How good hearing for career as mastering engineer?

[flex nes]

Hello

I have been a drummer, raver and dj for years without using earplugs,

and have also been suffering with tinnitus - it used to be very bad, now i havent heard ringing for a long time.

Now i want a career as a mastering engineer (with lots of gear)

I want to check my hearing first, what hearing specs do i need for this?


Thanks alot!!

[Cellotron]

Originally Posted by flex nes

Hello

I have been a drummer, raver and dj for years without using earplugs,

and have also been suffering with tinnitus - it used to be very bad, now i havent heard ringing for a long time.

Now i want a career as a mastering engineer (with lots of gear)

I want to check my hearing first, what hearing specs do i need for this?


Thanks alot!!

The true test is whether or not your masters translate to the point where you get client approvals on your refs.

Best regards,
Steve Berson

[mixerguy]

Originally Posted by flex nes

Hello

I have been a drummer, raver and dj for years without using earplugs,

and have also been suffering with tinnitus - it used to be very bad, now i havent heard ringing for a long time.

Now i want a career as a mastering engineer (with lots of gear)

I want to check my hearing first, what hearing specs do i need for this?


Thanks alot!!

What is your real name?

(so I can tell my band pals to not hire you to do mastering for them ... as you must be pretty deaf by now!!)

[jumbo]

Dude, relax.... I bet like a great majority of people working in the audio industry at some stage in their life wanted to be a rock star guitarist, or something and inevitably got exposed to damaging loud music until they realised if they wanted to stay involved with music they had to do something else like opening up a studio and become an engineer.... and all to some extent suffer tinnitus to some degree. I do, but its not something I would tell clients. Likewise a dietician or personal trainer wouldn't spill the beans on their indulgences of Macca's or Taco Bell. Tinnitus and audio engineering is something that is rather ignored and not discussed and as long as you don't need a hearing aid.... if you feel music from the soul, you should do alright.

[flex nes]

Okay,

I think i hear very good actually, maybe not physically, but a big part of my brain is used for decoding audio information .

If I get a hearing test, is there some kind of frequency dips that is really problematic?

I think i have some dipping around 12khz, but actually hear up to 18,19k

Thanks for all answers!

[Greg Reierson]

Originally Posted by flex nes

I think i have some dipping around 12khz, but actually hear up to 18,19k

How old are you??


GR

[lu432]

I agree with someone above. It all depends on your skill level, and your clients satisfaction at the end of the day. However I would get my hearing checked to see what problems you might have.

[blim]

Originally Posted by flex nes

I think i have some dipping around 12khz, but actually hear up to 18,19k

OK, let me see if I understand: You were a drummer and dj for years, you have tinnitus, but you can hear up to 19,000? I'm not saying that's impossible, but... OK, I am saying that's impossible. Very few people over the age of thirty can hear anything meaningful above 18,000, let alone those who have spent their youth inflicting the kind of noise on themselves that you have. (Prehaps you are 14 years old, or not homo sapiens?)

[allencollins]

Originally Posted by blim

OK, let me see if I understand: You were a drummer and dj for years, you have tinnitus, but you can hear up to 19,000? I'm not saying that's impossible, but... OK, I am saying that's impossible. Very few people over the age of thirty can hear anything meaningful above 18,000, let alone those who have spent their youth inflicting the kind of noise on themselves that you have. (Prehaps you are 14 years old, or not homo sapiens?)

huh?

[Ben F]

My ENT (Ear nose and Throat) doctor told me that most audio professionals suffer some sort of hearing loss, generally a dip in 6-8kHz region from live bands. Tinnitus is fairly common as well- but this is more of a discomfort that you have to deal with.

All I can suggest is you get a proper hearing test to confirm what sort of loss you have.

Generally speaking music doesn't have that much audio content above 15kHz. It's not the hight frequency loss, it's your hearing response curve that is important, so dips in the critical 1-4kHz range are certainly a problem for mastering, and low frequencies are also very important. However, many people have an uneven response between their left and right ear.

