I've been manning the mixing desk at our local church for the last two months and I'm starting to think I need my hearing tested.
I'm 54, and for years have had to ask my wife what she just said, which I'm never quite sure is because I'm good at ignoring her, or if I'm going deaf.
A couple of things have happened that make me think I need my hearing checked. The 21 year-old guy who helps on the mixing desk is able to hear sounds that I'm completely oblivious to, and this makes me wonder whether the mix I produce for the audience is intolerable to people with normal hearing. I've done a few online tests and know I can't hear anything above 15kHz.
Also if I play through Helix Native over headphones for an hour or so I become aware that the presets all begin to sound bassy, which I'm sure they don't when the session started. Also, at parties if there is a lot of background noise I am often to all intents and purposes deaf to conversations that are happening right next to me.
This is all a bit of a bummer because I love music and pride myself that I'm a discerning listener. It's making me wonder if I'm just deluding myself, which is kind of hard to come to terms with.
The reason I'm saying all this is to ask - do you have a problem with your hearing? At what point did you decide there was a problem? Do you wear a hearing aid? If so, did you go NHS or private?
And any advice or thoughts would be gratefully received...
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Bt srsly, I don't have proper hearing loss, but I have a bit of tinnitus is each ear, sadly at fractionally different pitches which makes it extra annoying. I do struggle to hear voices when there's lots of white noise, but I'm otherwise ok. I make it a point to wear fitted ear plugs at noisy gigs, though my current set don't quite fit properly at the moment. I must get some new moulds done.
According to this:
https://decibelhearing.com/high-frequency-hearing-loss/
Anyone over 50 struggles with stuff over 12kHz, and over 40s struggle with 15kHz.
If that's the case, you probably aren't doing badly for 54.
Sometimes, it's not just high frequencies. I had a hearing test at work a while back, and there was some loss in the upper mid range frequencies. The doctor said there was some scarring on the ear drum, maybe from an ear infection when I was younger. My high frequencies were pretty good though.
I still hear the doorbell over background noise sometimes when my wife doesn't, and she's 6 years younger than me, so I don't think I'm too bad.
If you are worried about it, it might be worth getting a test done.
I have invested in some ACS ear plugs recently. It's nice to be able to go to a gig and not come out of it with ringing ears. It's got to help long term.
As long as you're still doing an OK mix and avoiding ringing and booming I'm sure you'll be fine. Might be worth having a younger friend act as a spotter though
At our place almost all of the PA operators are "of a certain vintage" and they all appear to be functionally incapable of dealing with high frequency feedback and ringing. The charitable interpretation is that they just can't hear it. The uncharitable one is that they don't listen and can't be told. The truth is probably both!
It's noticeable to me that when the younger team member does it (30s), we never have any issues. Ditto when those of us who are also muso's and who have some grasp on sound (and are 40s/50s). When the other regular chaps do it (50-70+) it's a bit random, but ... volunteers.
If people aren't looking round and staring at you, you're probably doing OK.
I’m 65. I’ve had tinnitus since I was very young, possibly caused by early antibiotics. I noticed changes in my hearing from the age of 40 something. I had to work harder at hearing conversation in noisy places. It’s the higher frequencies which help us distinguish aspirants and word boundaries. I also became less tolerant of loud noises and music. It didn’t show up in tests until I was about 60, and then only as reduced sensitivity to higher frequencies.
Since then my hearing has gone downhill more and more rapidly. I can calibrate the degradation because (so I believe) the tinnitus remains at constant volume. Hopefully it will be a few years before I need to resort to hearing aids. Apart from the cost and inconvenience I don’t want to have to deal the with EQ and phase differences which hearing aids bring. I’m told that hearing aids are much better than they used to be, smaller, lighter, with configurable EQ profiles to adjust for music and conversation.
At one time I thought that my gigging day’s would be limited by arthritis. It’s more likely that it will be hearing loss.
I wouldn’t go private. Hearing aids are really expensive if you go through the Specsavers/Boots route. They offer easy payment plans, which probably tells you a lot.
Offset "(Emp) - a little heavy on the hyperbole."
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I stopped hearing ar 12900 hz,. is that good or bad? My hearing is noticeably better in my left ear.
Seriously: If you value it, take/fetch it yourself
I'm nearly 50, been struggling with conversations in noisy environments since my early 30s and had slight ringing in my ears due to stress I suppose in my early 40s but it has disappeared over the past few years. I try to take care of my hearing, and always wear hearing protection when working with power tools or driving open-top cars (and also did so when gigging in an earlier, sadly long past, life).