5 years ago I got hearing damage from staying too long composing and mixing one single project. Since that day I have loud tinnitus (Ringing Ears) but im still able to hear and enjoy sounds. You are the firts producer I heard talking about this issue. Thanks for your concern! This is high valuable information!!!

When I wear hearing protection, people make fun of me. I don’t listen to them.

I think you're the coolest production "tutorial" guy on KZfaq. It's more like production life lessons.

For a couple weeks, I thought I developed hearing loss in my right ear (I'm 29). Everyone sounded like a slightly muted dalek, even the wind sounded like a dalek. I was so disappointed in myself thinking I damaged my ear just from listening to loud shitty music my whole life. I couldn't stop kicking myself in the head, knowing that ear damage is permanent. Those two weeks I was filled with so much regret. Thinking how all I had to do was just keep the volume slightly down, like how our phones recommend it when we go to max volume. The day before I went into a ENT... it went away. Now that I experienced the scare and how it messed with me mentally, it is now much easier for me to not go for full max volume. It's just not worth it. That moment when you do notice the hearing loss, you will be kicking you head. I bought headphones that also limits how loud you can listen to music and slowly turns the volume down over a long duration. Yes it sucks, loud music is awesome. But that dreaded feeling of knowing I screwed my ears over always reinforced the positive of not listening on MAX volume. I hope my story can add to this videos message. It's just not worth it!

A marvellous video my friends! Thanks for highlighting an incredibly important and very overlooked subject!

This video was actually scary....i mean i dropped..the volume by half.......at the end......😅 Well thanks

i’m 15 and i used to blast music through my headphones all the time, whether it was in a sesh or casual listening. at one point i started to get ringing in my ears occasionally, usually in my right ear. i stopped using headphones for a few days and thankfully the ringing went away for the most part, but ever since then i listen on low to medium volume all the time whenever i can.

I'm touched. You are a great person. People who share their life experience and warn other people so they would be happy in future, I think it's maybe the most greatest thing you can do to people. I have a bad eyesight, so I know how big loss it is to lose health in some way. Having money is nothing when you can't see stars on the sky. Your videos are awesome, YOU are awesome. I wish I could be like you and there would more people like you. Thank you. God bless you. Have a good life.

As someone that's developed tinnitus by the age of 20 (having worked as a mechanic) I can personally tell you this is the most important thing to protect when you love music. @ In The Mix, I think you hit the point pretty well. I only lost a small portion of my hearing but its enough that I can't quite enjoy things as much as I "should" be able to. If someone tries talking to me I find myself often asking them to speak up for me. This issue is especially tricky with music. When I produce I find I can't quite hear everything and I have to resist the urge to turn it up to more dangerous levels. It makes the whole process much more frustrating than it needs to be, and oh, did I mention the ringing? Constantly there's a high pitch ringing, and normally after a loud sound (or sometimes completely random) it kicks into a high volume and can sometimes leave me deaf in whatever ear it occurs for short periods of time. Anyone who reads this, please do take after the advice and do all you can to protect your hearing. It will help you live a happier life, for longer.

Don't forget that if you mix/master on headphones you need to work for less time and rest more, as headphones produce way more ear fatigue. In my case I work for 20 mins and rest 10 mins. Once I do the fourth 20 mins session then I rest for one hour.

I'm 16 and I produce a lot and recently I started to feel something strange about my ears and I thought why not do some research about protecting your ears and your video showed up. Thank you so much. You saved some extra years for me to make music 🙏

How I now remember every concert, every orchestral rehearsal (yes, sitting in front of a brass section is extremely loud) ... I wished someone had handed out such a little protection-butts. Its amazing that nobody really thinks about it - particularly as I was playing in a youth orchestra - you would think that parents and organizers want to protect the youth ... O.O Thank you for raising awareness

Extremely important, excellent advice !

I am so glad I subscribed to this channel as I'm getting into music making.

This is very important and often overlooked. Thank you for spreading awareness.

Thank you for making this! It includes a lot of practical and very important stuff I never thought about in any real depth. I really appreciate you looking out for the community

Ayyy , thanks man I couldn’t hear you tho, was the vid muted??

You are doing Very Good Work, Dude. Keep it up

You’re the best KZfaqr period! Thank you for all your advices

I Am 15 years old music producer.I have low tinnitus but it all make me realise that how important my ears.The scariest part is that now I getting hear loss. I thank In The Mix for giving so important video.Thanks a lot

I was terrified with the comparison, now I realized the true meaning of taking care of my ears. I am a student of sound engineering and this is a video must to show in colleges. -Love from India

Your advice is always immeasurable.

