Yes, I also was going to bring up the point that I doubt that many
musicians, record producers, engineers, and rock fans -- old OR young --
can't hear well, but Steve brought it up perfectly. I remember when I
was a kid, you could tell it was loud because it was distorted, but then
along came Hi-Fi and they warned us that we would turn it up too loud
because we didn't have the clue of distortion. Then along came digital
and they warned us not to turn it up till we heard background hiss
because when you started the CD you would be blasted out. We used to be
able to fill a 3000 seat theater with one Altec A7 Voice of the Theater
speaker and a 30 watt amp. Now every stinkin' act thinks that LOUD
equals GOOD. At the university where I taught, the jazz dept used
several huge 300 watt amps to amplify a 15 piece jazz band in a 300 seat
recital hall which had perfect acoustics for a solo flute. Some 100
piece symphony orchestras even use amplification. This is madness. BUT
THEY CAN'T HEAR AND THEY THINK NOBODY ELSE CAN HEAR EITHER.
I always knew my hearing was delicate and I tried to protect it, but my
tinnitus came from an ear infection when I was in grad school, but the
quality was still good. I could EASILY hear the TV horizontal
deflection frequency of 15275 and I tested to close to 18K. Then in '97
I was videotaping at an OTR convention and a bunch of sound effects guys
were doing a comedy act, and I knew one of them had a gun and I was
watching him. but I didn't know the other guy had one also and he shot
it off with his arm down behind the table -- about 6 inches away from
one of my microphones. Headphones. Buzzy distortion in my right ear
now, mainly on piano. In Sept at the same OTR convention I was setting
up our broadcast equipment and had my back turned when this year's IDIOT
sound effects guy came into the ballroom and just shot off a gun while
my back was turned. In addition to wanting to protect my ears, I have a
pacemaker. I chased him thru two ballrooms yelling nasty things at that
guy for over five minutes at the top of my voice (a voice that is so
loud I once SCARED a pack of pickpockets in the Paris subway into
dropping my wallet). I made damn sure that he will NEVER do something
like that again. I am training my daughter to always wear hearing
protection in the subway, at concerts, and even where jerks like to
thunder-clap applaud.
I still have the acuity to know what is good recording and reproduction,
and I know when the top end is or isn't there, but I don't go all-out
to top level stuff which I know is beyond what I can hear. The
mastering is what is important to me -- let others fuss over their
playback equipment.
Mike Biel [log in to unmask]
-------- Original Message --------
From: Roderic G Stephens <[log in to unmask]>
Hello to all our damaged "golden ears".
It took an M-1 rifle in basic training to give my left ear (due to the
nodes of the sound, not the right one) tinnitus and really rolled off
high end. Thank God, my right rings a bit, but still has a decent 12k
high end. They didn't know about ear plugs in the 1953 Army basic
training.
Rod Stephens
--- On Sun, 1/3/10, Charles Lawson <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> From: Charles Lawson <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] The Loudness Wars - NPR story
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Date: Sunday, January 3, 2010, 7:32 PM
> Steven C. Barr writes:
> >I suspect most of this resulted from
> >too many nights spent standing in front of Fender Twin
> amps, turned
> >WAY up to get desired distortion! My guess is that I am
> FAR from
> >the only musician in this condition...?!
>
> I know you are not. Back in the days when I did more
> live sound, I had an
> argument with a rocker over his amp levels being too
> loud. His reply: “It
> ain’t loud enough unless it makes the inside of my ears
> tickle.” I doubt
> he can hear much of anything, now, twenty or so years
> later. Very, very
> sad.
>
> I always carry earplugs to deal with situations like
> that...
>
> --
> Charles Lawson <[log in to unmask]>
> Professional Audio for CD, DVD, Broadcast & Internet
>
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