hearing better, with 'damaged' hearing

[u b k]

on the one hand, over the last ten years i have lost a little bit of hearing, especially in one ear over 14k, and in both ears 2-6k. not much, just a little.

on the other hand, i hear music, freqs, production, conversation, and everything else better than i ever have. i can distinguish small level adjustments at low listening levels, and can smooth out the >10k range of cymbals or voice in a way i simply couldn't one year ago. i notice deep motor hums, rattles, buzzes, and similar ambient noises that others don't.

so while the physiological faculty is diminished, the sensory ability is vastly improved. my brain has not only adjusted, it is kicking ass.

anyone else in the same boat? is anyone here actually *not* in this boat?


gregoire
del ubik

[TheSweetener]

What you say is true. A good musical hearing has not sooo much to do with organic things.
I mean most of the top producers and engineers are way over 50 and it's completely natural to loose quite a lot of high frequencies in that age. Of course some don't, but the majority does.

[shangoe]

its strange. i made a hearing test with my girlfriend. my hearing was much better on the scale. but she can hear crazy things i never hear. she can hear people conversation in a restaurant 5-7 meters away, tv program in my neighbors flat. but when i show her 2 vocal-takes sche could not find the diference. maybe my ear is calibrated to totaly diferent things.

[Frequency]

Hey Ubik, the line "my brain has not only adjusted, it is kicking ass." made me laugh so hard I had coffee coming out of my nose.

Thanks!

Have a great day!

[Billster]

Originally Posted by Frequency

Hey Ubik, the line "my brain has not only adjusted, it is kicking ass." made me laugh so hard I had coffee coming out of my nose.

Thanks!

Have a great day!

IMO the sort of hearing you need producing and evaluating music and the way it´s been recorded is more of a learning thing than an organic one. But still I´ve been shying away from a listening test for a couple of weeks now, because maybe I don´t like the result.

I still can hear our beeping tv, when it is muted (no plasma display until now ). That makes me think that my hearing can´t be that bad, although it could very well be that other frequencies suck big time. In the end it´s all about adjusting to your personal kind of hearing damage, isn´t it ?

Bill

[TedF]

'Everyone' tells us that hearing deteriorates with age......
I don't mind people knowing that I'm 67 years old (yes, I've been in the music business for nearly 50 years!!) and I don't notice any difficulty in evaluating the finer points of mic pres, microphones, compressors and monitors.
I believe you are quite right about there being much more to 'hearing' than those parameters that the audiologist thinks he can measure.
The day someone calls me out for being deaf I shall think again, but so far, I'm quite happy!
(pardon?)

[kats]

I think critical listening is a learned dicipline. As far as your age affecting your hearing, I think you adjust naturally.

Just stay away from those loud low frequencies - those are the ear drum stretchers that kill your high frequency response!

[Winey]

I had an ear problem a couple years back which eventually cleared up 100%.
The funny thing was although my ears were extremely plugged and ringing from this problem (my ears were filled with fluid from severe allergies) I aced the hearing test anyway!
The doctor said I was hearing fine when it was obvious I wasn't hearing good at all.
I figured this was because I've been trained to distinguish subtle differences in sound my whole life.
It was interesting.
They might even need a different test for musicians and engineers.

[joeq]

your listening may have improved over the years, your hearing has almost certainly deteriorated.

listening better may make up in some ways for hearing worse, but imagine if you had both: the sheltered girlfriend's razor sharp acuity and the veteran engineer's facility for critical analysis

moral of the story- take care of your ears. While hearing loss due to blockage may improve when the blockage is removed, almost all other forms of hearing loss are one-way only.

[redroom]

Winey what was your allergy that caused the blockage? I ask as I ahve had this problem for nearly 2 years and the quacks cannot make up there mind what the problem is.It does nto effect my hearing too much but on some days the pressure in my head can be very painfull and I will love to get it cleared up.

[Winey]

They gave me Flonase and Claritin for the allergies.
Then they also put me on sudafed for about a month to help dry out the fluid.
It was either that or have tubes put in my ears to drain them.
It cleared up just like they said. Thank god.
It actually took a couple months for the clogged feeling to completely go away.

[max cooper]

Although I've been standing next to a pair of half-stacks for most of my adult life, I think the cymbals have done the most damage. But what really got me was the job I had after high school washing dishes; the banging of plates on plates would leave my hearing feeling muddy for hours after I would leave work.

I don't know the answer to your question, but I'd like to know it. I feel like I hear better than I ever have, although I do have tinnitus.

[Bob Olhsson]

It's very well established that people having hearing damage will hear things very differently because they have holes in their response that can no longer can mask certain sounds.

This is one of the traps of working in audio. There will always be things that each of us will completely miss that others will hear clearly. This isn't a matter of absolute hearing acuity but rather one of an amazingly wide range of individual hearing differences.

We are all mixing and mastering for a great big moving target.

[Doublehelix]

HUH??? Did somebody say something??? Speak up, I can't hear you!

[GPl]

Haha...so true. What do you get when you put 1,000 AE's together to mix 1 song? 1,000 different mixes........

[warhead]

I wonder what long term (and short term) effect hard drives are having on us all. No matter where I am or what I'm doing, there's that high pitched whine.

War

[Prickstein]

I notice that most of the mixers i admire played in rock n roll bands for a long time and it's hard to do that without having some degree of hearing damage.

[Sean Holland]

I have only about 20% or less of normal hearing in my right ear. It's depressing, but then I say two words to cheer me up: Brian Wilson.

