I can hear your lack of left/right balance in the intro music. Some of it is rather jarring. Ever considered getting over your ego and doing something OTHER than producing? You know... where left/right hearing balance doesn't matter? I ... y'all humans amaze me. The stubbornness with which y'all keep doing something you are not in the least bit suited for ...

„Not trying to make you paranoid about your ears“ Me, 22, now paranoid about my ears

As a musician who has always protected his hearing but developed Tinnitus anyway… there where times where I thought I wouldn’t have the strength to go forward. 2 years later my life is at an all time high. Don’t give up on yourselves!

This meant a lot to me. Sincerely, thank you. I'm a musician turned audio engineer, and I always worried that if I talked about it, people would assume that my mixes wouldn't be good -or- automatically assume that they could do it better and just do it in their bedroom. It's scary because this effects my ability to feed myself. Your videos have really helped me a lot to change my perspective on how I listen to things, and I've grown better because of it. My name is Daniel. I'm an engineer. And I have Tinnitus in bands of 4, 8, and 12k. I also have asymmetric hearing.

Holy crap, as someone currently seeking medical treatment for several hearing problems, tinnitus and unbalanced hearing among them, I'm so glad I saw this. I thought I was alone and had to start thinking about leaving music production out of my future. Seeing this saved my ambiytion and gave me a new outlook. THANK YOU

Born deaf in the right ear. Managed to make a living in the audio world, but the frustration of dealing with it has been exhausting.

Thank you 🙏🏽. I’m autistic with hyperacusis which gives me a lifelong neurological sensitivity/fear response to sound. My hearing is above-average for my age but I also now live with two sets of Bose noise cancelling buds that I interchange - just to function cognitively in many spaces other experience as silent. Tinnitus and severe hearing loss runs in my family, which also makes me cautious.

I had always loved listening to music really loud. As a musician, I liked to feel like I was “inside” of the music - it was stimulating and addictive. Friends would joke that they knew when I pulled up because they could hear the music in my car. I’ve spent a lot of the last year playing my mixes at high volume when I’m in the studio. One day, about 8 weeks ago, I put a compressor on a guitar track without realizing how high the gain was turned. Blasted the distorted guitar for a split second before I could reach for the volume knob. After leaving the studio, I noticed a change in my hearing. I felt a little “further away” from the outside world. After this subsided, I had heightened sensitivity to music. Like I could feel the way the pressure of a kick drum was hitting my ears. When this finally subsided (after a few days), I began to notices a rattling ring at 1910 Hz in my left ear (I think this may have been one of the harmonic frequencies of the guitar chord that blasted my ear). Went to urgent care after two weeks. They didn’t prescribe me anything and said it would go away. Went to the ENT after five weeks and they finally gave me a steroid. It was ineffective; perhaps if I’d gotten the steroid at urgent care, it would’ve been within the window to heal. Here I am at eight weeks - still here! I’ve had bouts of ringing at other frequencies, deafness that comes and goes (at 6K too!), and I’m saddened at the idea that I may not recover. My biggest takeaway from the experience has been: ADOPT HEALTHY PRACTICES AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. MIX AT LOW LEVELS: not only is it healthier for your ears, it’ll give you a better result. TAKE BREAKS: your ears need time to readjust and recover from ear fatigue. WEAR EARPLUGS: when you go out to loud bars, concerts, etc. I wish someone would’ve told me that I’m not invincible. Unfortunately, it’s one of those things that you never believe until it happens to you. If I had been able to regulate my level of excitement (and not spend hours on end replaying my mixes at loud volumes), perhaps my ears would still be in good shape! Cheers.

This video brought me to tears. I've been really struggling, mentally, lately with the effects tinnitus and hearing damage on my life and career. You make me feel really hopeful and less alone. Thank you!!

