coping with Hearing loss & tinnitus

[DJ Matt]

yep...
the day had to come.

i have noticed less sensitive hearing in my left ear than my right (after nearly 3 decades of DJing) and i got tested and sure enough my hearing dips a lot between 1 and 4k (4k being the lowest) classical musician / dj syndrome
its always been going in that direction, i was tested 10 years ago and there was already a dip at 4k ,but now its worse.

the specialist gave me hearing aids to try out, and it really was insightful because i got to hear what sound is "really" supposed to sound like for a few minutes.
even though my hearing loss is mild, it was kinda unsettling to take back off the hearing aids and realise just how quiet everything was, id recommend any career DJ to try this. its mad. bit of a wake up call too..

anyways, has any of you damaged your hearing enough to want to use hearing aids?

i think i can manage without them in daily life, but its annoying me knowing that those frequencies are missing now, and im considering i might need them when producing and sound designing, just so that i can know what im actually hearing.
or else i might just use the charts that i got back from my hearing test to create a custom EQ setting on the master out so that i know what things are "supposed" to sound like and not creating sounds that would be unbearably sharp for other people to tolerate


just want to hear your experiences. has any of you experience with this and how do you cope?

[David Bowman]

There's that previous thread in case you did not notice it: http://www.djforums.com/forums/showt...-with-Tinnitus

Glad I managed to keep tinnitus at bay, but it took me an awful long time, and not playing anything loud over an extended period of time.

[scoob101]

just want to hear your experiences. has any of you experience with this and how do you cope?

Ive suffered hearing damage in one hear unrelated to DJing, which exhibits itself as sensivity and pain to noise.

My mitigation for this is to use IEM`s to isolate external noise and control how much sound I receive into my ears. That of course means I`m isolated from any audience, but I`m fine with that personally.

[DJ Matt]

Ive suffered hearing damage in one hear unrelated to DJing, which exhibits itself as sensivity and pain to noise.

My mitigation for this is to use IEM`s to isolate external noise and control how much sound I receive into my ears. That of course means I`m isolated from any audience, but I`m fine with that personally.

im sorry to hear that !!


yea, since i made this post, i have managed to convince the venue i play in (which had me too close to the speakers) to move my dj box away from the speakers and i also now apply an EQ to the master output that reduces the offending frequencies around 4k, those speakers are particularly harsh at that frequency.
it may dull the sound a little for the audience, but frankly I think i im doing them all a favour... dont think anyone misses it.
i have also been wearing ear protectors strictly in every loud environment, 100% of the time in my left ear and about 80% of the time in the right ear, i take it out of the right ear every now and then to check the sound.

iv gotten used to it now, but you really have to trust your sound system and get it EQd properly from the start, because when you are taking out the protectors and putting them back in, your hearing threshold for certain frequencies goes haywire, you really dont know what you are hearing anymore...

my hearing loss and tintitus seems to have made an almost full recovery. it can become agitated again if i am irresponsible and dont wear the protectors , so i have to keep that up. also i have to keep my headphones at a low level when using them at home, only as loud as it absolutely needs to be. i used to blast them without realising what i was doing. so now, i occassionally hear a faint hiss, but usually nothing. thats miles better than a few weeks ago.

[Hygro]

I've had hearing loss this whole time in that range and even a little lower. You miss a lot and don't even know it. I use some audio unit plugins, like eqs and saturators on my laptop using audio hijack just to change the output to match the difference of my hearing. Doing so, everything is way clearer at a lower volume. DJing was always tough unless I was blasting my ears. I tried to get custom earplugs early on but it was too difficult to mix on them. If I had been smart I would have practiced at home.

[DJ Matt]

I've had hearing loss this whole time in that range and even a little lower. You miss a lot and don't even know it. I use some audio unit plugins, like eqs and saturators on my laptop using audio hijack just to change the output to match the difference of my hearing. Doing so, everything is way clearer at a lower volume. DJing was always tough unless I was blasting my ears. I tried to get custom earplugs early on but it was too difficult to mix on them. If I had been smart I would have practiced at home.

for me, ever since this experience i have worn ear protection in loud environments, bars, restaurants etc.
and now I cannot go to those places without them, the treble would seem unbearable for me. I have to keep both in when DJing, for a while i would only have the left one in (the headphone ear) but you need both in, i sometimes take out the right one in mid transition just to hear the details better. unfortunately the tinitus does come back from time to time, this last couple of weeks for some reason...I over did it at one gig and paying for it now

i tend to also dip the offensive frequencies a little (4k-8k) at my gigs just to try and reduce hearing damage for the audience, so my gigs sound a little more muffled than your average gig. I actually think most PA speakers are a bit to "good" at those frequencies.

[Hygro]

That's interesting, I recently became bass sensitive. Like I can go out and it's fine, but for regular listening I find if I cut the bass I have what feels like a lot more "room" for the midrange on up, and my ears don't fatigue as fast.

[David Bowman]

Bass gives a lot more work out on the auditory ossicles (malleus, incus, and stapes) making the connection between your eardrum and the inner ear, those behave like a biological limiter/compressor to protect your hearing against louder sounds. Push them hard for long and your hearing becomes ''stiff''.