My hearing system is precious; yet I still let it suffer!

[mrfracas]

Hi guys!!

As you can see, this is a vital topic! Our hearing is extremely important to us, and I'm sure most of you take efforts to prevent even the slightest fluctuation of unexpected noise to reach your lugs, at the best of times.

So what about those unexpected spikes you get when you're recording and mixing!? We've all awoken them from time to time! From awful digital feedback swirling out of your monitors; to short, sharp screams poking you in the earbone when monitoring on headphones. It's all too shocking to experience, and despite how careful we can be, these events occur more often than we'd like them to.

Most of my experiences occur when I'm working in my DAW. They're not frequent; but they bloody hurt! And I know the more it happens, the more I could be damaging my hearing.

I recently came upon an interesting and very useful article on preventing hearing damage when listening with headphones; it makes for very useful reading: check it out here.

What I would like to know is if anyone here implements something (like an effect) during their mixes, that prevents spikes above a certain threshold, but doesn't effect the body/dynamics of the mix.

Thanks!

[Stagesound]

A cheap method is to use a compressor with a long attack time and very high compression ratio - 100mS will be too long to take out dynamic peaks, but will be short enough to ensure you don't endure long term damaging peaks. (You'll till get peaks - just not as high, and therefore less damaging to your ears and to your speakers).

There cannot be a perfect system for doing what you want, because no piece of equipment can reliably tell the difference between unwanted spikes, and dynamics which you actually want to keep.

[sphelan]

I don't have any tricks yet on this but I have changed how I turn on my whole system which might be of help to someone. I had a habit of turning on everything at the same time, PC which has interface and keyboard controller connected and also the monitors. Then one day I had the volume a littler higher and there was this big peak through the speakers. "S***", I thought, and since then I let the PC etc start first and after a couple of minutes I turn on the monitors...hoping damage hasn't already been done to them from the early days!

Hope this is useful!

[peavley]

Why not just a limiter on your master buss?

[mrfracas]

Originally Posted by peavley

Why not just a limiter on your master buss?

Well, I was hoping someone might come up with something more elaborate, but I guess you're right! A limiter would suffice. Thanks Peavley.

Stagesound, I did what you suggested with a compressor, but to no avail. I think I'll stick to a limiter.

[mrfracas]

Originally Posted by sphelan

I don't have any tricks yet on this but I have changed how I turn on my whole system which might be of help to someone. I had a habit of turning on everything at the same time, PC which has interface and keyboard controller connected and also the monitors. Then one day I had the volume a littler higher and there was this big peak through the speakers. "S***", I thought, and since then I let the PC etc start first and after a couple of minutes I turn on the monitors...hoping damage hasn't already been done to them from the early days!

Hope this is useful!

Definitely! It's always good to turn on your equipment in the direction the sound will travel: I think there's a little thing I remember from my old college days which might be useful to some:

SMASH! I think it's something like: Sound source > Mixer > Amplifier > Speakers > umm... Hooray?!

And then, for turning things off... just imagine it in reverse. Not the word, however... HSAMS?! That's just absurd!

[Stagesound]

mrfracas - did you set the compression ratio to max? (Usually infinity) - if so, the Compressor is in effect a Limiter. I suggested a compressor rather than a limiter, because most limiters are just a section of a Compressor/Limiter and very often the only control is Threshold (or Stop Level). A Compressor on the other hand, has attack and decay controls, allowing you to determine just how much high level signal, and for how long, before the output is limited or attenuated.
Maybe 100mS is too long - it would be quite a dramatic musical peak which would last that long and be desirable. The actual threshold and attack and release times will depend a lot on the type of music you are working with, how dynamic it is, and how long you are prepared to tolerate high levels for!
A simple limiter is obviously the quick way to achieve the desired result, but may result in wanted peaks being clipped.
As sphelan suggests, switch on order is probably the most important issue, and at the end of the day, the other components are of little significance provided you switch on your speakers (if active) or amp (if passive speakers) last.
I take it from the OP that you're having occasional problems when you are actually up and running though, so the compressor or limiter solution is probably all that you can do easily to protect yourself.

[mrfracas]

Originally Posted by Stagesound

mrfracas - did you set the compression ratio to max? (Usually infinity) - if so, the Compressor is in effect a Limiter. I suggested a compressor rather than a limiter, because most limiters are just a section of a Compressor/Limiter and very often the only control is Threshold (or Stop Level). A Compressor on the other hand, has attack and decay controls, allowing you to determine just how much high level signal, and for how long, before the output is limited or attenuated.
Maybe 100mS is too long - it would be quite a dramatic musical peak which would last that long and be desirable. The actual threshold and attack and release times will depend a lot on the type of music you are working with, how dynamic it is, and how long you are prepared to tolerate high levels for!
A simple limiter is obviously the quick way to achieve the desired result, but may result in wanted peaks being clipped.
As sphelan suggests, switch on order is probably the most important issue, and at the end of the day, the other components are of little significance provided you switch on your speakers (if active) or amp (if passive speakers) last.
I take it from the OP that you're having occasional problems when you are actually up and running though, so the compressor or limiter solution is probably all that you can do easily to protect yourself.

Thanks a lot for your additional tip, Stagesound.

I'll give the compressor a try again... I found the output to be far louder yesterday. I'm happy with a limiter at the compositional stage; but later, when I'm getting up to pre-master stage, I think I'll use a compressor. I tend to mix at low level in the compositional stage, and then bring the mix up as I get to pre-master. My main concern lies with real surprise attacks; by the pre-master, I've got most of the elements under control. I should have given a little more detail about my mix stage earlier, I think. Sorry!

Thanks again.