Rick Beato on tinnitus

[dark water]

Hello everyone,

I have tinnitus (around 9Khz in my right ear, constantly for the past 15 years give or take), and there have been some good threads about it here on KVR previously: some of the comments by xoxos relating it to the brain, rather than the ear, are imho well-founded.

So it is interesting to learn about the respected musician Rick Beato's experience about it today:




Many of you will have tinnitus.
Many of you who don't have tinnitus, will annoyingly get tinnitus.
Many professional audio engineers have tinnitus and they still get the paychecks coming through the door...


As always, look after your ears if you can.
Blasting bass through headphones is not going to do you any favours etc etc


Certainly the condition can be a very disturbing experience for those who are new to suffering with it.
But it is both physical and psychological: the brain trying to make sense of the information coming its way via the (damaged) nerve cells in the ear.

It is not life-stopping, and even as a professional musician, there are ways to compensate for the brain-hearing issues.
However, equally, there are some people (not necessarily musicians) who suffer from really LOUD tinnitus, and my sympathy goes out to them because it can be so upsetting - particularly at night for some people.


There has been a great deal of interest and commentary on the internet in recent years about tinnitus.
For example, the reasons why it MIGHT appear worse at some times than others (eg, when you have a cold, or when you might drink alcohol etc).

There have also been suggestions as to ways to reduce, if not cure, tinnitus, such as accupressure ideas - although personally I have only found these to have a fleeting beneficial impact on my tinnitus.

Either way, as this video by Rick Beato shows, it is a condition common to many people within the audio / music industry.
Whether you are able to 'make peace' with the condition (if you have it) is another thing altogether however, as it can be VERY irritating if nothing else

[slackhead]

Gregory Scott of Kush Audio made a good video too on this subject a few months ago:

[dark water]

^^ absolutely - and another excellent musician to speak out on the subject (I'm a subscriber to Greg's channel as well)


Always, I feel most sorry either for those who:

1) are just new to the condition and may well get freaked out by this new 'weakness' / 'madness' of theirs; or
2) those who have it at such a really LOUD and constant level, and particularly in both ears, that it would probably drive me insane if I had it as bad as them.

Cheers

[Meta4kly2008]

Here's what I, a tinnitus sufferer, have to share about ears. I'm 56 years old with above-average hearing, though with the inclusion of a mad-lad Aussie Cattle Dog into our family unit (a pandemic puppy purchase), I'm probably a little worse than before my last test. Those little buggas can bark a mean note into your listening-holes!

Listen to mixes at low levels MOST of the time - you'll get better results and save your hearing.
Use an app (or Radio Shack device) Decibel Meter Reader to ensure you're listening to mixes/mastering sessions at under 85db - no exceptions save for that one or two minute burst of 'loud listening' to see if your bass is bottomy, your kick hits you in the chest the right way and your guitars djent just right.

Stop ... just STOP IT with regard to earbuds. They will destroy your hearing over time. Not a good idea to use sound-cancelling type headphones either, as they can push an inaudible 'dead signal' into your ears and cause damage without your even knowing it. Also - never use those bone-conductive type headphones. Heard about a guy (Reddit) who went jogging in a busy downtown area and kept having a hard time hearing the music over the street noise, so he kept cranking the volume up. He now suffers from irreversible tinnitus.

STOP ... just STOP IT with respect to IEM's (in ear monitors). You will never sing in tune unless the units are super-top-of-the-line and they are too close to your ears which will, once again, foster damage over time. Stick with regular monitors ... no matter what your pastor wants (which, in part we think, cost us our worship leading volunteer offering. Our not wanting to 'conform' to his vision of a 'slick looking platform dynamic' may have been a turning point for him ... whatever dude ... our ears are more important than your 'Sunday morning stage show' look.
Wear earplugs for nearly everything that involves a motor/engine (lawnmowers, vacuums, snowblowers, saws, etc.). Wear them in crowds, loud restaurants. MOVIE theaters are ridiculously loud nowadays. Wear them everywhere you can ... I do!
Clean your ears using cooking oil (HQ olive oil or canola is fine) or hydrogen peroxide or a mix of both - oil first, then the h.p. Then rinse with a bulb using warm water and not too much pressure. If your gunge-plug isn't broken up the first time you encounter blockages like that, it'll take an overnight soak with oil (block it in overnight using an earplug) and/or maybe another few days before the guck in your ear is mailable and able to be broken up with the warm water rinse.