Immediately reduced the volume on my earphones till i could barely hear his voice.. #paranaudio

Back in the late eighties when I was playing keys and singing for the Marshall Tucker band, we were rehearsing songs for an upcoming album at the bassist's home studio. He used a stereo receiver for headphone mix and for some reason the lead vocalist thought it would be a hoot if he cranked the volume all the way up. The result was a very loud static in my left ear and my headphones blew up. Then there's the fact that I toured with them for four years and my rig was to the right of the drummer and he always had a china just about ear height. The problem it caused didn't show up until decades later, when I was talking on one of those old Startac flip phones. I thought it sounded even more awful than usual. There were no low mids. Then I moved the phone to my right ear and everything was okay. I found out I've got a nice dip around 300 to 400 hz in my left ear. Ove the years my brain has made up for it. I also had a lot of problems with ear infections until my doc had me start drying my ears out with a drop of alcohol after a shower. On the top end side, I'm sure I'm down a bit more than the last time I was checked. It sucks when a good doctor retires. Right now my daughter is being my ear doc guinea pig. She has gone partially deaf in one ear (no one can tell her why), so she's been checking out the lay of the land, so to speak. I've been working in Audio since the mid eighties. (I'll be turning 64 in August). In my last job (before covid) I was engineer for all studio and live stuff at a performing arts center/school. While I never had problems with the music department, the theater people were major league pains in my ass (aside from calling me at all hours to trouble shoot over the phone). They would never allow time for a proper sound check (musicals or straight plays) and they would lose their shit if they heard any feedback. Well... When you've got 30 body mics (all omni countryman B3) and they give less than 30 seconds to do a quick check on each mic, or when you've hung 9-12 Audix MB1250 mini condensers over the space of the small, studio theater and you did a quick feedback check without any actors on stage, you're bound to get some feedback. It would take me a few seconds longer to hear it, from my not so vantage point in the sound booth, and they would scream at me about it. Those younger, more sensitive ears couldn't take it, but hey, they never let me have more than a few minutes to get everything together. Not gonna miss that job. They laid me off and then got someone younger and more importantly for them, cheaper to abuse. I'm moving onto a better place where I could lose 50 percent of my hearing and the only affect on my job would be not enjoying all the wonderful music I'm going to get to listen to. The day I was laid off, I was whining about it on FB and a friend contacted me and asked me if I would be interested in a slight career change. He manages the studios at Iron Mountain Entertainment, where the three major labels (Sony, Warner and UMG), store all their analog/digital assets. Anyway. He told me people like me where "rare as hens teeth" and I've been waiting for them to start a second shift to deal with all the work they've got. Since I know how to align a tape deck and have worked in just about every format since 24trck, I'm just the guy they were looking for. The best thing is that since the archiving aspect is mainly aligning the tapes and then recording, I can do it until I drop. That's what the chief. Sorry to go on. Just wanted to say that my career in audio didn't really take off until I'd suffered quite a bit of damage.

Man.. this is brutally honest. Raising awareness about the damage musicians inevitably face with such genuine humility? Greg, you are an asset and inspiration to the community. I'm now booking my hearing test.

