There is an interesting phenomenon about the human ear, as it relates to creating music. How well we are able to hear is governed by many factors. Genetics, physical deformities, birth defects, age, race, disease and environment are just some of the factors that control how well we hear. In creating or recording music, (or any type of medium that involves audio) I would argue that the ear is the most important tool at our disposal for making critical decisions about creating music.
Sound coming into our ears is transferred through the air as waves or vibrations. These ‘sound waves’ are of differing frequencies. The lower or more ‘bass’ a sound is means the sound wave is longer. The higher or more ‘treble’ a sound is means the wave is shorter. These waves are measured in hertz.
It is generally understood that someone with ‘perfect hearing’ can hear sounds from approximately 20 hertz (20 hz) to about 20,000 hertz (20khz). Leaving any physical problem or birth defects/disease out of the equation, it is interesting that for most folks, the younger you are, the better you can hear the full frequency spectrum of sound. As we grow older, human hearing starts to decline with age.
But in creating and recording music, it is a reality that years equal experience. And as in any craft, experience is a valuable commodity. So for most involved in music they actually get better at their craft but their hearing gets worse. There are factors that can affect how fast and how extreme our hearing loss advances. One of the leading causes of premature or fast moving hearing loss is exposure to loud sounds. I know quite a few right handed shooters who have trouble hearing out of their right ear because of shooting rifles without hearing protection.
I had a situation that was well over twenty years ago where I woke up and had a horrible high pitched ringing in my ears. They call it tinnitus. I had been putting some long days in the studio at higher volume levels than I should have been listening to. It kinda scared me so I went to a ear, nose and throat doctor, and the first thing he did was to give me a hearing test. When the results came back, he commented that my hearing was actually fairly good given the fact that I’d played electric guitar for years. He said the tinnitus would probably subside, which it did mostly.
I still have a bit of ringing but have learned to live with it. The doctor told me something interesting. He said one of the worst things we do to our hearing is ride in the car with the window down. Rough on the hearing. From that day to today, if I’m going to be going more than thirty MPH with my window down, I wear ear plugs.
I record with a fellow who can only hear out of one ear. He’s been that way most of his adult life so is used to it. But he ‘has to’ listen to final mixes on the speakers, cause if I have anything panned hard to the side of his bad ear, he can’t hear it in headphones.