TREAT INFECTIONS IMMEDIATELY! Had a friend at the church who left it a little too long (pretty dumb for a Canadian, as we have free health care here!) and he lost 90% of his hearing in one ear and a good portion in the other. Signs of infection are not always pain - sometimes it's a persistent ringing. A 10-day run of Prednisone (steroid) that begins with '10' tablets on day 1, then '9' on day 2, etc. (until the scrip is overwith) is best. Amoxicillin for the infection - take until infection is gone ... you don't' necessarily have to finish ALL the anti-biotics, new studies have shown, despite what your doctor tells you.

GET YOUR HEARING PROFESSIONALLY TESTED. Until you can get that done, though, use a hearing test phone app to get a results readout of your hearing. You'll see your 'weak spots' for certain frequencies. When you have that chart, you can then create an EQ template/preset that boosts sound in the frequency ranges you are struggling with. Run that EQ over your main bus and mix as usual. By doing so, your 'perfect hearing' clients (assuming you're no longer hearing as well as a 15-year-old) will enjoy the mix because it's been worked out in advance with respect to frequency balances, thanks to your test and compensatory adjustments.

Best to all, eh?

[THE INTRANCER]

I don't have tinnitus, but I did when I was 18, 19 work in a place where 4 inch and 9 inch grinders were used regularly on metal, by myself and others, worked in factories with clanging machinery and even live concerts / festivals. In these places, I always doubled up on the foam inside over the ear headphone like protectors. We were often provided the little blue ones in factory environments, but I hated those, so bought my own over the ear type which were much more comfortable and didn't cause any ear issues.

[Tektra]

TREAT INFECTIONS IMMEDIATELY! Had a friend at the church who left it a little too long (pretty dumb for a Canadian, as we have free health care here!) and he lost 90% of his hearing in one ear and a good portion in the other. Signs of infection are not always pain - sometimes it's a persistent ringing. A 10-day run of Prednisone (steroid) that begins with '10' tablets on day 1, then '9' on day 2, etc. (until the scrip is overwith) is best. Amoxicillin for the infection - take until infection is gone ... you don't' necessarily have to finish ALL the anti-biotics, new studies have shown, despite what your doctor tells you.

Thanks for this bit of insight. Infections are something that I'd not even considered to be a potential issue

[karsa]

I've recently started experiencing tinnitus, and I'm so sorry that so many people also have it. Thanks for sharing these useful and interesting videos and your experiences. Though I still have hope to find the solution. Or maybe one day I'll get used to this constant rining in my ears.

[mgw38]

TREAT INFECTIONS IMMEDIATELY! Had a friend at the church who left it a little too long (pretty dumb for a Canadian, as we have free health care here!) and he lost 90% of his hearing in one ear and a good portion in the other. Signs of infection are not always pain - sometimes it's a persistent ringing. A 10-day run of Prednisone (steroid) that begins with '10' tablets on day 1, then '9' on day 2, etc. (until the scrip is overwith) is best. Amoxicillin for the infection - take until infection is gone ... you don't' necessarily have to finish ALL the anti-biotics, new studies have shown, despite what your doctor tells you.

Thanks for this bit of insight. Infections are something that I'd not even considered to be a potential issue

This is how I lost part of my hearing. It’s not as dramatic as in the example, fortunately. But I ended up with moderate hearing loss in the mid range and a very noticable tinnitus. I did not think much of the infection because there was no pain and only some ear ringing. We were in the middle of the pandemic and doctor appointments were a challenge so it was left untreated for 2-3 weeks.

The one thing I learned that hearing loss quite common in the audio community. In the end, you can work around most limitations with a little bit of willingness to compromise in your workflow. So it is not the end of the world. Rick Beato has talked about this a number of times, others have as well. But it definitely pays to be extremely alert in case anything feels off with your ears.

[Zipede]

I've had it for over 10 years, mines just a high pitched whine at around D#9 sometimes it can be pretty loud. There are many things that can aggravate it, including noise (of course) too much sugar and stress.

The thing that has helped me deal with it the most is simply ignoring it, and by that I mean, the more you worry about it, the more importance you brain will give to it and the worse it will seem. If you hear it, do something else, go for a walk, listen to a song, play guitar, whatever, just try to mask it. Let your brain know that it is an unimportant background noise and after a while you will not notice it as much. Never actively listen for it to see if it is still there, because it will be.

Fictitious I know, but this Kung-Fu episode kind of illustrates my point.

[osiris]

I have it but it comes and goes. I think it's mandibular (?) related because it subsides if I pop my jaw. People say ringing in your ears but mines more of a high pitched tone. The worst part being even if you cover your ears you still hear it. I'm lucky I can hear at all considering how much time I spent standing in front of huge club speakers during my growing up years. The bass would vibrate your clothing.