I'm too dumb to quit. Granny always said that was one of my finer qualities, LOL. Haven't been kind to my ears over the years. Banging away in Metal Bands where drummers smashed the drums instead of playing the drums (BTW... When recording drums you get a much fuller bigger sound by playing the drums with a lighter touch so you capture the drum not just that damn transient spike). Being between 2 big screaming diesel engines in the engine room aboard Sport Fishing Yachts checking mechanical or performing maintenance while underway. Loud power tools, generators, compressors and such. 100's of concerts, front row... All degraded my hearing over time. But what kicked off the tinnitus is a lightning strike. Working on a split-level house, my son and I were on the staircase and the Texas weather was raging outside > Suddenly a Bolt of Lightning struck the weather vane or something on top of the house > Then it actually Screamed Through the House in a Bolt fashion culminating in Ball Lightning and like exploded just under the staircase between me and my son. Sounded and felt like a damn bomb exploding (there was smoke but thankfully no fire)... Left both of us disoriented, dazed, and confused. All I could hear was ringing for over an hour > For several weeks the ringing was at a scary level... Tinnitus has been my constant companion ever since. Some days or even weeks it's much louder than normal. I can work around it at the normal level, now that I've taught myself some coping skills. But times when it's super loud like today, it's hard and I find myself a bit withdrawn and alouf and fighting off the onset of depression and sometimes rage. So I meditate using a particular meditation I call > Blue Sky Warm Sun. It helps me cope. Nothing else seems to help. Sometimes these LOUDER periods can last a couple of weeks, usually it's just a couple of days and usually when I've been under high stress. I've allowed it to hold me back at times in music but never cancel me out of what I love to do. Then I suffered a rather strange incident (chemical burns) on a 3 day Offshore Fishing excursion. My hands were damaged, especially my left hand, but affecting both. For many years it's made playing guitar a bloody and painful event. But I play on... Now I play and record in sections as I no longer can play for hours on end as I did for many years. My left hand still quickly shreds into hamburger meat and bleeds on the fretboard. Right hand as my picking hand fairs a bit better, but my thumb and 2 fingers also shred apart, peeling down to where they look and feel as though I've taken a grinder to them and smoked through the top 8 or 9 layers. It's painful damn it and left me unable to play guitar at all for over 6 years. That also was and is very depressing and combined with hearing damage and tinnitus it wears on me. But I'm pressing on and say all that to say this... Being too dumb to quit is a damn fine quality that can get you through many hardships in life. Music Is Life! I love my musical brothers and sisters and it's in your company I always feel at home, in my element, with my people... So Carry On Beautiful People and remember... It's the Song That Counts. Does It Make the Listener Feel Something. > A Good Song Will Always Shine > Find your coping skills and mix on, play on, live on and Keep Making Music... Music is the Worlds Only Universal Language that crosses all barriers far and wide! Sorry for the novel length comment. I also write for a living and tend to get a bit wordy at times... LOL

I'm starting a petition for Knighthood. Arise Sir Gregory Kush.

I just really fucking enjoy listening to you talk Gregory; shaping words, articulating ideas, reflecting, throwing in an idiom here and a funny voice there and sprinkling a bit of good-will irony on top all in an undisturbed fog of a lazy cool kind of street smarts. You're probably a laugh to eat shrooms with.

Ive been struggling with damaged hearing and really bad tinnitus since 22, so to hear someone finally speak about this makes me feel soo so much better and not alone

I’ve been wearing ear protection religiously since 15, granddad was deaf, my dad and grandma both have tinnitus, and it’s one of my greatest fears to damage my hearing because I love producing music. It’s a strange comfort to know that someone with a 30db dip at 6k and tinnitus creates some of the best sounding plugins I’ve ever heard. Kudos for the courage on this video.

Really glad to see more and more professionals talking about this "taboo" lately. Andrew Scheps has a talk about it on the Puremix channel (with guests), and someone asked if they have any chance of becoming a successful mixing engineer with tinnitus, and Andrew went "If you consider me any successful, then yes, welcome to the club."

Who else turned the volume down while you were watching this? But seriously, thank you for your honesty and for bringing awareness to something that is truly overlooked in the music realm. It's the first time I've ever heard it brought up and something I otherwise would never have even considered.

Man , for me, now, this is one of the best videos on KZfaq. Thank you very much for sharing. 🙏

Tinnitus over here! Thanks for sharing this personal information, you really help others, young one to keep going! As a kid I thought I always heard crickets at night an it was a special gift

