I posted this in the wrong forum, so I'm placing it here
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Hi folks.
I had a bit of a surprise yesterday when I realised (during a hearing test) that I could hear up to somewhere between 15.5kHz to 16kHz. Being 33, I mistakenly thought I was at 18kHz. Guess I was wrong!
So, here's the question. Can I still mix music effectively? I'm not really clued up on this because, well, I thought I could still hear pretty well. I'd even been happy with recent mixes I'd done.
Anyway, any info would be very welcome! My fiancee and I are in the middle of recording her album, so, I'd really like to get an angle on this news.
Don't worry about it. Knowing what to listen for, how to combine sounds to good effect, and having some sort of musical sensibility are the biggies in mixing. Any HF age-related loss (as long as it's not hyper severe) is of relatively minor importance.
I say this based on my own experience... I did my first label-released, radio-played mixes around 1982, and have worked as a pro engineer/mixer since 1987. I know for a fact that, at 54 years of age, my mixes are better now than ever.
Try the Philips Golden Ears test – it's excellent. I passed it recently (not a doddle!) - but I'm pretty sure I would NOT have passed 20/30 years ago when my hearing was supposedly 'better'.
Terry Manning has a saying along the lines of 'the music is in the mid-range'. And I think that's spot-on. Ultimately, what goes on above 15kHz is of very minor importance, unless something has gone badly wrong. For most musical genres, it's what happens below 5kHz or so that really matters.
Worry not...... Can't even remember what 15kHz sounds like.......high frequency hearing loss and memory loss go hand in hand........ Still making good mixes.
There are plenty of mixes with 15kHz line scan tones on them from CRT screens in the studio - the mix engineer (and possibly mastering engineer) obviously couldn't hear that high but the mixes themselves were fine.
The question is probably - "what can I do about compensating for my hearing loss?" and the answer is, I'm afraid, not very much.
If the hearing loss is due to exposure to loud noises or illness then you can probably take steps to stop it getting worse but, if it's down to age / hereditary condition, then pretty much your only options are to live with it or to amplify the affected frequencies.
I’m 51 and I’ve always expected to go deaf. My father’s side of the family were all profoundly deaf in later life and my father himself has worn a hearing aid since his 40s. I had my hearing checked in my late 20s and there was already a dip at around 3kHz. The other month I got my hearing checked whilst being fitted for moulded IEMs. Sure enough, big dip in the mids (3 to 4kHz), although bottom and top end (as far as high as they measure) was ok. This means that I have trouble with speech intelligibility (I can hear the vowels but not the consonants so, unless I’m concentrating, I know that people are speaking but don’t understand what they have said).
At the moment I don’t have a problem with mixing / listening to music. As far as I’m concerned – everybody’s music has a dip at 3 to 4kHz, that’s what the world sounds like and that’s how I mix. If I try boosting the missing frequencies then yes – I can hear speech more clearly and I hear things differently, but it doesn’t sound ‘right’.
If I do wear a hearing aid (and I’m picking up a pair next week) then I’m worried that it will distort my view of the world. My intention is to wear them selectively at first (meetings, whilst listening to TV etc) but not use them whilst listening to music. Remember that Brian Wilson was completely deaf in one ear and I’m not sure how good the other one was – but I still love ‘Pet Sounds’.
To everyone who replied, thank you. I think I probably got a shock when I checked my hearing and found something different to what I thought it would be. But, after hearing what everyone here does on a daily basis at various different ages, I now have my confidence back!
Time to get back to making music. Thank you very much!
This is a very timely thread for me, and I'm finding it comforting. I have noticed a pronounced reduction in my ability to hear high end sounds over the past year, and it has scared me. I've just hit 60 so should expect it, but I have also been diagnosed with Primary Progressive MS, of which hearing loss is but one symptom. Since I have become disabled and far more housebound I am hoping to do much more writing and recording at home, but was wondering whether I'd be able to mix effectively. I FEEL as though I still have a good ear for it, and many of the replies on here have restored my confidence.
For those wondering what their ears actually can hear these days here is a useful link to a basic online frequency test. This is not intended to be a full hearing test but I have kept the link since some other kind soul posted it in these very forums a few years ago. For further interest, in the UK a standard hearing test only goes up to 8kHz. So if you're discovering your only getting lower, rather than mid teens don't panic, you're not (necessarily) going deaf!
