Ear Fatigue

My sessions have become increasingly long and i find after about three hours my ears become fatigued. I never work longer than 30 minutes at full volume as a work around but it is a bit irritating as i have to stop for at least an hour after three, so for every 12 hours i lose 4 hours on bloody breaks.

I guess thats better than losing my hearing, do any of you suffer similar nuances ?

peter

Originally Posted by DivineChemical

I've always been paranoid about tinnitus because of how often I used to go to loud concerts and such. I try to keep my monitors down to a reasonable level when I'm doing extended mix sessions.

My Doc sends me three times a year for a hearing test just to keep an eye on things, some people think thats over reacting but what they fail to realize is that i sit four feet from two TB2+ nearfield monitors for hours every day and at the weekend this can go up to 15 hours a day. I also get to see the charts from guys 10 years younger than me and its really bad what they are doing to there ears while driving !

Turn up the bass and roll the windows up guys

Phatt man

[Siem]

Originally Posted by time ago

My sessions have become increasingly long and i find after about three hours my ears become fatigued. I never work longer than 30 minutes at full volume as a work around but it is a bit irritating as i have to stop for at least an hour after three, so for every 12 hours i lose 4 hours on bloody breaks.

I guess thats better than losing my hearing, do any of you suffer similar nuances ?

peter

A couple of things that helped me. Switching monitors was a great part of it, I changed from Mackie Hr-824 to PSI 21M. When I worked with the Mackies I would easily become fatigued and even got headaches sometimes. Now it feels like no strain at all when I work with these monitors.
In the beginning I had the monitors side by side and when I switched to verify my mix on the Mackies the same kind of fatigue would arise.
Also make sure your room is treated right - some proper acoustic foam panels can change a lot.

[Reptil]

what you are doing (taking a break every 3 hours) is completely normal, and even recommended. It also doesn't matter what other people can take (6 hours - 2 days - longer.. ), because everybody's ears & brains are different. There's plenty of stuff to do (organising stuff, preparing sessions) without having to listen to music I'm working on. (at least there's here ) So I don't really see it as a problem.

yes, good monitors help. I'd recommend the Klein & Hummels. both o300 and o100 don't go really loud but let you hear everything. older ones also great.

[Nordenstam]

A well treated room will sound louder for a given level. 90dB in an untreated room will have most of the energy concentrated in a few peaks, while most of the music is still fairly low. A well treated room will have a more even response. In such rooms it's more difficult to play loud as it will be extremely loud by the time it gets to damaging levels.

A sound pressure level meter can be had at radio shack for 40 bucks. A worthy investment! Consequently monitoring at 83-85dB is a standard for film and many audio studios use this level as well. It's where the hearing system is most linear in response, it's below damaging level and it's plenty loud enough if the room is well treated.

It's also a good habit to learn what this level sounds like. That way you know when you need to use plugs without measurement.

Taking a break every here and there is a must to keep the ears fit. Giving them some rest is important too. If you live in a noisy environment(city), sleeping and commuting with plugs may be a good idea. If the background level where you reside is high, the ears will be tired even before you start the session.


Andreas N

[Greg_KPX]

I'm getting far worse eye fatigue from the computer screen than ear fatigue :(

[teknosmoker]

Originally Posted by Greg_KPX

I'm getting far worse eye fatigue from the computer screen than ear fatigue :(

No sh*t! Me too.... :(

[sashbash]

Originally Posted by Greg_KPX

I'm getting far worse eye fatigue from the computer screen than ear fatigue :(

This has happened to me too... Once I had 20/20 vision...now I'm short sighted due to glaring into Pro Tools 24/7 (and it seems to get worse by the week).

I also know quite a few engineers that this has happened to....I'm going to use my insurance claim money on an Alan Smart C2

Originally Posted by Greg_KPX

I'm getting far worse eye fatigue from the computer screen than ear fatigue :(

have a read: Protect Your Eyes From Your Computer Screen

The above is probably a better solution but more expensive, than an anti-glare cover. Plenty of light in your room is also important and you can even buy special eye drops that increase the amount of moisture your eyes produce because you blink 30% less while looking at the screen.

Originally Posted by DivineChemical

I've never understood the point of this. Everybody rags on me because I don't have a 'thumping' sound system, but having sat in a couple of those cars with the system turned up loud and the windows rolled up, all I hear on the inside of the car is the same thing I hear on the outside of the car: no music and the trunk vibrating at specified intervals.

A lot of these "cool" guys are tone deaf before they hit 21, so what will the world sound like to them when they hit 31

[Greg_KPX]

Originally Posted by time ago

have a read: Protect Your Eyes From Your Computer Screen

The above is probably a better solution but more expensive, than an anti-glare cover. Plenty of light in your room is also important and you can even buy special eye drops that increase the amount of moisture your eyes produce because you blink 30% less while looking at the screen.

Hey thanks for that! I'm definitely going to try eyedrops thumbsup

Also it gets hard to have breaks when you really get into the zone, hmm.