Anyone who has been in alot of band rehearsals and played live, or been through a clubbing phase...basically had fun and lived to tell the tales, has hearing loss. I'll sacrifice a few k for the memories but when you hit 50, you have to start monitoring your hearing and understand it more. Even if you didn't ever stress your hearing, losing clarity is still going to happen after a certain age, just as with eyesight, if you are not wearing glasses over the age of 45, you are beating the odds significantly. The thing is, despite my age and obvious loss of hearing ability, I am still improving my mixes and can hear 16k better than I did just a few years ago...or at least percieve its relationship with the rest of the music. Simiarly, I can pinpoint transients and the effect of compression night and day better than 10 years ago. To this end, hearing is the least of my worries and I simply accept that as human beings we are remarkably good at adapting. There are highly prized mix and master engineers who at the age of 70, can't have much left over 6k, yet they are still in demand and make beautiful masters. And to Greg, I hear nothing about your mixes that would make me think it was anything less than you wanted it to be, plenty of definition, plenty of vibe, nice and loud...sounds like a record to me dude...dude?...DUDE!!!

Occupational hazard. I want to hear more pros talk about this. I learned my lesson as a Jazz major in college years ago. The instructors were all accomplished Jazz musicians and most of them were wearing hearing aids. Made a big impression on me. If you perform live as a musician, dial in your tone, then pop your ear plugs in. Also, wear them in the car when your driving and listening to music!! Road noise + loud music from your car stereo can be very loud! Use headphones sparingly and at low volumes. Hearing loss is PERMANENT everyone. Take care of your ears!!!

Thank God for you! I have been producing and mixing for 20 years. I have horrible tinnitus and have always been uncomfortable and anxious about talking about this. This is literally the first post I've ever seen about it. Thank God for Kush. I love you

Hi. I'm a hearing aid acoustician. Just wanted to point out that hearing protection does actually work better than you might think. The thing is that it has it's limitations. By closing the ear canal you can reduce the overall level by roundabout 30dB. So if you're in a club with music at 100dB - you'll probably be fine, even for a couple of hours (still make sure to give your ears a break from time to time) but if you're at a festival in front of the speakers with 120dB or more, you'll still have 90dB+ reaching your eardrums and that will affect your hearing over time.

15:27 You probably already know this but I figure throwing it out there can't hurt... What I do is I collect all my favorite music in a folder and then have Tonal Balance Control take that folder and make a custom curve out of it. (There's a setting) If it's based on 1 track it's all over the place as it just has that one thing for reference, but if you add a few dozen tracks it averages out and you can actually get a very neat custom curve that makes a ton of sense based on what you love. I prefer it over the stock curves. Okay, take care!

One of my audio buds is nearly deaf in one ear. He’s a great engineer. My hearing is also very asymmetric. Both ears are in the normal range for my age, but my left distorts and my inner ear sort of rings sympathetically with certain frequencies, and if I’m at a show, even with ear plugs, people have to speak into my right if they want me to understand them. Yet I’ve been able to go pretty far in my engineering. I keep this info a secret from my clients, but they don’t need to know. My dad used to take us to go on steam train excursions, and the whistles always hurt my ears. I’ve remembered my ears ringing ever since I was a young kid. Going to shows as a teen without ear plugs left me with noticeable tinnitus ever since, and I can’t sleep without a fan. Getting a cold is absolute torture too. But you can still get very skilled as a mixer/recordist.

I used to respect you, now I absolutely admire you. You´re a brave man, I never ever heard someone openly speaking about this, and I´m in the industry for more than 20 years. My only experience was with a boss who used to give some ridiculous orders (in a very bad mood) when I was mixing, specially on the high end range. So one day a secretly put a very loud 5 o 6k tone and he never perceived it, and then I understood everything.

Former mixer here, now in the medical community. Had to take a few grad-level audiology courses. I have a lot to say regarding this video, but I'll keep it to this: When you get your hearing tested, make sure to get the otoacoustic exam (OAE). This is an OBJECTIVE test, in other words, it does not require you to raise your hand when you hear something, and it does not require you to hear "past" your tinnitus, if you have it (and I certainly do!). It plots a frequency response of your hearing, from 20 Hz up to 20 kHz. Now you have info that is objective and reliable, and you can adjust either your mix technique or technology with solid knowledge of what your ears can and cannot do. Do NOT settle for a standard audiogram. This is 19th century technology and NOT helpful, specially for those of us with well-trained ears.

