Buzzing ears-health issue

Discuss music production with Ableton Live.
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dna
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Buzzing ears-health issue

Post by dna » Mon Apr 07, 2008 8:17 pm

A few months ago I purchased Live 7 suite with all Ableton's new plugins (electric,analog,etc).
Unfortunately those instruments had a bug and when I tried to swap presets there was a huge distorted white noise coming out of my (unfortunately again) earphones.
This thing happened twice even when I tried to be more carefull after the first time.A few days later my ears started buzzing all day and all night and I became real sensitive to sounds.I couldnt sleep,eat and got into depression,even my PC's noise was driving me nuts! Ofcourse I stopped producing music,lost my job,etc.
Its been 2 1/2 months now and I still got major issues with that and I strongly beleive that the problem was caused by those damn FAULTY plugins.
I send this cause Im relly displeased with Ableton.I know its just "software" but it interacts with man and can cause damage... so next time be VERY careful about what you're releasing and WHEN you're releasing.
If the program is not ready test the bloody thing and fix it

arachnaut
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Post by arachnaut » Mon Apr 07, 2008 9:14 pm

I feel for you and I'd like to make a general comment to one and all. In the 60's I worked in the summers at Pittsburgh Steel next to 90 ton girder-making presses. One day one of them fell next to me. That was the loudest thing I ever heard. (BTW, back then Pittsburgh was steel capital to the world).

I've been using headphones for nearly 50 years now and that never happened to me.

But my hearing surely has degraded over the years.

It's one thing to be a victim of accident, but to deliberately listen to loud noises through headphones is to sabotage your livelihood.

In particular, under the influence of ethanol's pain-killing properties, this can happen more quickly.

blank
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Post by blank » Mon Apr 07, 2008 11:12 pm

You got a really sad story here, I feel bad for you.

Unfortunately, loud noises like that are part of the game when making music (think feedback) and especially with softwares.

Always having a physical volume knob and not a software one is essential in my opinion. Also, having some kind of limiting unit on the master is a pretty good idea.

I hope you will go better, sincerly.
feug.net -:- virb.com/feug

ironwill2000
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Post by ironwill2000 » Mon Apr 07, 2008 11:24 pm

This happened to me once while loading a video into Apple Quicktime of all things. I think the hearing in my left ear is affected by it to this day.

Only advice I can give is to give it some time and wear earplugs when working, your hearing may recover in due time, the human body is a powerful thing.

Also - when DJing or mixing with headphones on, ALWAYS pull your headphones up in front of your ears onto your temples or behind your ears until you hear the music start playing. PITA I know, but one good pop will make you a believer.

dna
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Joined: Thu Apr 07, 2005 4:24 pm
Location: greece

Post by dna » Tue Apr 08, 2008 11:10 am

Thanks for the support guys,its been hard for me these days and I appreciate it.
Hopefully like you say,the body is powerfull and since the doctors said that I have not noticeable hearing loss and its just the nerves in the ear I want to believe that my body will fight it..
Thanks again and if anyone had the same problem and got through with it he could please share how or with what treatment he did

thefool
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Post by thefool » Tue Apr 08, 2008 11:18 am

you'll be fine. After several days of "pressure" and noise sensivity because i was stupid enough NOT to wear earplugs (again) at an event, my ears are fine again.

I can only say that you should really get some monitors. Its just different. After long time usage headphones gives me this pressure feeling and i have to throw them off and run out. However with monitors this never happens, and i don't become hypersensitive to noises etc. I now only use the headphones if i am just sitting for a shorter time, or eventually when listening in depth, eg when making some drums and percussion tracks etc.

I usually sit with the monitors and then from time to time take the headphones on (also while mixing) to listen.

smartass303
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Post by smartass303 » Tue Apr 08, 2008 11:34 am

Had a bad hearing damage years ago... Also the nerves, was in hospital for two days. After that i stood away from earplugs and headphones and stopped making music/going to concerts/clubs/football for one year.
Noise was very relaxing, as well as silent music. I needed this for sleeping almost two more years.
Now im pretty much fine, i watch out for earprotection in clubs/concerts/football stadium and HAVE A PHYSICAL GAIN KNOB RIGHT NEXT TO ME when im making music.

That was the worst thing happened to my body ever,

303

Warminstrel
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Post by Warminstrel » Tue Apr 08, 2008 11:51 am

Another thing to consider is that having your ears confined in a non-sterile enclosed space can sometimes cause ear infections with symtoms very simmilar to "hearing loss";

Before I got right into making tunes I worked in a call centre and had to wear those 'Phil Collins' ear/mouth piece head sets. It was suggested by my doctor that the ear infection (Ostitis externae i think it was) was caused by wearing headphones.

A few months back I took a couple of days off work to get some studio time and over exposed my ears to my sennheiser hd 280's.

Think it was a combination of the lack of air circulation and the noise but anyway, ended up with painfull ears and muffled hearng for a week.

Doctor prescribed some anti-biotic ear drops and all was cool in the end.

Since then I have tried to work using my monitors as much as possible and have a limiter set up on the master. But due to lack of a sound engineers training I'm not sure Ive set the limiter up properly (any suggestions or advise on this would be welcome)

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Just to add: Apparently the 'whining' you hear when you've given your ears some stick at a gig or whatever is the sound of the hearing receptors of that particular frequency dying. What your hearing is thier swan song and you will never hear that frequncy again.
(this was taken from a film (Children Of Men) so if any medicaly trained forum users disagree then please do so)

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Eh?

timothyallan
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Post by timothyallan » Tue Apr 08, 2008 12:32 pm

I always always start playing the music before putting headphones on. I also had sharp feedback happen once, and never again will I get caught out like that.

I second resting them behind your ears or on your temples until you can hear what's coming out.

Another thing to do is to generate the absolute loudest noise you can through ableton or whatever, and mark on your soundcard where the threshold of 'too loud' would be. Then never turn your soundcard/master knob past that point. I know my motu 828mkii never goes above its internal 31db marking (which actually outputs 85spl according to my little spl meter and my monitors)

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