitors’ thread.
Being a cancer survivor for three years now (thank you God) I have to go in twice a year
for cat scans, blood test yada yada yada stuff.
This means twice a year I also have my ears checked because certain chemo therapies
can affect hearing.
With my last test the ‘audiologist’ said my hearing range was/is down
approx 1.8db @ 8-12k left ear/ 2.1db right ear
and rolls off from there as frequencies get higher.
According to her this is not bad for a person who is older than dirt
and who has played thru triple marshall stacks for several years of his life.
BTW
the audiologist’s gear (Bell and Howell stuff) looks older than me.
Actually was at the ENT yesterday as when exposed to loud noises, I have a rattle in my right ear. Ends up my hearing is perfect and there’s nothing they will do further. Between the army, heavy construction and music, I’ve been as evil to my ears as it gets but they’re a-ok.
This has been a concern of mine the last few years. A few years ago, I thought I noticed that in general a lot of songs I either streamed or downloaded from the web and was listening to thru my monitors seemed a bit dull sounding, i.e., lacking in top end. I didn’t go to a pro, but I did a few hearing tests online and I was a bit taken aback at what I found… at 16khz, I couldn’t “hear” a thing, regardless of volume. Below that, I was able to “detect” some freq’s at really high levels.
More recently I revisited some of those sites and my hearing had deteriorated. Now, at 12khz, I had trouble hearing signal unless at higher volumes.
I’ve also noticed I seem to be hearing louder out of my left ear (don’t think it’s my monitors, because I sense this also using phones or a system like iPod unconnected to my system)
Things seem to have gotten much worse in just the last year or so. Seems like most of the hobbyist tunes I’m hearing sound a bit on the dull side (not so much with pro recordings – ?). My own tunes seem okay, but I really think this a psychological phenom – NOTHING to do with gear or skills or even EQ techniques – I NEVER EQ a mix.
BTW – I didn’t know chemo could affect hearing. Also, glad to hear you’re doing well, and cancer-free.
Last time I had my ears cleaned out they pulled a collective ball of wax from my left ear the size of a golf ball. It hurt like hell, the cleaning. It was building up in the left bBecause I always sleep on my right side I suppose since there was very little buildup in the right ear.
But man, that really hurt, the “suction” thing. Next time I think I’ll do the chemical thing.
I use the OTC stuff now and then and it seems to work pretty well
LOL – i went to my doctor recently and he said “My, you have a LOT of wax in your ears” but the bastard didn’t then clean them out! Wax I’m sure was due to constant music listening
My hearing has held up really well. I haven’t had it checked lately, but just a couple of years ago it was fine. I clean them out a couple of times a day, plus I try not to eat too much in dairy products (which if overindulged, can stop up everything).
Once the tinnitus set in, I go annually for a test.
It sucks. But that’s life, foolishly allowed myself exposure to high pressure levels as a youngster.
Both my non-musicians and my musicians friends’ hearing seems to have deteriorated at about the same rate. There are some notable exeptions to the good and bad but are about what you’d expect of guys working in music and/or industry.
It’s the band rehearsals that do most damage as the noise is more or less continuous and I have always had to leave the building and go listen to the traffic after about two hours. You should always take those breaks.
Earplugs at long rehearsals can be handy but on gigs or in the studio they’re a no-no for me because I believe generally if you have a propensity to go deaf then you will anyway and why artificially cripple your ears when they are good and when you need them as a musician.
If you do do looong sessions and lots of them and they get industrially loud and earplugs are definitely needed then I’d fork out for those moulded $300odd jobs.
Studio monitoring. I stopped monitoring very loudly all day back in 1900 and frozen to death. I left that to all those engineers who gave me a bad mix. Hopefully they went comletely, rather than half, deaf.
:):)