Standing ovations to you for this video! I’m old plus suffering from Tinnitus and regarding my mixes… never really convinced. Fortunately I’m a bedroom producer only so nobody cares😅

I just want to say I really appreciated your take on this. I don't work in music production or anything like that, but I've had tinnitus for as long as I can remember and hearing loss is something I worry about quite a bit, especially since I have anxiety. A lot of the way people, even medical professionals, talk about this kind of thing is to try and frighten you by saying that it's the end of the world and you need to do this and this and this to avoid it or else your life will be ruined. Hearing you calmly discuss how to avoid hearing loss and how you can deal with it and still appreciate life even if it does happen was really encouraging, and I guess it's that engineer's "how do I fix this" way of thinking that makes the difference as opposed to that moralistic "don't do this or else everything in your life will be horrible forever" mentality. I'll continue taking care of my ears and hopefully despite probably doing some damage in my youth I'll be able to hold on to what I've got for a good long while. I'm really happy that you've been successful in your own life and I hope that your words enrich many more people after me. God bless you, sir.

At 66 years old and drumming, recording and mixing for over 50, more than 20 live gigs on drums a week for many years, my hearing must be compromised after such a long exposure to music, often played pretty loud. My (almost permanent) tinnitus ring is around 6 kHz. Oddly I still hear pretty good and I am actually very sensitive to high end sounds and hear them exaggerated. What seems to sound all right and tolerable to others is aggravating my tinnitus and sounds unpleasantly bright to me. I have my studio monitors rolled off by 2dB from 4 kHz upwards and up by 2dB from 80Hz downwards and that sounds pretty all right to my ears nowadays. When I do a hearing test I cannot hear much above 13 kHz anymore, but I can listen to a mix at 60 dB and hear everything really well. I appreciate you letting everyone know to be gentle and careful to the most important instruments and tools we have: our ears!

In my 60's. Been mixing since my late teens (plus touring on loud stages 'til mid 30's ). Can VERY MUCH relate to everything you talk about in this video. Thanks for bringing it up Greg. It's a kind of relief to know I am not alone.👍😁

I thought I was the only one, hearing this is such a relief. I lost about 80% hearing in my left ear when I was very young due to a head injury, I've played in bands and never really let it bother me as the mix was always handled by the sound engineer. Now that I write and record at home I'm very much aware of my limitations, I will regularly switch my headphones around and regularly switch around the signal to the monitors, like yourself I'm surprised by what I've been missing. It's such a relief to hear others have the same issues and that we never allow it to dampen our love or appreciation for music. Thank you so much.

At 47, I just started to notice issues, degraded hearing, ringing in the ears. Seeing my doctor now about it, and I was getting depressed, considering what we all do. What helped me identify my issue was my increased sensitivity gained from learning more about mixing, mastering, etc. I've learned how to hear more - including what I was lacking. This vid really encourages me, and I appreciate your insights and suggestions!

That was brave and enlightening. Some very insightful and informative comments in here as well!

So, like yourself, I'm a drummer and now audio engineer with damaged and degraded hearing. I didn't even start wearing earplugs until I was in my late 20's so that was a good 15-20 years of drumming without them. I didn't even get into producing and mixing until I was 40 years old. I now do this full time at a professional level and somehow still manage to improve despite my hearing problems. I have a dip in 4k and tinnitus. At 48 years old I know the hearing isn't getting better, but I use a lot of reference material and I also ask an engineer that I work with for input on my mixes, he's 66 and still making GREAT sounding recordings and mixes. This seems to work for me. I think there's a lot to be said for the power of the brain when it comes to processing and adapting to problems. Love your channel and will soon be the owner of a clariphonic!