Such an important video, glad you were able to convey this information the way that you did!

This video just came at the right time for me!! Thank you very much:)

Thanks you mike for taking care of your fan producers too!! U really take care of your subscribers too Really appreciate!!😘

Awesome video, I've been doing pretty much all the tips you said in this video for the last few months and noticed just how far I can turn down the volume and get used to that without any loss in enjoyment and have even noticed that I almost find more detail in listening like that. This is an extremely important topic and I'm glad you made such a good video on it!

I'm glad I found this video. I'm going into music production myself soon. Gotta protect our ears! :D

Thumbs up man! It's good to learn those things about our health around producing music ,before it's too late...

Thank you. I have always thought the same and i'm glad I saw this refresher of the idea. I'm on my personal account watching this video as usual so im glad I saw it recommended.

That's correct man .. thanks for this video .. We really need to protect our ear .. for good music production ..✔🙏

Very helpful & so true. I am 50 years old & I am fortunate that my hearing is still pretty damned good. Kudos!

Everyone should take serious note of this. Im 46 and although I have good hearing I have over the last year got bad tinnitus from raving, clubing, djing and blasting my ears off listening to music at home. It really isnt fun and im scared to turn music up loud now. I also thought I had super human ears until now ☹

Noted. Thanks for the warning you saved my ears lifespan :)

This is an incredibly important message for producers. I've always been a lot more careful with sound levels than the people around me, even at the age of 10 I never put other's earbuds in when they wanted to show me something but held them further away in my hand because their volume was too loud. But I still wish I had been more careful, especially in my early days of music production when I sat for hours on end working on projects at moderate levels. I developed some tinnitus after trying to be careful for most of my life. Thanks for covering this topic!

This was beyond helpful 🙏

That was a video with a lot of heart. Love you for doing it !!

Thank you so much! If I didn't know this, I would probably lose some hearing in the next 10-20 years! This really helped me out, along with the vision video as well! I want to thank you again for your concern to your fellow producers, and anyone, really!

Very useful tips with minute details . i dont think any youtube channel gives this kind of minute details . thanks a lot .

For few years I was playing in the band as a drummer. I always used protection and I'm thankful for it. I've recently started doing my own music with hardware synths etc. To be honest I always try to listen to at as minimum volume as possible, but I see problem with overextended sessions. Thanks for the video, I need to be more aware to take breaks and be even more careful!

I have started to take breaks during music production sessions it really increase my work efficiency and keeping my eyes and ears protected. Thankyou very much

this is such an important video! Thanks for making this, I'm 21 and just started making music. Definitely going to implement what you said. Cheers!

Great video. Found this in researching why my ears have now become hyper sensitive to certain frequencies after a week of non-stop mixing.

I just wanted to say how great I think it is to have a bunch of experienced people who seem to care for their audience on this platform leading me through everything I need for my passion music production. Thank y'all!😊

I will never be able to thank you enough for this video Mike. You saved my career.💓💓💓

thanks my man. always great advice from you. I'm gonna start on those breaks for sure now.

wow thanks for this, i have been worrying about my ears for a coupla weeks now, not because they hurt, but just because i am spending more time making music. very helpful video!

Thank you so much for making this video!!! I am really carefull about this and I really don't want to damage my hearing.

When I watched this video, I found myself being way more mindful about protecting my ears. I was definitely one of those people who just turned up their volume higher and higher to be able to hear the project, but now I know that it doesn't help. I just grateful that you make these videos to educate people and help them make good habits when producing!

Thank you for bringing this up. Its an often overlooked but really important topic. It really grabbed my attention, when I went through a two day session, and couldnt go to work the next day, because my ears hurt so much, that I couldnt stand even the slightest sounds ( and I work as a chef, kitchens are very noisy environments). Gladly I came to the realization that this has to stop. I put up two post its on my Monitor, one to remind me to take breaks, and one to remind me to lower the volume, because these two things, I, like so many, often forget when I am deeply focused in a session. I also set a strict break day, for me it's monday, where I do no production work, and uphold a strict headphone ban, even in my leisure time.