[zenkonami]

I'm with ya, Sean, only mine is in the left ear. Still, I'm working, and plenty of other guys aren't, so keeping the ears trained seems to go a long way.

And here here, to Brian. Also, let's not forget Beethoven.

"Getting the job is luck. Keeping it is skill."

-Zen

[jdg]

old thread.. but it applies to me now

last year i went thru 3 rounds of chemo which left my hearing (among other things) damaged.

my freq responds went from ruler flat all the way to 18k (highest the tests went)
to a slow 16dB curve starting at 8k dipping -60dB SPL at 18k

i was severely depressed, etc etc.
now its only been two months since my last treatment and my mind has more then made up for any loss. i dont hear things as dull anymore. my mixes and masters have been coming back perfect (just like nothing ever happened)
my confidence is back.

the brain is one magical mofo.
i've been training it to regrow my lost cells in the mean time so it wont have to work so hard to compensate

[blaugruen7]

Originally Posted by jdg

the brain is one magical mofo.

:-)
thank you for that and congratulations!

[Absolute]

The reason that is because much of engineers do is recognizing and sculpting timbre. Its not about doing perfect on a hearing test.

Know this though. Its a benefit to be able to hear as a normal person does. How would you like to paint if you saw red diferent than the average person?

But skill can make up for much of that, but it is a disadvantage. Lets not pretend it isnt..and no I dont have perfect hearing anymore.

[Mike Jasper]

Originally Posted by u b k

on the one hand, over the last ten years i have lost a little bit of hearing, especially in one ear over 14k, and in both ears 2-6k. not much, just a little.

on the other hand, i hear music, freqs, production, conversation, and everything else better than i ever have. i can distinguish small level adjustments at low listening levels, and can smooth out the >10k range of cymbals or voice in a way i simply couldn't one year ago. i notice deep motor hums, rattles, buzzes, and similar ambient noises that others don't.

so while the physiological faculty is diminished, the sensory ability is vastly improved. my brain has not only adjusted, it is kicking ass.

anyone else in the same boat? is anyone here actually *not* in this boat?


gregoire
del ubik

Exactly. I call it hearing comprehension. We just know what to look for, as it were.

Jasper

[Reptil]

ha what a cool thread.
I notice that, if there's music playing (in the background), my brain "zooms in" unvoluntarally, and I start to miss part of what someone (my girlfriend) is saying. very dangerous! It's very difficult to explain to ppl. too. LOL

[lucey]

Originally Posted by Reptil

ha what a cool thread.
I notice that, if there's music playing (in the background), my brain "zooms in" unvoluntarally, and I start to miss part of what someone (my girlfriend) is saying. very dangerous! It's very difficult to explain to ppl. too. LOL

funny!

not to derail the topic but as i've said in hearing loss threds - after a long day you can heal your hearing (to some extent) overnight with this same phenom. just turn down some classical music to the lowest possible level you can, and the ears will retune their range to the tiny dynamics while you sleep. calming the flapping drum


"great big moving target" ... nice one bob

"listening is a discipline, hearing is natural" ... right on as well

[Studiocat]

This is a cool website, care of my audiologist.
Just bought some ER15 earplugs last month. If you don't already have some, get some! They're great.

Adam

[Jim Kerr]

There is a study that has determind that compressed audio fatigues womans ears faster or /more than mens!! Radio research.

[vandertone]

Originally Posted by Jim Kerr

There is a study that has determind that compressed audio fatigues womans ears faster or /more than mens!! Radio research.

If this is true I have a bunch of compressors for sale.
Now I know what Bruce`The Viking`Swedien meant with `Compression is for Kids`
This man is only after the ladies...

[Jim Kerr]

Originally Posted by vandertone

If this is true I have a bunch of compressors for sale.
Now I know what Bruce`The Viking`Swedien meant with `Compression is for Kids`
This man is only after the ladies...

Yep!, Lite FM BABY!!! .....allright I'll stop. ....You ever stay up all night listining to the Dead and kind of go through a .....change if you will? Well maybe not a change but just one of those things? Man! I'm re-configing my home rig and I, ahh Coffee and the tunes! Back on track (ALL NIGHT!) Lite music = woman. Heavy stuff "MEN!" and I was thinking the best of both worlds. The Grateful Dead are phenominal. Anyway. My girl is a hairband freak and can not stand smelly people that bug on music. So who the heck knows. I love space jams, whoa! My apoligies if I took this a little to far. Yes I am listining to incredible incredible mixes of the AUD and SBD type!

stike

This is what I am and was listining to while posting. Check this out.
http://www.archive.org/download/gd95...1.wav_64kb.mp3

This one is real fun!
http://www.archive.org/download/gd95...d3t01_64kb.mp3

[vandertone]

Originally Posted by Jim Kerr

Yep!, Lite FM BABY!!! .....allright I'll stop. ....You ever stay up all night listining to the Dead and kind of go through a .....change if you will? Well maybe not a change but just one of those things? Man! I'm re-configing my home rig and I, ahh Coffee and the tunes! Back on track (ALL NIGHT!) Lite music = woman. Heavy stuff "MEN!" and I was thinking the best of both worlds. The Grateful Dead are phenominal. Anyway. My girl is a hairband freak and can not stand smelly people that bug on music. So who the heck knows. I love space jams, whoa! My apoligies if I took this a little to far. Yes I am listining to incredible incredible mixes of the AUD and SBD type!

stike

This is what I am and was listining to while posting. Check this out.

http://www.archive.org/download/gd95...1.wav_64kb.mp3

send me some of what you had/took before/while posting
track is great btw, I especially love the second bridge
cheers,
mirko