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Okay, you've got great ears. What'ya going to do to keep them that way?
It's easy to be complacent when you're working at the top of your game; when your ears feel golden and your mixes are as crisp as a winter dawn in Colorado. But the combination of youthful feelings of immortality and various shades of denial can eventually make it at best, more difficult to do an ace job and at worst keep you from continuing to work at your chosen profession.
Why it makes sense to check your hearing
Theory:
Musicians, sound engineers, and
producers rely on their hearing to a much greater degree than
most people do. Most people listen to music in an offhand
manner--but pro engineers and musicians make their living
by the ability to create, scrutinize, analyze, critique, modify,
shape, control, enjoy, and rejoice in the details of each piece
of music. And to do all this, you utilize your own perception as
the measuring device. This is the Artist's Way, but it does have
some limitations. Especially if you've been at it for years, and
the normal process of getting slightly, slightly, ever so
slightly older has perhaps started to kick in. And no matter how
careful one tries to be, we all lose a step or two as time
advances.
So…how can you be sure that what you hear, what you mix
translates to the rest of the world? You probably already own
devices to determine what's going on acoustically—quartz
tuners to check tuning, bargraph or analogue meters to check
input/output levels, RTA/FFT/TEF devices to check room and mix
characteristics, etc--but, until now, there has been no
convenient and accurate way for you to find out how you are
actually hearing. The EAR Q Reference Hearing Analyzer is
the only existing tool to fill that need. To stay on top of your
game, the Ear Q system is an essential tool for your studio/road
case/ home.
In roughly 15 minutes, in the privacy of your studio { home, or even hotel room with a suitable laptop) you can get absolutely accurate data on your hearing curve*; from 60hz up to 20khz**. A trip to the doctor will only get you tested in the realm of speech – 125hz-8k. Helpful, but not the data you need on the job. You can compare data from previous tests to understand how your hearing perception is changing. Or, of course, to reassure yourself that the protective stance you are taking to preserve your hearing is keeping you healthy. And competitive.
* This particular audiogram only shows the results for one ear. When both ears have been tested, both curves will display so you can see the relationship. For instance, a drummer might have greater loss in his left ear, from long term exposure to high-hat frequencies.
** The colored rows in the audiogram indicate degree of hearing loss.
Grey = normal hearing for an 18 to 25-year-old with no hearing loss or health problems
Pink = Mild loss
beige = Moderate loss
Green = Moderately severe
yellow = Severe
If you use your ears, you need to know your hearing. It's
really that simple.
Solution: Fit your mix to your ears
Ear Q allows you to determine whether your frequency-dependent
perception of loudness is
similar to the general population, so that you can make accurate
mixing decisions. Using
algorithms derived from Etymotic Research's FIG6 formulas, Ear
Q quickly and easily gives
you your own Graphic EQ settings for your ears at several
listening levels--"soft" (65 dB--
which may not be correctable with EQ only);
"comfortable" (80 dB) and "loud but
comfortable" (95 dB).
This graph gives you an averaged approximation of necessary compensation to achieve a flat response. For example, using this readout to understand how to approach your work, you can understand that you need to be cautious in adding 3-8k to instruments and mixes in general, because the first few DB’s you add are merely compensation for your own hearing loss. Translation: if you feel that snare only needs a nudge at 5k and 6k to get that “snap” it’s probably already there, and adding might make it too thin sounding for most other people.
Of course, Ear Q does not automatically impose any of these
sonic adjustments on you. It's your choice whether or not to
implement this equalization in your
playback system or incorporate this info into your mixing
equalization choices. Some things really do need a bit more
top end to get that “snap." 
Also, remember that the suggested EQ
settings are intended as high-Q, broadband adjustments.
For a few more details on the nuts and bolts of the Ear Q system please take
a few more minutes to read What is Ear Q
And to find out who is bringing Ear Q to you, check our our Who is Ear Q page.
A personal note from the audio profession
I never thought I'd be the poster-boy for anything. Much less the
poster-boy for boneheads who think for some odd
reason they're going to keep the hearing of a 17-year-old no
matter how hard they pound themselves with krush groove
levels of noise. Never thought I'd be peppering my conversations
with scintillating lines like, "What was that?",
"Excuse
me," "Could you repeat that, please," tottering
around like old Uncle Joe, feeling old before my time. Never
thought I'd
be avoiding phone calls because it's hard as Hell to not sound
like I've got a brain the size of a peanut when I only catch
about half or less of a what anyone's got to say. Never thought
I'd make my daily dough in any way but from behind a
nice, long mixing desk either.
