How to Produce Music Safely When You Have Tinnitus?

Hi.

I've had mild tinnitus now for around 12 months. I believe it was brought on by doing music production, at high volumes, using headphones.

Since being diagnosed by ENT I gave up doing music production as a hobby.

I don't really have a great deal of activities I love doing in my spare time and I've got the point of really missing producing music, however I'm worried if I start again I will make my tinnitus worse.

I did get to the point of hardly noticing my tinnitus at all most days.

I'm thinking of ditching any headphones, keeping volume levels below 80 dB and also getting another person to do the final mixing and mastering, so I'm just creating the track.

Any advice welcome! Would you give up what you love as a hobby? Am I taking enough precautions to reduce any risks?

Thanks.

 

I was at the same exact situation last summer. Being a music producer for a decade now, it was hard to convince myself to stop what I loved doing most.

I developed (mild) tinnitus a few days earlier than you and I thought it was the music and stuff (headphones, past gigs, loud volumes etc etc). So, I stopped making music for around 4 months and then I decided to continue. I still don't make the amount of music I used to, but that's due to general bad mood and depression about having ear issues...

I tried to stay "in silence" as much as I could to help healing. But that didn't make it better, on the contrary, it got a little worse by its own. So, I thought there was no benefit in stopping music.

However, my tinnitus doesn't seem to be affected by external sounds, so I gradually started music again at strictly low volumes through my studio monitors. If you can go outside, drive a car, speak with people, use sound therapy etc, then all that isn't too different from working on music at like 50-60 (at the very max, 70) dB with enough breaks. You shouldn't need more to make music or to listen to it.

I see no harm in doing the mixing and mastering either. On the contrary, I think my mixes actually got a bit better trying to make stuff sound exciting at lower volumes (compared to louder volumes I used in the past).

However, I'm still afraid to use headphones (not that I ever used them much for production), but that is up to you to decide what really makes it worse or not by trying carefully stuff from your old life.

 

Same situation here. After a break I decided to try and find a way back in the studio. So far:

No headphones.

Practice electric guitar unplugged. No acoustic.

Save drums for later in the process, all digital now with midi pads or a keyboard

Digital piano.

Record vocals with the backing track on monitors instead of headphones, use a cardioid dynamic mic and get rid of any bleed with a noise gate.

Leave all tracks dull sounding during recording/tracking.

Bass is now DI into the interface, get the tone in the DAW.

Wear foam earplugs for most of the process. When my ears start hurting, stop and let them recover.

Listen unprotected at low volume levels for mixing and mastering. Space this out for more days. Save all tonal work/EQ until as late as possible.

I miss the full sound with the tracks all EQ'ed up and punchy as I go. I also miss the hard driving drums as the anchor track to keep me in time. It's not as good as it was but it's much better than doing nothing.

George

 

Thanks for the responses. Very helpful. Glad to see you both are still doing the thing you love.

 

Always check reviews and threads regarding gear for sudden audio blast malfunction type of issues. I can’t recall the specific audio interface currently, but I read one that was specifically causing a horrible explosive like noise sometimes that was ruining speakers and obviously also ears.

Another monitor controller. I think it was one in the Heritage Audio group emitting a harsh loud clicking noise when switching between monitor sets.

Same with DAW’s if your working in the box. Logic has what people call the White Noise Blast of Death that people have reported experiencing tinnitus from. Google it.

These are just a few examples.

 

This is an excellent point. I try to remember to turn my monitor volume to zero before changing or trying anything new to avoid getting blasted. This is also the biggest reason why I don’t use headphones, because the “white noise blast of death” would earn its nickname for us. No matter how hard I try there are still occasional “events” like routing a track to the wrong bus which now doubles the volume trimmer and distortion. Ooops! These are some of the events (with headphones) that probably caused my tinnitus in the first place. When I first started trying to figure out how to track vocals without headphones I discovered during research that some singers go that route even in a commercial studio because they sing better. If they can work it out...

Also, I now mix and master in a room that is more dead which allows me to work longer.

George

 

I recently purchased a Rode NT1 and I have to say it's a staggeringly good microphone for the price.

My vocals are pretty grizzly but they're OK as a guide, however, with fragile ears tracking with headphones has become increasingly difficult. So I now do without as per your suggestion.

I use Logic, and track live mic takes along to the loudspeaker audio but on a low'ish volume. I've found it to be quite a nice way to work actually, and setting up the mixing levels reasonably straight forward. I think there is an added bonus like you say, which is the tuning tends to be easier (even with my cat strangling vocals).

To keep the track clean during recording I've been using the stock, gate processor on the input. Channel strip looks like this:



Channel is currently set up for playback hence the active compressor. But when I need to track a new vocal I do so with the gate engaged. Setting looks like this:



Really, the only setting I've changed is the Threshold, dialled in with the input mic live, and track on playback until the gate starts opening. -47dB seems to work quite well for my setup.

The only thing that freaks me out is the Hysteresis setting. I keep seeing the word Hyperacusis!

('ckin 'ell eh, what are we like???) lol

 

Maybe try this:

No headphones. Get soft dome monitors known to work on low levels. Work in a very quiet environment. If your ears can tolerate 80 dB, fine. I'd still stick to around 70 dB. If you don't have hyperacusis then you should be able to keep on trucking like this with ease (as countless musicians and producers do).

Specific plugin I find helpful: Plugin Alliance Refinement.

Good luck. Myself, I tried very hard but could not return to producing nor listening to music really. It's just pointless when 50% of what I hear is tinnitus.

 

What I’ve learned about microphones is that you have to get above a certain quality level so that there are no unpleasant characteristics but then there are no good or bad mics, just different. Vocals are the most personal and specific to your situation. A raspy voice probably does not benefit from an airy revealing high end but that mic might be perfect for a smooth gorgeous angelic tone. I benefit from a softer mic myself. Above that, more money brings vastly diminishing returns. Every once and a while you find a really good mic that is a significant value. My favorite acoustic guitar mic is a Neumann 184 but it’s very pricey. An ATM450 is a fraction of the price and 90% as good for example. We can’t get too carried away with all the gear choices, some great records have been made in basement studios or with old radio amps or with slashed up speaker cones for guitar tone.

George

 

I had terrible tinnitus for 2.5 years. It's not as bad now. I went back to making music in my home studio. I do use headphones but at sensible levels and take ear breaks.

I figured that if multi millionaire professional musicians with tinnitus (there's loads of them) use in-ear monitoring, you'd assume they have access to the best advice, and have been told it's safe. Besides, what do you do? Give up everything you love because of tinnitus?

Sometimes when I'm really in the zone I barely notice my tinnitus. Getting back engaged with things you love is one of the most important things you can do.

Just take extra care. Things like don't engage a phantom power switch when you've got headphones on. You could also put a brickwall limiter on your mix bus to stop volume spikes etc.

 

I almost never hear my tinnitus when I am recording, mixing and mastering. I hit a wall when my bad ear starts to hurt and then I do what you said and take a break. I also give it a break if I have had another life hearing "accident" to give my ears time to recover before I start filling the glass back up. I agree with you, its way better to be doing what we love.

BTW, I agree with the brick wall limiter. I put it on the master track right at the beginning of the process.

George