Look after the most important equipment in your studio!

[garrettendi]

I apologise for the clickbait title but I feel this is an important topic.

Today I was mixing a piano piece I composed a while back. I had the MIDI and fed it in to a new VSTi piano, with an IR reverb and a new channel strip plugin, but I couldn't hear anything really change and try as I might it still sounded awful. My wife suggested I take a break for ear fatigue.

Most of you already know this, but those who don't: I am fully Deaf and can only hear with a Cochlear Implant.

Once I left my computer and put my implant back into speech mode (I have a special mode for music) I noticed my hearing sounded like my ears were blocked with water. My wife gently suggested I may be overdue to change the microphone covers on the implant and so I duly did this.

The change was incredible! I could suddenly hear with clarity and crispness! And this got me thinking: the most important thing in any studio is your ears.

Forget about the best acoustic treatment you can buy, those excellent preamps in your interface, or those uber-expensive monitors you've been lusting after for months - if you fail to take care of your ears, you will always be facing a massive uphill struggle.

This means for those who don't do it already: if you are blessed with good natural hearing, keep volumes reasonable, get your ears cleaned of wax regularly, and if you noticed anything out of the ordinary, get it checked immediately. If like me you rely on technology to boost your poorer hearing, keep those batteries fresh and maintain your hearing aids!

In my case I am able to hear well enough with an implant. Not everyone who is harder of hearing is this lucky.

Tl:dr - LOOK AFTER YOUR EARS.

[Dan LB]

Absolutely!

Well said.

Look after your ears and USE them too!

[Eddy Deegan]

I apologise for the clickbait title but I feel this is an important topic.
....
Tl:dr - LOOK AFTER YOUR EARS.

Personally, I think a formalised version of this would make a good 'Sounding Off' article in SOS. Or possibly a Leader, though I think that's the sole reservation of Paul White

[mfors70097]

Glad you fixed the problem. You are absolutely right, take care of your hearing yall!

[kinglouis]

Very good point. Important to keep monitoring low too, it’s very easy to keep turning up the master looking for that sound that you can’t hear at a lower volume apparently...

[Mike Stranks]

I apologise for the clickbait title but I feel this is an important topic.
....
Tl:dr - LOOK AFTER YOUR EARS.

Personally, I think a formalised version of this would make a good 'Sounding Off' article in SOS. Or possibly a Leader, though I think that's the sole reservation of Paul White

I agree... and it has added impact because it's from 'one who knows'.

[ef37a]

100% agreement from me.

I have no idea how much a private hearing test costs as I have always been referred by my GP. I suspect anyone with a commercial studio would be able to set it against tax?

I am in fact several years delinquent in visiting my Audiology department and it is something I must do in the next few weeks. I have been getting by with my one digital aid but I now find certain voices I listen to on headphones are very muffled. I listened yesterday to part of the Digital Human prog' on R4 but had to boost some of the mids in Sam before I could understand even the lady properly. Generally it is the men that give me most trouble.

Dave.

[ManFromGlass]

I’ve been fortunate - for me it’s just one woman who gives me trouble that I can’t hear properly. It took years to develop.


On a serious note - my buddy just got hearing aids that are controlled by an app on his phone. He said the first few times his phone rang through these hearing aids scared the shit out of him. Bluetooth hearing aids? Pretty cool.