Solid advice. I'm almost 50.... been bashing the drums and going to loud concerts for 35 of those, and I'm lucky to not have tinnitus (yet) and can year up to about 15Khz. For the past 8 years or so I've been super protective of my hearing. No club shows, ear protection when playing, mixing quietly. Protect those ears... you can't get that back!

I’m 70, and a lifelong musician. Been wearing hearing protection for 40 years, but did the loud rock, half stack Marshall thing prior. My hearing is not great, obviously. Two years ago I got some Bluetooth enabled hearing aids. What a difference! My mixes are way better now - all the little things can be heard now. Worked for me - might work for you.

Nothing to be ashamed of. You've only earned yourself more respect here. This just gives some insight on what makes you YOU. Thanks for taking the time to put this together. Don't ever stop creating.

Rupert Neve during the last product line development for Rupert Neve Designs had very severe hearing degradation, yet he was always giving notes back to the engineers on how to tweak things to sound better here or there, and he was always right, even in the areas he couldn't possibly hear. People forget that our whole bodies sense vibrations and can give us that information. In fact, even if you have perfect hearing, learning to rely on your body's response to sound will drastically improve production results.

Joey Jordison the drummer from Slipknot had a rare neurological disease caused by injury to the spinal cord, leading to weakness in the legs. And was still a drummer in one of the most successful heavy metal bands. Don't ever let anyone tell you that you're not good enough, or cannot do something! I don't even make music, and I still find these videos great, keep them up!

Funny thing about that tonal balance plugin: I have almost the same exact experience with it. When I got it I was super excited, and just like you, I noticed that my mixes are bass heavy and tend to scoop in the upper mids and drop off at the very top. I spent hours on a mix going through each instrument trying to add and subtract where I could to get my mix to fit the curve. Always using my ears, the mixes still ended up with the curve that I get naturally. So, just like you, I pulled Radiohead In Rainbows (fucking phenomenal production), and guess what, all of these songs that I think sound amazing were “wrong” according to that plugin. Since that moment I now use it for quick reference to see if things are in the ballpark that I consider good, but if I like the way my mix sounds, and it’s “wrong” on the meter, I keep it the way it is.

Never again will I complain about my gradual hearing loss. After listening to your experience and others in the comments, I can see/hear I have no problem at all. I'm an audiophile and a studio musician of 40yrs. I'm now 61 and my hearing diminishes quickly from 14kHz ... I had perfect hearing but started to notice top end sparkle wasn't as I remembered from 50 onwards. I've used ear defenders and buds with the odd miss during recording sessions. I hear stereo imaging and depth, so I'll never complain again. Thank you for your honesty.

Gregory's gentle and soothing voice is such an ASMR thing that I found myself almost dozing a few times while all the info he tells is a concentrated and useful and not even boring. Hail the ASMR King!

This is comforting in a way. I'm sorry you deal with this. I recently have been coming to terms that at 28 I have slight tinnitus. As long as I can remember I always thought it was just house sounds or natural white noise your ears produce, but turns out nobody else I know has any clue what I'm talking about. I notice it when I really focus on it but unless I think about it, it does not affect me with mixing. The only time it does is if I have to remove hiss from a recording, then that gets tricky.

I’ve had Eustachian tube dysfunction for about 4/5 months... completely unable to produce music without feeling dizzy, having pain... I can really empathise with all musicians that have damaged hearing... if you’re not in pain then keep going !!

iHave a neighbour who explains that her ability to see is 5% of normal vision and to her she explains, viewing the world is like constantly looking through a keyhole, nonetheless she see’s everything as if she had 100% lens - she’s a great photographer too. The human condition is an amazingly adaptable thing. With a determined spirit and great taste, we can work magic. Thanks for yet another superb post !♥️✖️

I’m a truck driver with tinnitus due to cheap door seals on some of our trucks over the years. Ran a Radio Shack db meter while driving and it averaged somewhere 115 db…

60, tinnitus most of the time, hearing loss in left ear, not brilliant in the right, love playing, recording and mixing and watching intelligent videos such as this. Thanks for highlighting this issue. I find walking helps most everything, especially if done in what is left of nature; with a dog.