Ever work at the top of your game? Even for a moment? Ever fall
into that fuzzy zone where everything fits together so
well that you aren't even conscious of making an effort; just
that this is the place where you were meant to be? Where
all the borders of work and play, effort and creativity melt into
one blend of a perfect moment? Where everything
becomes easy? Musicians will understand this instantly, without
further explanation. They know what it feels like, the
moment when they stop just playing the notes and start giving
voice to the music in a free flow of creativity. Mixing audio
was that way for me. There came a time in (most) every mix where
I would stop "assembling" the song, and would fall
into a place where every instrument told me where it needed to be
by the way it felt when I put it into the fray. Where I
didn't have to question myself or query the artist I was mixing
for, whether or not the move was the right one. It just was.
I remember thinking, each and every time I fell into this zone,
"Damn, I can't believe they're paying me to do something
so enjoyable and easy. Better keep my mouth shut and not let on
that this isn't even work, just free play."
I also remember the feeling of it slipping away. Where suddenly,
mixing was becoming a chore, as it was getting harder
and harder to please the artists. Where my judgement was in
question, most of all to myself. There came a time where I
finally had to admit to myself that my clients could hear better
than I could. When I had to admit that it was time to walk
out the door before I was unceremoniously shown it in the worst
possible way for an artist to be shown it; by the phone
ceasing to ring. And by finding through the grapevine that the
band you mixed that great record for (so you thought) last
fall, is working with another engineer/producer on their latest
project.
Which brings me slowly and laboriously around to EAR Q. If I'd
had this resource somewhere around 10 years ago
when the slippage began (this wasn't an overnight affair-trained
ears can still out mix better hearing for a long time) I
might have been able to take steps to halt much of the damage and
slow the rest. I don't think my studio years is what
killed my ears so much as my ten years of mixing FOH for a
certain, unnamed LOUD guitarist, in venues ranging from
200 seat smoky clubs (with horrible acoustics and the guitar amp
pointing directly at the house mixing position like a
.357 magnum) to huge open air summer festivals where it's
possible, with luck and preparation to make the show sound
almost exactly like the record just released. Those ten years of
live mixing is where my ears melted away, and where if
I'd had my hearing regularly tested, I could have seen the
frequency-loss holes developing before they turned into grand
canyons. I might have actually started wearing ear protection
like I knew I should, but never did. That's not to say I
would have been smart enough to wear ear-condoms, but at least I
might, in a rare moment of clear thinking and
visionary zeal, taken steps (like quitting the road) to preserve
my vocation.
I mean, who's got the time, when you're working at the top of
your game, 80 hours a week in the studio and on the
road, to go see an ear/nose and throat guy and get tested? And
how many pros really want to know how bad their
hearing loss is? Denial is a much easier path. Ear Q is a nearly
perfect tool for audio pros as well as the home studio, self
produced musician engineers. Hell, it may even be more necessary
for the non- pros, as they aren't as likely to have as
much awareness of frequency spikes and the basic nuts and bolts
of how their ears work. As much denial as I was in I
always knew, as those piercing guitar licks were stabbing my
ears, exactly what was being done to me.
EAR Q is a nearly perfect tool. Number1, it works. It tells an
engineer (or an engineer's boss...) what shape his/her ears
are in, thus giving them a jumpstart on taking action to protect
themselves and/or stop assaulting their ears. Number 2,
it's fun and techie enough to satisfy that knob-turning jones
that lives in all of us. In my business career, I owned three
studios and I would have insisted on testing myself and my
engineers--not to mention any of the musicians who would
have been game to see what shape their ears were in--every six
months or so. And number 3, maybe most importantly,
is the portability. It's hard to say "no" to what you
know you need to do, if the biggest barriers of denial ("I
don't have
the time"; "I don't have health insurance to pay a
doctor") are taken away.
The price to buy the system for your studio is certainly right,
about what you'd pay more for a few memory cards or a
couple of pairs of new headphones.
And then, with luck, you don't end of paying what I paid... The
big bill that comes due when ya can't do the gig
anymore.
Bill
Thompson
pushed faders in San Francisco Recording studios,
and as a FOH mixer on concert tours worldwide from 1979-1995.
He earned multiple Grammy nominations and Gold and Platinum
record awards
for his work with various Gospel, R&B and Rock acts
throughout the
80's and early 90's. He now works as a writer and ferret farmer
in the East Bay Hamlet of Canyon, Ca.