Tinnitus related - please advice

[Unaspected]

White noise might help.

[mtelesha]

I wore ear plugs to every single concert and was careful on the volume of music all the time. I have tinnitus and couldn't avoid it.

I went to get my ears checked and was super worried about how I was noticing that I my hearing had also changed. Well my hearing did drop at higher pitch and it put me into the normal range for people 25 years old LOL. Sad I lost my super sensitive ears.

My three life changing events
1. I sleep with a noise maker and it helps.
2. I have someone listen to everything I produce to see if there is something in the upper range I just don't hear anymore. (I use to always get my albums mastered at a mastering studio (I had to switch to something cheaper aka I pay a few bucks)
3. I mix with my eyes with visual EQ so I can check for myself.

[LoveEnigma18]

^ Thanks for the suggestions and sharing your story. The more I read from people, the more I wish there was a cure for this. It is quite challenging to have to get used to white noise or play something in background for you to forget about it.

Tinnitus can be compared to baldness. You simply can't do anything to completely cure or recover from it.

By the way, I think I can hear up to about 16 KHz. I am in my early 30s. Is it common/normal? I don't remember if I heard better in the past.

[chk071]

By the way, I think I can hear up to about 16 KHz. I am in my early 30s. Is it common/normal? I don't remember if I heard better in the past.

Should be about normal, or even better than average. I'm early 40's, and, it would surprise me if I heard higher than 10-11 kHz. That's the way it goes...

BTW, the older I get, the less severe my tinnitus seems to be. Dunno if that's also a normal thing. I definitely avoid loud noises or music, and I try to avoid stress, and try to sleep normally. What was a huge booster for tinnitus in my younger days was alcohol. When I drank too much of it, I was greeted by really wild "beeps" in the morning... the kind which can really drive you mad. So, definitely avoid that. A beer or two, no problem, but, anything which gets you drunk will really thrust the tinnitus, at least temporarily.

[CircuitEYE]

I find the Mayo Clinic website generally of high quality:
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-con ... c-20350156

Good point.
I found that the described symptoms can be circulation related and not a result of loud noise.
There are a number of reasons for Tinnitus.

[JoeCat]

I suspect a lot of tinnitus is genetic - I've had mine since I was a child (as long as I can remember).

I typically only notice it at night, and alcohol and noise before bed (even a loud TV) affect it a bit. But my hearing has always been pretty normal for my age, so it's just a "thing I have".

What the OP is experiencing sounds a bit different, coming on suddenly and one ear - as a layperson my opinion is extra-humble, but adding to the guesses I'd assume it was more likely what was suggested by previous posters - clogged Eustachian tubes perhaps, etc. I can say I fly quite often (well, used to ), and after some trips where my ears didn't de-pressurize normally due to allergies, etc. I've had some weird sounds lasting a few days (once even weeks) - but they were different from my tinnitus.

[chk071]

I suspect a lot of tinnitus is genetic - I've had mine since I was a child (as long as I can remember).

I'm 99.9% sure it is. Most of my family has tinnitus. It's really obvious.

What the OP is experiencing sounds a bit different, coming on suddenly and one ear

You're right. It's also different to what I'm experiencing. It's on both ears here. Even though it's sometimes more severe on the one or the other ear.

[FarleyCZ]

I had mine for years too. (It gets worse when I yawn btw, wierd. May be a bit of those tubes clogged up too, dunno.) The key is to accept it. We, people working with audio, simply use our ears much more. Worrying about tinnitus is like being a blacksmith and worrying about scars on your hands.

Honestly, chances that you'll have a nasty resonancy in your song that's the exact fequency of your tinnitus are rally thin.

As the "frequency response" of your ears go, don't have your hopes up, it wasn't flat even before. (Otherwise we wouldn't have psychoacoustics and equal-loudness curves.) It's just different now. And it will continue to change. Even if you didn't have tinnitus. That's just natural. It happens when you age. Everyboy on the planet has this response a bit different. When you're mixing, you're making your best guess in terms of you knowing how the song should sound on your ears (and speakers) compared to others. That's all you can do. Before your hearing changed, and after it. This mechanism is still the same. If the change is big, you might notice it for a while, but it's just an adjustment period. Not that different from feeling you have when buying a new set of speakers.

Also, what might help is to search how many famous and big music names reported having tinnitus. Spoiler alert: It's a lot.

In normal day to day operation, it gets mostly covered by other sounds anyway. The only problem is the sleeping part. I've learned to ignore it, but if it's scary for you now, those ambient recordings aren't a bad idea either.

