Hearing loss and ear buds - PLEASE READ

[Pep]

Over the years I've suffered hearing loss from loud bands and a hereditary situation. My loss is from 2000 hz to 4000 hz and it is substantial. I sing lead and background and we are using earbuds.
Within the last year I've been very pitchy so I had my hearing tested and discovered the loss. My problem is I'm hearing the harmonics of the note instead of the actual note.
I've been turning up the volume to my earbuds but in effect I've been amplifying the notes I hear well to to point of damaging my ears even further.
I hear the trumpet and much of the B3 sounds flat compared to everything else so I have difficulty determining what to sing. I'm usually sharp which is a bit unusual.
A friend of mine who's a sound engineer assigned a 31 band graphic EQ on our Presonus board to my earbud mix, dialing down the frequencies I hear well so the ones I don't we're more audible. It worked!
I thought about this and it's not much different than the new programmable digital hearing aids.

I sure hope this help others who are dealing with similar issues.

 

[Geri O]

An excellent post!

No boubt a doubt it (wondering if anyone gets that!), we will deal with hearing loss issues as we age (I'm 56, 57 in April), even without the damage from high SPLs. There are tools to deal with it, as you've figured out quite nicely.

In my case, I still hear pitches fine (good thing since I'm also a piano tuner in another life), but I have to roll off low end to be able to distinguish pitches on the bass lower than G, 3rd fret E string. I learned this a year ago when I was distracted by a question from the drummer as we were playing and I was inadvertently hammering away on C# on the low B string when it was supposed to be a D. The music director stopped the band and I realized all the funny looks I was getting from him and the other players, all 15-20 years my junior. When I corrected myself, it was at that point I realized that I could barely distinguish between the notes on the B string. Immediately, I reached to the Aviom and dialed down the low end to where it was a little thinner-sounding that I liked, but I could deal with it. And it helped my hearing problem there immensely.

I do have a slight dip at those frequencies you mentioned, but it's not yet an impediment to my piano tuning or my mixing abilities (I keep asking folks in my mixes are okay, so far, so good). When I had my hearing checked, they found nothing really wrong with my hearing at those lower frequencies, so it's entirely possible that my issues were from the tremendous amount of low end available from my 1964 Quad IEMs. However, in both IEM and wedge monitoring, I've gone to a lot less low end in order to make sure I'm hearing those low notes properly.

Hey, recently, I saw an unknown jazz quartet just burning it up. All of the band guys were over 60 and they were on fire. I noticed hearing aids on the upright bass player and asked him about it. He's 82 years old, one of the finest upright players I ever or never heard of, and he had been wearing hearing aids for over 20 years, or "As best as I can remember, I quit counting after 75 or so!" (wasn't that a great answer!).

So I foresee a long playing career, even with hearing problems, unless it's tinnitus. From what I've heard, the extreme cases of tinnitus make it impossible to hear properly for playing. I used to know a guitar player that played with tinnitus and he said he just got used to it. Hadn't heard from him in over 10 years now.

Good luck!

 

[ggunn]

So I foresee a long playing career, even with hearing problems, unless it's tinnitus. From what I've heard, the extreme cases of tinnitus make it impossible to hear properly for playing. I used to know a guitar player that played with tinnitus and he said he just got used to it. Hadn't heard from him in over 10 years now.

There are varying degrees of tinnitus. I have a bit of it; it's only there when things are quiet or if I listen for it.

"Thanks" for mentioning it, I hear it now.

 

[Geri O]

There are varying degrees of tinnitus. I have a bit of it; it's only there when things are quiet or if I listen for it.

"Thanks" for mentioning it, I hear it now.

I believe the appropriate phrase under the circumstances would be...

"oops"...Sorry!

...

 

[ggunn]

I believe the appropriate phrase under the circumstances would be...

"oops"...Sorry!

...

No problem. At least mine is not so bad that I have to play in a plexiglass box like Pete Townsend.

 

[Steve Dallman]

I have constant tinnitus and have had it for a couple decades (accident at work...subjected to two 140dB air horns blasting 140Hz inside a stainless whey dryer for 10 seconds.)

But, due to the nature of the cause of my ringing, my hearing tests well. Initially, all low sounded drastically different which drove me nuts the first few weeks. I eventually got used to the new characteristics of how I heard low end, and the shift diminished some.

Hearing is too precious not to protect.

 

[Neil2094]

Hearing is too precious not to protect.

I suffer for constant tinnitus in both ears, for me its quite loud I can hear it over the TV/Radio etc. Had my hearing tested in September 2014 the results were perfectly normal, which was a total surprise.
However, I will be investing in some bespoke musicians ear plugs and get rid of the off-shelf types. I find it strangely odd I always always wear ear plugs, at rehearsals, gigs (mine and others) and even just going out for a drink I suffer from tinnitus yet my band mates who never wear plugs don't

 

[mikeyjm2]

Great post... bookmarked. I just found out this morning that our rhythm guitarist (in his mid-50s) has hearing issues which will require surgery and ultimately I'm told, him no longer playing with us. I don't have any specifics on his condition but obviously hoping for some alternative other than him quitting the band.

 

[Geri O]

Great post... bookmarked. I just found out this morning that our rhythm guitarist (in his mid-50s) has hearing issues which will require surgery and ultimately I'm told, him no longer playing with us. I don't have any specifics on his condition but obviously hoping for some alternative other than him quitting the band.

Best wishes and prayers for your friend. You are to be commended for your desire of a solution that allows your friend to continue playing with your group.

There is hope, although we don't know the specifics of his condition, as you mentioned. I've seen some miraculous things with a couple of hearing-impaired non-musical friends that had most of their hearing restored by new technology.