Been meaning to buy some ear protection. Literally purchased some while this video is playing. Thanks m8

I'm so so glad I watched this. Ive been producing seen last year and last week was the first time my ears actually hurt after listening to one of my songs and it really scared me straight lol. I hope I didn't cause any damage in the past year. I'm gonna have to be very careful from now on

This is so true! You can't "fix" a hearing loss. Hearing aids can't replace a good hearing. I was born with a severe hearing loss and in the meantime I am deaf but I can hear with Cochlear Implants. The sound is far, far, far away from a good hearing and it needs a long training to "enjoy" music. Basically, it is not possible to hear music with Cochlear Implants and I am very lucky that it works for me . I have just started to produce my own music with FL Studio. I can fully support your tips to protect your hearing: - No concerts without good fitting ear plugs - Use great headphones or monitors - it is worth the investment - Take breaks. Our ears are "always on" even while we are sleeping and we can't switch them off

Thank you so much!! I will definitely pay attention to the volume now.

Thanks Michael, that was my wake up call, much appreciated.

So So Soooo important. Thank you so much for making this video and bringing light to this topic. I actually searched for this because I found myself working on one session for an insane amount of time and looping the arrangement to death, endlessly. I found the same phenomenon occurring where I would slowly be increasing the volume over time after noticing the detail of the song would go down, and would just think that it's because I didn't mix it loud enough. Eventually, by the end, my ears would be exhausted, almost in pain, and I would see the volume would have gone up massively. I never really took action because it was sort of a behavior that was so ingrained in me that It took me until now really to start to consider changing how I made music. It's just so hard to take that break when you notice it, to pull yourself away from the song you're making, especially if you're really in a groove and inspired, but there isn't an excuse when you are permanently damaging your hearing. I don't know for sure but I think I might have already have lost some of the high frequencies in my right ear after producing one song horribly long. Luckily, my left ear was clogged with earwax and I couldn't hear out of it which might have saved that from happening in both ears. It's sad to know that I wasn't immune to hearing loss, especially since I was so good about protecting my ears until I started music. Unfortunately I can't get that back, but I can start salvaging what I have left and be able to listen and produce music for most of my life.

Thank you for mention it. It is an important topic!!

thank you 4 uploading man. thank you. you may saved my ears. wish you a good life.

Thank you for this! I'll really start taking some more care of my hearing after watching this video especially since I'm suffering from tinnitus so I HAVE to take this really serious! And once again thank you for actually waking me up about this whole topic!

Thank you for informing us about the different kinds of earplugs as well!🙏

Thanks Michael. This is one of the most important things to be aware of. I started to notice I lost detail in compositions when making them. Not due to the volume (which I keep average normally) but your brain tends to filter out sounds that are repeated often "Your brain is losing interest". For example: You won't hear your own fridge powering on, or your clock ticking, or other familiar sounds at your own home. When you visit someone, those same sounds can suddenly sound 'very loud'. The moment I lose focus on a song is the moment I indeed turn off the song / composition and do some other stuff. Special compliments for you, because in this video you show that you 'care'.

Thank you so much for the advises man. I just bought a pair of Ear Peace earplugs online. I also going to be very careful while I'm in the studio, taking breaks, etc. We love music, I can't imagine life without it. Cheers!

Plz keep this channel going.. I love it!

Those tips are gold! Especially for younger people. I am 34 now and my hearing is as good as always. I love music and therefore I take care of my ears. I can't even listen to music on bad speakers, can't imagine how it would be with permanent ear damage.

Thanks bro for creating this useful video. Even my ears were also paining and I had fall sick due to my ears. This video really helped me to reduce ear problems. Thanks once again bro.

Using hearing protection since i have been 18, but yet the tremendous amount of music consumption (or making) apart from clubs/festivals can be very stressful for one's ears. Thanks for your video, tryin' to take the volume even lower and to take some breaks from time to time.

So glad you are also concerned about health, thank you so much 😀

cONGRATULATIONS YOU HAVE CROSSED 600K SUBS. KEEP GOING

I'm 33 today and just coming into producing. My Friend, you're a gift. Thank you for all your effort in the videos. Real authentic. Plus my ears are and will be forever be grateful 🙏 😎🤙

Thanks for this...... You're the first guy who talked on this topic.😊

Thanks sir for awaring us.

I am so glad I found this video and this channel. Thanks for making great videos. :)

Wow, thank you for this! Throughout my life, I've always had a sense to protect my ears from loud noises (even before I got interested in music production). People would usually think I'm weird when they see me wearing earplugs when I'm around loud music/noise, so over time, I got self-conscious and stopped wearing them. But now seeing your video, I look back and realize that protecting my ears isn't weird at all, and I should continue to do so.

