Protect those ears
It’s summer (duh!) and I see a lot of amateurs and pros alike cutting grass. I also see a lot of construction workers on road crews and at building sites.
What I don’t see a lot of is ear protection!
Some of today’s machinery is quite loud — loud enough to do permanent damage to hearing. And once you suffer hearing loss, it doesn’t heal.
You are born with a hearing range of 20-20,000 Hz. But ear damage affects the higher end until it diminishes so much that you can’t understand human speech. (Imagine what it does to your enjoyment of music and sound?)
So, if you are around loud stuff, protect your ears. Just invest in some simple earplugs that reduce the levels enough that you can continue to enjoy the sound of both people and music.
Find more information at Hearing Education and Awareness for Rockers (HEAR) at www.hearnet.com. And help spread the word to others, too.
2 Comments
Great advice, Jeffrey.
I’d also suggest everyone check out Sensaphonics:
http://www.sensaphonics.com/
If you’re curious where you stand, they offer a hearing test specifically geared towards music/audio people (includes higher frequencies.. crucial for things like noise reduction work).
They also create custom earplugs (great for live concerts.. they’ll sound less ‘muffled’ & more accurate than the cheap ones), in-ear-monitors, etc. When I was getting my hearing test, they were doing a custom order for Beyoncé.
And they have a dog
I’ve always had a bit of an aversion to testing my hearing. I’d be afraid that if the Doc told me I had an issue with some freqs that I’d worry about that when I mix. I’d doubt my own work because I *might* not be hearing it right (based on the Doc’s dismal evaluation).
Anybody else want to chime in on this topic?