Monitor at levels not exceeding 85dB SPL, wear ear plugs to gigs, and take regular breaks.

[flex nes]

Thanks alot!

I obviously forgot my hearing specs from my test 4 years ago



cheers!

[blim]

Originally Posted by allencollins

huh?

Huh?

[lucey]

This has been talked about a lot in the last year. The bottom line to hearing, assuming some degree of loss yet still some ability to hear everything in your own way ... lies in the brain. Your brain does most of the work in mastering, from decoding your room to making decisions about the material, to combining the two sets of data with a skill set that also lives inside your head.

So if you have some loss, and yet a passion to excel and the skills to do so, you'll learn to work around the limitations. If you have no loss, you still need to learn to work with that info. The only serious worries are a major physical loss or a major mental lack of understanding your room.

A practical limitation for you might be fatigue. You'll need to find the monitoring that reveals and and works for how you hear, without aggravating your fatigue sensitivity in certain ranges.

[jamsmith]

Based on what most people know (top pros included), severe hearing loss means the end of mastering as a profession. But one individual here informed me of the work a physicist who studied how human hearing works and developed a system that claims to electronically compensate for your hearing loss in way no hearing loss could. Read and decide for yourself:

Refined Audiometrics Laboratory

[johndykstra]

Hearing tests are administered using 125hz, 250hz, 500hz, 1k, 2k, 3k, 4k, 6, 8k. Some audiometers go up to 12.5k...but it's typically not used. The concern with hearing, as a medical profession, deals with the sound spectrum as it relates to speech, so frequencies above and below are not tested. Noise induced hearing losses will present themselves between 3-6k generally, independent of the frequency range that caused the loss, and will gradually worsen, with a wider "cue" if you will. The national hearing association determines that normal hearing thresholds reside somewhere between 0-20 dbHL (decibel hearing level), that's about 20-40 dbSPL. Having been a live engineer for over a decade, my hearing is pretty flat across the board at 15dbHL, with a 5db dip at 6k. It freaks the heck out of me. Yes, by the way, I am a hearing aid salesman. See you all in 15 years.

[H-Rave]

I just googled this, I suppose it seems good to get a rough Idea, I'm sure there are better sites.

Equal loudness contours and audiometry - Test your own hearing

[johndykstra]

Originally Posted by H-Rave

I just googled this, I suppose it seems good to get a rough Idea, I'm sure there are better sites.

Equal loudness contours and audiometry - Test your own hearing

there can't be better sites, your control is too varied. For example, how loud is your headphone amp supposed to be? There's no calibration. You can get a "sketchy" idea of how flat your loss is, but your overall amount is up in the air. Another variable obviously is your headphones. If anyone is truely interested in their hearing health, alot of hearing aid vendors do hearing screenings free of charge. Just call around your area and ask.

[jordanstoner]

Also check out H.E.A.R.

[johndykstra]

Originally Posted by jordanstoner

Also check out H.E.A.R.

I'd love to... if only I could understand a word of it

[H-Rave]

Well my apparently my hearing's fine but I've found out I've ACUTE DYSLEXIA !!!!!!

[johndykstra]

There's nothing cute about Dyslexia

[CKK]

My hearing starts to suffer above 11-12K. And I'm doing fine in this business.

Ohh and I'm close to 40.

[mojopin]

Originally Posted by Ben F

However, many people have an uneven response between their left and right ear.

Yup! It is a bit scary to do a full freq sweep in mono with headphones because suddenly it starts panning!

[Bob Olhsson]

Originally Posted by H-Rave

Well my apparently my hearing's fine but I've found out I've ACUTE DYSLEXIA !!!!!!

Some of the most creative people I've ever met have had dyslexia!

[jamesp]

Originally Posted by Ben F

Generally speaking music doesn't have that much audio content above 15kHz.

There may not be much musically above 15kHz but in the 80's just about every pop record I bought seemed to have video breakthrough at around 15kHz.

Cheers

James.