Audio Engineers Do It Louder!

Are there ethical requirements to learn about as an audio engineer? If you are operating equipment that is capable of permanently damaging peoples hearing should you worry about stuff like that? In both cases the answer is clearly yes! As awareness has grown concerning the impact loud music can have on ones hearing, more legal and social ramifications have surfaced that audio professionals must consider. There has always been a certain mindset in the industry that louder is better and that if you can’t take the high pressure levels at concerts and in studio control rooms, you’re a wimp. I disagree with this mindset totally and I’m on a mission to change this attitude in the next generation of audio engineers!

As audio professionals we are constantly subjecting ourselves and our clients to high sound pressure levels. The effects of long term exposure to high volume are well understood. Once you suffer from threshold-shift, you never ever get the same level of sensitivity in your hearing back. Ever. It’s a common problem for us because firstly, we need to hear a lot of detail while mixing in order to properly gauge the relative balance and subtle relationships between voices and instruments and secondly we want our mixes to be a powerful, physical experience. This is known as a catch 22 situation. Every time you turn it up loud to listen to the detail closely or get some “feel” to the live mix, you fatigue your ears slightly more which means you have to turn it up slightly more to hear the detail but then your ears continue to become more fatigued and then you reach for the monitor volume again etc. It’s a vicious cycle.
Audio engineers have to learn to recognize this process and break the cycle. In my Live Sound Engineering 101:FOH Mixing class we take a look at the ramifications of a career of exposure to high decibel levels. There is no need for alarm because proper monitoring technique and using critical thinking skills and measurement devices can allow you to achieve high quality results and protect your hearing as well as that of your clients.

In the studio you have to learn to monitor at low volumes and only crank it when you really need to hear critical detail and then only for brief periods. You have to learn to how to take breaks and let your ears recover. When you are mixing for live sound you have to treat things a bit differently because you can’t vary the volume at will, the audience wouldn’t like that very much! Instead, you have to find  a “good medium” as it’s known. Your mix must be entertaining as well as a good physical experience for the audience. In my mind, you also have the duty of preventing any lasting hearing damage to your listeners so make sure people can't get into near field areas where they could unintentionally get hurt. Make sure the security guys in front of the subs are wearing hearing protection.