BTW: You can also consider it a superpower! It's like your (kinda lame, but always ready to be used) detector of stuff being quiet or not. Usually your perception of loudness changes during the day. But if you're noticing your tinnitus over some sound, you know FOR A FACT, that this sound is quiet and won't hurt anybody.

[chk071]

I had mine for years too. (It gets worse when I yawn btw, wierd. )

I have that too. Only sometimes though.

The key is to accept it.

Yep.

[LoveEnigma18]

By the way, I think I can hear up to about 16 KHz. I am in my early 30s. Is it common/normal? I don't remember if I heard better in the past.

Should be about normal, or even better than average. I'm early 40's, and, it would surprise me if I heard higher than 10-11 kHz. That's the way it goes...

BTW, the older I get, the less severe my tinnitus seems to be. Dunno if that's also a normal thing. I definitely avoid loud noises or music, and I try to avoid stress, and try to sleep normally. What was a huge booster for tinnitus in my younger days was alcohol. When I drank too much of it, I was greeted by really wild "beeps" in the morning... the kind which can really drive you mad. So, definitely avoid that. A beer or two, no problem, but, anything which gets you drunk will really thrust the tinnitus, at least temporarily.

Okay, I am not too bad then. Yes, I do understand about the high frequency loss with age. Wish it didn't though.

Good points there, thanks. Need to avoid overthinking and stress. which mostly comes from unsatisfactory or delayed results from music making. I don't have alcohol actually, I mean hardly once a month and that too just a beer or whiskey. I did read about its affects on tinnitus, so something to be wary of in future.

[LoveEnigma18]

I suspect a lot of tinnitus is genetic - I've had mine since I was a child (as long as I can remember).

I typically only notice it at night, and alcohol and noise before bed (even a loud TV) affect it a bit. But my hearing has always been pretty normal for my age, so it's just a "thing I have".

What the OP is experiencing sounds a bit different, coming on suddenly and one ear - as a layperson my opinion is extra-humble, but adding to the guesses I'd assume it was more likely what was suggested by previous posters - clogged Eustachian tubes perhaps, etc. I can say I fly quite often (well, used to ), and after some trips where my ears didn't de-pressurize normally due to allergies, etc. I've had some weird sounds lasting a few days (once even weeks) - but they were different from my tinnitus.

Thanks, but even I am not sure what I am experiencing, because it is for the first time. I labelled it tinnitus considering it is a very broad term. I am still not sure of the cause or what exactly triggered it. I am assuming earwax, because I tried to mess with removing it by putting drops and some warm coconut oil a few days ago. I think it started after that, probably because earwax went too deep.

[LoveEnigma18]

I had mine for years too. (It gets worse when I yawn btw, wierd. May be a bit of those tubes clogged up too, dunno.) The key is to accept it. We, people working with audio, simply use our ears much more. Worrying about tinnitus is like being a blacksmith and worrying about scars on your hands.

Honestly, chances that you'll have a nasty resonancy in your song that's the exact fequency of your tinnitus are rally thin.

As the "frequency response" of your ears go, don't have your hopes up, it wasn't flat even before. (Otherwise we wouldn't have psychoacoustics and equal-loudness curves.) It's just different now. And it will continue to change. Even if you didn't have tinnitus. That's just natural. It happens when you age. Everyboy on the planet has this response a bit different. When you're mixing, you're making your best guess in terms of you knowing how the song should sound on your ears (and speakers) compared to others. That's all you can do. Before your hearing changed, and after it. This mechanism is still the same. If the change is big, you might notice it for a while, but it's just an adjustment period. Not that different from feeling you have when buying a new set of speakers.

Also, what might help is to search how many famous and big music names reported having tinnitus. Spoiler alert: It's a lot.

In normal day to day operation, it gets mostly covered by other sounds anyway. The only problem is the sleeping part. I've learned to ignore it, but if it's scary for you now, those ambient recordings aren't a bad idea either.

BTW: You can also consider it a superpower! It's like your (kinda lame, but always ready to be used) detector of stuff being quiet or not. Usually your perception of loudness changes during the day. But if you're noticing your tinnitus over some sound, you know FOR A FACT, that this sound is quiet and won't hurt anybody.

Thanks for the motivation and tips. I get what you are saying. It will take some time for me to get really used it, but I have already started that since yesterday. The only good thing here is I am not the only one and that this problem is very common.

[The Noodlist]

Tinnitus - 5 ways for musicians to deal with it

[LoveEnigma18]

Tinnitus - 5 ways for musicians to deal with it

Thanks.