Our main asset is our ears and hearing capability. Unfortunately many of us have different types of hearing loss for several reasons. I’ve got my first loss from the shooting range and poor quality ear protections when I served in the army. Being a FOH engineer for many years did also add a little more into the equations. As people get older, their hearing is also weakening, so they may need to compensate for the loss.
I hope it is a good idea to share what I have done to fix this, not back to 100% hearing, but to a extent that I still can do a good job for my clients and have fun mixing music. It’s not a very scientific solution, but it works ok. So here is the way I used to correct two types of hearing problems, first hearing loss in some frequencies:
So far, so good. The problem though, is that over time a hearing loss often develop into a problem called “recruitment”. This is when you still hear the frequencies, but the damage start to increase the frequencies adjacent to the area where the hearing loss is. This make a “loudness” effect and you start to hear distortion in this frequencies. No need for a tube screamer pedal ;-)
To compensate for “recruitment” I did this:
In Mixbus and Mixbus32C I’ve used the monitor section and inserted the EQ’s into the “Processors”. I use a Zoom L12(14 ch. in, 4 ch. out) as a audio interface and it have 4 outputs that I can mix as I like into the 5 separate monitor mixes on the L12. For my hearing I use the two outputs from the monitor section that now are made to comply to my ears. Then I connect the master out directly to the two other outputs so I can use these for other people that needs monitoring without corrections.
See attached pictures.
The first it's an sample of the EQ's settings. I'm a left hand shooter so the hearing loss is bigger on the left ear as you can see. To have control and separate adjustment of hearing loss and the "recruitment", I've used four EQ's instead of two.
The second picture is the setup for the channel that I used for pink noise and the pre EQ setup used to feed the EQ's for balancing left/right ear and the level. Using the mouse wheel on the freq on the pre EQ will move what you hear up and down the freq spectrum. Adjustments are made in the left/right EQs in the monitor sections "processors" until everything is in balance.
Hope this can help others that experience the same type of problems. Happy mixing :-)
I hope it is a good idea to share what I have done to fix this, not back to 100% hearing, but to a extent that I still can do a good job for my clients and have fun mixing music. It’s not a very scientific solution, but it works ok. So here is the way I used to correct two types of hearing problems, first hearing loss in some frequencies:
- From the use of guns in the army, I got a reduction at some frequencies around 3-4 Khz. To compensate this I used a pink noise plugin and a very accurate 10 bands EQ with a good Q control and where I could select frequencies to my need.
- I needed to control left and right ears separately. I don’t have a dual mono EQ with separate controls for the left and the right, so I chained two EQ’s and used pin out/pin in to be able to control each side independently on the two EQ’s.
- Then I went through the whole frequency spectrum listen to the pink noise by using a pre EQ that only pass a very small portion of frequencies(see second picture). The goal was to make the balance left/right and the sound level the same all the way. This gave me two EQ’s with slightly different settings that compensate the loss in left and right ear.
So far, so good. The problem though, is that over time a hearing loss often develop into a problem called “recruitment”. This is when you still hear the frequencies, but the damage start to increase the frequencies adjacent to the area where the hearing loss is. This make a “loudness” effect and you start to hear distortion in this frequencies. No need for a tube screamer pedal ;-)
To compensate for “recruitment” I did this:
- Two new EQ’s chained and pinned after the two previous ones. This time I only listen to music that made “recruitment” very audible and then identified the troubling frequencies. It’s not a bomb that they are in the same range and around the hearing loss area
- When they are identified, it’s just a job with the EQ to mask only the distorted portion of the sound. Since “recruitment” is “loudness” the reduction in this frequencies should leave you with a relative flat frequency hearing without distortion.
In Mixbus and Mixbus32C I’ve used the monitor section and inserted the EQ’s into the “Processors”. I use a Zoom L12(14 ch. in, 4 ch. out) as a audio interface and it have 4 outputs that I can mix as I like into the 5 separate monitor mixes on the L12. For my hearing I use the two outputs from the monitor section that now are made to comply to my ears. Then I connect the master out directly to the two other outputs so I can use these for other people that needs monitoring without corrections.
See attached pictures.
The first it's an sample of the EQ's settings. I'm a left hand shooter so the hearing loss is bigger on the left ear as you can see. To have control and separate adjustment of hearing loss and the "recruitment", I've used four EQ's instead of two.
The second picture is the setup for the channel that I used for pink noise and the pre EQ setup used to feed the EQ's for balancing left/right ear and the level. Using the mouse wheel on the freq on the pre EQ will move what you hear up and down the freq spectrum. Adjustments are made in the left/right EQs in the monitor sections "processors" until everything is in balance.
Hope this can help others that experience the same type of problems. Happy mixing :-)
Mixbus Pro 10.0, Kubuntu Linux 64 23.10, Stock Low latency kernel, KXstudio repos, i7-3720QM CPU@2.60GHz, 12 Gb RAM, nvidia GeForce GT 650M/PCIe/SSE2, X.org nouveau driver, Zoom L12 Digital mixer/Audio interface