What are we hearing these days

[SJB]

Well for some time (years) the wife and some others have said I am deaf. I just thought it was selective hearing. I Know my top end is reduced due to industrial noise damage.
All the time I have been playing with others (2015) no one has made any comment relating to my sound top end being over the top. Most have commented they like it.
One person has indicated that my sound is too toppy and the bass player with us is too loud.
I Looked into this and personally I think he may have "Cookie Bite" hearing loss. I.e. his mid range has dropped. https://www.hear-it.org/Cookie-bite-hearing-loss-1

Anyway I know I have industrial damage so I have now received hearing aids. Using the ENT department settings I can hear a girdle rustle at 50 yards now.
I have tried setting my sound system using an equaliser to match my hearing - did not make much difference - but the hearing aids do. I can adjust them (got an app).

Now as so many of us have hearing loss - played in bands for many years - industrial damage etc. the issue is that if I set my sound to match my hearing aids then maybe most of the people I play with will hear the sound as too base (muddy). This is because I will reduce the top end.

I have experience of someone with a very toppy sound - he got new hearing aids and things were much better.

So what do we do?

[artyman]

Pardon

[dave robinson]

I'm about nine years ahead of you with this very subject and have experienced a massive change in my hearing after being checked out at the hospital after my chemo. The hearing aids restored all the 'top end' that I lost over the years and I have mentioned it here several times recently, to the point of making apologies to people I had argued with over sound.

[Iain Purdon]

I don’t know how anyone can assess the presence/absence of a frequency they cannot hear. Surely you need someone with normal hearing whose judgement you trust?

[SJB]

Following on from Ian - seems for me I don't hear my watch alarm or the dishwasher finishing sound. The wife does. This situation has been going on for some time. My wife some 7 years ago went for a hearing test to try and get me to go - she did not think she needed them. But yes - what a surprise. So there is a comparison with hearing loss. Hers was down overall.

With respect to Dave's comment - I suppose people in the audience / players that have not been exposed to industrial noise will hear the top end without hearing aids. So we can't have a one setup for all.
Tinnitus is another issue - mine is quite bad.

So how you set up is a bit of a confusing situation. Especially when doing a recording.

I will be talking to my playing friends - see what they think.

[Iain Purdon]

I’ve spent my career in sound studios. The key is the operator at the sound desk. If he or she has top class hearing and knows what the result should sound like, put your trust there.

[Tone]

I’ve spent my career in sound studios. The key is the operator at the sound desk. If he or she has top class hearing and knows what the result should sound like, put your trust there.

I thought all sound engineers and musicians were deaf due to years of listening at 11

Seriously, this is an interesting subject and one which is particularly relevant to me because I've recently been confirmed as being mild to moderately deaf and I'm currently going through the process of getting hearing aids. I have wondered how they will affect my perception of music, particularly via headphones and I'm looking forward (I think) to finding out on Friday which is when I get my all singing and dancing aids.

[Iain Purdon]

When I got my hearing aids, the main difference I noticed was that all the higher frequencies my ears were no longer good at sensing came back. It was weird at first because my brain had become used to muddier sounds. However it was great when I got used to it. I was still able to do gigs because the aids stop amplifying when the volume gets too high, so there was no risk of me being deafened further!

[TimRyland]

Out of interest, if you play through headphones do you leave your hearing aids in, or take them out.

[bazmusicman]

I have hearing aids for the last 16 years, and yes my 'top end' hearing is shot, but the aids can bring a lot of this back depending on your loss.

Aids for speech focus on a very narrow band.

Now hearing aids for music is a lot different from normal speech. Music covers a very wide audio Range. Anyone getting aids need to have the audio tech fitting them to also set up a separate channel just for music to cover the full range, not just the speech range.

This music channel needs to have all the 'bells and whistles' turned off! especially the 'auto gain control' which automatically cuts off the volume of any sound louder than speech. If you don't have this turned off every loud'ish note you play the modulation of that note will warble up and down like you are riding a volume pedal and will drive you nuts! I had a bit of a hard time getting the audio to understand this, and took a few visits to get it sorted.

I used to do a lot of video filming and cheap camcorders had this auto gain built in to stop the sound overloading the tape. What used to happen was if someone say....would fired a gun and then say something, you wouldn't hear what they said on tape because the noise of the gun would shut down the 'auto gain' until it came up again as the noise faded.

Regards,
Baz.