Recording - March 2018 - 4
FadeIn
The best ears of our lives
There's a lot of great material in this issue of Recording, much of it on the
techniques and tools of effective monitoring. But before we get into the issue
itself, I'd like to take a moment to focus on the last and most important part of the
monitoring chain... your ears.
We just got back from the Winter NAMM Show (see the report on page 10),
and this year I noticed something a bit discouraging. I chatted with a lot of
people at NAMM, and it was disheartening to hear more than one showgoer
listen to a product and then make a comment to the effect of, "That probably
sounds great, but I can't tell with my tinnitus acting up. Whisssh... whoosssh! Heh."
Sorry, I'm not laughing.
I have two hearing-impaired siblings, and my mother (only slightly deaf at age
98) was terrified that loud music would leave me deafened as well. I had a fear
of losing my hearing drilled into me, and at a time when custom-fitted earplugs
were costly and exotic, I got into the habit of wearing them at concerts.
I did enjoy avoiding post-show noise hangovers, but it wasn't until years later
that I realized I'd been saving myself from much worse than that. I may not have
the hearing of a bat, but I'm blessedly free of the artifacts that plague so many
folks my age who came up playing rock'n'roll.
The problem is, we make excuses about why we need to listen loud, and
sometimes they kind of make sense. For example, I recently heard one engineer's
theory that blasting the monitors in the control room after a take was vital to the
artists' sense of enthusiasm for the music; if they sang and played their hearts
out, they needed to hear the mix loud, because a softer playback would sound
anemic and kill their energy. (I don't know whether or not he put in earplugs
before the band came in from the tracking room.)
Sure, loud music is exciting, and excitement is a part of making music... but hearing
damage is cumulative, and hearing damage is forever, and if you damage your
ears beyond a certain point, music stops being fun. When you're not trying to
thrill the band, keep your monitoring SPL below 85 dB and take frequent breaks.
Learning to listen and work at lower SPL is like learning to eat more healthy
food. At first, your body craves the loud music it's used to, but after a while, you
get used to it, and you find you can work longer and mix more effectively with
better results, which is a huge win.
Another important point is that while hearing damage adds up over time, it's
never too late to say, "Enough is enough." Too many folks shrug and say, "I've
already screwed up my hearing, so there's no point in trying to baby what's left."
To me, that's kind of like saying, "I've thrown out my back trying to move this
piano, but there's no point in quitting halfway up the stairs."
You're not a wimp if you suddenly start wearing earplugs to concerts and
staying away from excessive noise. You're saving the most precious resource you
have as a lover of music... and the only one you can't get back when it's gone.
Everything we teach you in this magazine eventually ends up in your ears. It
behooves you to take the best care of them that you possibly can, so you can go
on enjoying music for many years to come.
Enjoy the issue.
publisher:
Thomas Hawley
Brent Heintz
associate publisher:
EDITORIAL
Mike Metlay
special projects editor: Lorenz Rychner
technical editor: Paul Vnuk Jr.
editor at large: Beto Hale
copy editor: Diana Smethurst
músico pro editor: Fernando Curiel
editor:
CONTRIBUTORS
Paul Vnuk Jr., Allen Goodman,
Rodrigo Sanchez, Joe Albano,
Alex Hawley, James Lindenschmidt,
Darwin Grosse, Marty Peters, Scott Dorsey
SOCIAL MEDIA
Brent Heintz, Paul Vnuk Jr.
ART & PRODUCTION
Joseph Hawley
production manager: Colin Courtney
web goalie: Colin Courtney
creative director:
PLAYBACK PLATINUM SERIES
Lorenz Rychner
editor/producer:
CIRCULATION
Tiffany Sepe
circulation manager:
ADVERTISING SALES AND MARKETING
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classifieds manager: Colin Courtney
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Thomas Hawley
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RECORDING MAGAZINE
(ISSN 1078-8352; USPS 002-298)
is published monthly, 12 times per year, by
Music Maker Publications, Inc.,
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4
RECORDING March 2018
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - March 2018
Contents
Recording - March 2018 - Intro
Recording - March 2018 - Cover1
Recording - March 2018 - Cover2
Recording - March 2018 - 1
Recording - March 2018 - 2
Recording - March 2018 - 3
Recording - March 2018 - 4
Recording - March 2018 - 5
Recording - March 2018 - Contents
Recording - March 2018 - 7
Recording - March 2018 - 8
Recording - March 2018 - 9
Recording - March 2018 - 10
Recording - March 2018 - 11
Recording - March 2018 - 12
Recording - March 2018 - 13
Recording - March 2018 - 14
Recording - March 2018 - 15
Recording - March 2018 - 16
Recording - March 2018 - 17
Recording - March 2018 - 18
Recording - March 2018 - 19
Recording - March 2018 - 20
Recording - March 2018 - 21
Recording - March 2018 - 22
Recording - March 2018 - 23
Recording - March 2018 - 24
Recording - March 2018 - 25
Recording - March 2018 - 26
Recording - March 2018 - 27
Recording - March 2018 - 28
Recording - March 2018 - 29
Recording - March 2018 - 30
Recording - March 2018 - 31
Recording - March 2018 - 32
Recording - March 2018 - 33
Recording - March 2018 - 34
Recording - March 2018 - 35
Recording - March 2018 - 36
Recording - March 2018 - 37
Recording - March 2018 - 38
Recording - March 2018 - 39
Recording - March 2018 - 40
Recording - March 2018 - 41
Recording - March 2018 - 42
Recording - March 2018 - 43
Recording - March 2018 - 44
Recording - March 2018 - 45
Recording - March 2018 - 46
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Recording - March 2018 - 48
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Recording - March 2018 - 71
Recording - March 2018 - 72
Recording - March 2018 - Cover3
Recording - March 2018 - Cover4
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