Speaking of hearing issue...anyone not hear anything at all in total silence?

[Vertflyer]

The ITB interface thread got me thinking about my ears. I also do a lot of headphone mixing. And often if I'm programming analog sounds, my ears can get fatigued rather fast. But, in normal environments, like at work, there is always enough background noise that I never hear any ringing in my ears. I just moved from a townhouse to a house further out. Now at night, it is so quiet there, that I do hear ringing at the end of the day when the house is calm and completely quiet.

My question is whether everyone or almost everyone who makes music has this in complete silence. The key to this question though is whether you have a place or time when you get close to complete silence. At my townhouse, I guess there was always still enough background noise, that I never really noticed.

How about you?

[acreil]

It's probably natural and not related to hearing damage or fatigue. The quieter your surroundings get, the more spurious sounds you notice. Enter an anechoic chamber and you'll be greeted with the deafening roar of your own otoacoustic emissions (possibly what you're hearing) and blood flow (venous hum). Noise-induced tinnitus is usually more intrusive than "I never noticed it before".

[Brainchild]

I've been noticing and thinking about this lately, too. I think it comes from getting deep into the vibe of music production: working in acoustically excellent, fairly well soundproofed rooms, working with low-noise equipment, manipulating the smallest possible elements of sound for years, we start to notice aspects of sound (the role of reverb, phasing, noise, etc.) in the enviroment that a lay person never has reason to come into contact with or notice. If you do a really, really slow upward sine wave sweep, you'll notice that as it goes up out of your range of hearing the "silence" sounds the same as the highest possible pitch you can hear as a given pressure level. I notice all kinds of swirling high-pitch ghost sounds in my ears, particularly when wearing earplugs in a quiet room or something. It makes me wonder about tinnitus...like if it's just purely psychological, or defined on the basis of whether you find it irritating or intriguing, etc., or the result of tuning in too closely on one's neurons...?

[enossified]

Originally Posted by Vertflyer

My question is whether everyone or almost everyone who makes music has this in complete silence.

It's called tinnitus, I have a mild case.

I started to wear earplugs any time I'm gigging or going out to hear amplified music and that has helped reduce the ringing but it will never go away.

[s34nsm411]

I get this too but I am not sure if it is tinnitus or not because I am fairly certain I remember hearing this at a very young age, 12 or so (before I got into music )

my theory is that the ears are like microphones and the brain is like a processing unit with an auto-level rider

when everything is super quiet you are left with the noise floor of your ears, and your brain shoots the level up to maximum like a nuked compressor, so you just hear the ringing noise floor

[ssido]

I was wondering about this too. For me it's like a very, very high pitched noise in both ears, that you can only hear when you're in a silent environment. I also remember hearing this at a young age, way before I got into music. And it doesn't ring like the classic tinnitus you get when after a gig where you forgot to put earplugs, the hing I'm talking about has a much higher pitch than a tinnitus. Anyone hears the same ?

[spaceacademy]

Op is not suffering from Tinnitus. You would know if you have tinnitus (no silent room needed for confirmation).

[NEXUS-6]

Tinnitus here as well. You learn to live with it

[Naindurth]

I remember a night when I was a little child, where I started to listen to (I found out when I grew up) my blood pumping. It kept me up all night, it was loud. I though I was going deaf, but I grabbed the headphones and played something in my walkman, really really soft. The pumping went away instantly.
It's like s34nsm411 said. It works like a compressor.

It has its psychological part, where you pay too much attention to something you don't have a use for.
Now i'm a guitar player and had done some mild damage to my ears over the years, and can hear some frequencies going. But that's another thing.

[Hazmatic]

If any of you are truly experiencing ringing in the ears, I strongly recommend picking up some Lipo-Flavonoid Plus. It works. Also, if any of you take aspirin regularly, it can make the ringing worse.

[3phase]

In rooms with total silence you hear the blood rushing thru your venes.

[Phil_The_Rodent]

Ya, this topic has actually intrigued me for years. In fact, when I used to hear people talk of "psycho-acoustics", this is exactly the kind of thing I thought they might reference. I have not heard the idea of "personal noise floor" before, but that's really elegant.

I remember many years ago, I was walking home through a forest with my music on, and, most strikingly, this pitch struck me as a kind of compression. I actually later asked the artist about it, and he told me no such effect was added, but I remember that there was a song with some short bits of aggressive electric guitar lead in, with silence interspersed, and thinking that this high pitch was a track that had a side chain to the guitar track.

I always remembered that and wanted to figure it out.

So the next question is: this noise is yours. I imagine we are all different and hear a different "noise-floor". But, if you were to try to create it, what would you do? Is it a single note or a tone cluster? Can you make it?

[Foxis]

I have (mild) tinnitus as well. However, you can affect it quite a bit. Stress and sleep are major factors to me. If i sleep well and have little stress then I can hardly hear it. If On the other hand I skimp on sleep i will hear a high pitched noise (like an old tv set) when it's quiet.

I blame too many hours on headphons in my youth. Seriously, watch the levels closely when on headphones, they're dangerous!

[duggabax]

I have it and always have. I remember being really young, lying in bed hearing the ringing...if I plugged my ears up for like 30 seconds, it would go away. It doesn't now. Now I just wear earplugs at the club and at shows. I was really concerned for a bit but then I volunteered for a study at uni and got a free hearing test out of the deal, and my hearing is actually badass good. I think it's pretty normal to have some ringing, just don't abuse those ears because from I've heard it's irreversible.

[memristor]

mild ringing is normal and is not Tinnitus
it can also be caused by pharmaceuticals and is not Tinnitus in that case either

btw the hair cells in your ear that detect sound can also produce sound that is start swinging by themselves

Tinnitus, OTOH starts suddenly, and loud, often on one ear only

It's more related to what you hear after a close up gunshot

[login]

In my teenage years I used headphones a lot, one day I realized I had loss hearing, I started to take care of my hearing.

I also dj so I am exposed to ampl. music a lot, so I just keep my headphones on my head almost al the time at parties, and while cueing I do it fast and at a very reasonable volume.

In my home studio I try to not turn the volume up so much.

After all this caring I hvae noticed that I have lowered the volume of my voice and have much more intolerance to saturated signals.

Take care of your ears, they give us a lot of pleassure.

[sorgenkind]

tinnitus here as well, sometime really mild sometime pretty bad (sleep deprivation, stress at work). it's the price to pay after so many years of music making and gigs. earplugs are always with me since 5 years, let's save what's left....

[Don Solaris]

Originally Posted by ssido

For me it's like a very, very high pitched noise in both ears, that you can only hear when you're in a silent environment.

Same here. I always thought that was the sound of my brain while it processes data.

Anyway, it's not Tinnitus. So don't worry.

I even went to the doc, got tested with various devices/tests: perfect hearing.



Speaking of absolute silence, the only place where i've experienced 100% was in a long tunnel while it was being built. All i can tell you is that - you don't want to hear 100% silence. It's scary, unreal and not pleasant at all (particularly if alone at the spot).

[Estin]

same here, really high pitched sound or "ringing" that amplifies the more i focus on it. I also get some whooshing sounds and can hear my heart beat often. i have had this since i can remember as a child and have extremely sensitive hearing. (a few hearing tests done) i listen to music and the tv at pretty low level compared to most. Whenever i visit someone their music and tv blows me out of the house. i run a fan at night for background noise so i can sleep.