Tbh this is something I'm definitely gonna think about more in the future, I think taking regular breaks is for sure what I should be doing, I regularly session for 3-4 hours without a break and I made drum and bass so I've probably already done some dmg, thanks for the heads up you may have saved my hearing just in time.

As a 16 year old, thank you for making this video. It was really eye opening and made me aware of how important it is to keep my ears healthy and ways that I can keep them safe from damage while mixing. I haven't seen any other producers/mixing engineers on KZfaq talking about this, so thanks for bringing awareness to this topic!

I too get a lot of ringing sound in my ear and can feel my eardrums beating but never really gave it more thought. Thank you mike for waking me up early.

I was expecting this, by the way thanks i needed this ✌🏽keep up

Considering the whole advice from You Mike I am thankful overwhelmingly. This is what You have done and none does so far taking into account how many tutorals I watched on KZfaq. Cheers Mate. I am 52 and started the composing and creating the music at home on FL Studio DAW just a few months ago. It might sound funny or rediculous, but I use IPhone ear buds which gives me the whole required music senseations for amateurs ear. It also helps me to hear what my family says if they need me. I won't achieve a hollywood cinematic quality for sure but I create the music for meself and it is enough for me. My problem is a mastering and mastefully Mixing as far as I am not a sound Engineer or a proper Producer. Even with these smashing Phone ear buds you can still create a lovely tunes I am absolutely sure. Thanks once again.

Wonderfully put! Our bodies are well capable of recuperation, but we should be reasonable enough to know exactly when it's time to give them a moment's peace.

Thanks bro ❤️you’re so nice helping other producers I’m 17 years old thank you👏❤️

This is really, really good to see, thank you for addressing this too neglected topic. I have a colleague who has just turned 40, and has bad tinnitus - permanent ringing in her ears. Only went clubbing once a month when she was in her 20s, but was overexposed to sounds way too loud, by her own admission, always had ringing ears when she left a club. By contrast, I regularly go to live concerts, but I've always left gigs that I judge too loud, yet have recently been confirmed as having excellent hearing from a formal medical test. Simply isn't worth the price of a ticket to lose your hearing. Once it's gone, it's gone. If I can offer one tip, I've started using Android apps to discretely monitor sound levels and they vary wildly between venues. Guess the same can easily be done with monitors in a studio environment. The reputable venues seem to stick to a 80-82db limit, but I've briefly been in places where the sound levels continuously exceed 90db - way too loud to suffer for a support band and main act, for 2-3 hours. Same should apply in any studio, given the longer exposure times. Rule of thumb is if I can't hear myself shout, I leave.

Hey bro! I'm sixteen and I start producing this year, I always thought that we were superheroes, thanks for showing to the world the real things and how we can prevent it. Good job bro! Best wishes and see you!

Thanks for the advice ! This channel is helpful !👍

I'm only on month nr 4 of my music production journey. Important stuff to learn early on, thanks for sharing!

Thanks alot for the advice. Very clear, well explained, and i've gained alot from it, mate.

Definitely needed this... Thanks Michael!

Awesome video! Huge thanks and respect !

This might be the most important video I’ve ever watched I’m 13 rn and love music but I always get scared of loud sounds or loud music I thought I was crazy but now I see that I was actually Preserving my hearing I do music production too and Occasionally creep up the volume now I know not to do that thx for making this video in the mix :)

Just ordered some discreet ones. Thanks for the heads up 3 years ago!

Great advice, thank you!!

You're right. After a while you feel the need to raise the volume. Maybe that's the moment to take a break. When you put the cans back on, you find you have to turn the volume DOWN for a while. Really good video. Very informative and it's a wake up call to budding sound engineers.

This might sound funny, but I swear, they work SO GOOD, I bought some Ear Plugs for Air Pressure issues (they were only $3.00) and they are soft and have a tube, clear, and almost invisible, you can still hear everything, but it takes off the high treble in every day life. I use them when driving and in loud places, game changer! Makes your ears feel sooooo good

Thank you so much for your amazing tips, your awesome, good vibes.

Very important message, thanks for speaking real sense.

As always, very good stuff

Thanks for the valuable lesson and motivation dear brother.

I've just starting producing music several months ago and I think you could have just saved me from a life full of regret. Sincerely, thank-you xD

This video is so helpful, thank you!

This is amazing advice and I am 16 so taking care of my hearing, Thanks so much Micheal

Great advice - genuine message. My grandfather is profoundly deaf and I eat live and breathe music - it would be heartbreaking for me to not here - time to get some protection

Nice video thank you. 🙏❤️ Good that you talk about this.👍🏼