I’m 45 - developed tinnitus 2 years ago - and I did rock bands as a younger man. Always protected my ears but don’t assume it helped or hurt in the long run. After all the depression etc - I did my best to move on and mixing / writing/ recording music was part of my process and recovery . and your videos have been a big part of that. And now that you’ve shared this information I have been given more heart. It’s not easy - there are good days and bad days. But engaging my ears in music has been critical to keeping my spirits up. Thanks for sharing this!!! Good to know I’m not alone…

Thanks Greg for bringing this up ! I'd like to share with you my experience here : I am 28 years old, I am a composer and sound engineer. I had tympanoplasty in my left ear at the age of 7, following recurrent ear infections. This means that I have a cartilaginous eardrum instead of a fleshy membrane on this ear. Consequence: my hearing is asymmetrical like HELL but functional, I hear nothing above 12k and I also have tinnitus (bad headphones for too long). At one point in my life, it freaked me out a lot. But it's also because I thought sound engineering was like an "ideal" goal to achieve that requires bionic bat ears. videos titled "ULTIMATE Drum Sound" or "DEFINITIVE Vocal Production Techniques" do not help to break this myth. Then the more I created my sound and listening to guys like Greg talk, I realized that mixing music was more about putting sound elements in relation to each other, building something interesting BETWEEN them. Thus, working with my ears is more an aptitude for exercising a "relative" listening than an "absolute" listening which would respond to definitive outlines. Since the day I understood this I felt better :) Even with degraded hearing, I am still able to understand differences, contrasts and sound interactions from my "hearing point" and as long as I am not nearly deaf (my fingers crossed here), I can still work to hear, feel and detect all the differences between my productions and those of others to understand how they are constructed. So if some of you are panicking with hearing problems ... Thinking about this idea of ​​relativity in listening has helped me a lot in my experience as a sound engineer and in my worry about my hearing loss. You don't miss a thing because I think there is no "good sound", but only an ingenious perspective of sounds in relation to each other.

I had bad ear infections as a young child and was told that I'd lost hearing my whole life even before I started drumming and listening to metal through headphones. The biggest obstacle caused by the loss was psychological. Because I knew my hearing wasn't perfect, I used it as an excuse to not even try a lot of things. The idea of mixing my own music seemed impossible. As an adult I realized that no one's hearing is perfect, and certain engineers' imperfect hearing is part of what gave them their signature sound. Letting your imperfections stop you from trying is a form of vanity anyway, so I dropped the EGO and gave it a shot. AAAAaaaand it sounded terrible. The worst part was not being able to figure out WHY it sounded terrible. Videos like yours and other mixing mentors on KZfaq really helped me zero in on where to make changes, how to work around my limitations. More importantly, admitting to your hearing issues and specifically discussing your strategies really helped me let go of some baggage (read "excuses") and start making progress again.

As a 41 year old noticing imbalanced drops to my higher frequency hearing, thank you for this.

one of the most important videos on YT, thank you for sharing and opening the conversation. I related to every word from the drums to the headphones and tinnitus being a burden. Djing for 10 years didnt help, only gut earbuds when I was 24...but I'd wear my Hearing aid proudly knowing I used every Hz I can still hear :]

Asymetric hearing, not huge but present tinnitus here, I work everyday in music, whatever, we can all keep working. Small story, one of my professors at my uni masters degree, has 14 grammys and is one of the few engineers if not the only to have both the classical and non-classical engineering grammys, we turned on the oscillator on the board at 16k, we were all covering our ears, he had no idea it was going, and he can still record and mix circles around anyone. Great of you for bringing this up.

This makes me want to boot up the DAW. I can relate hugely to many of the hearing issues you’ve had, and it’s nice to know I’m not the only one going through this.

Appreciated the candidness of this video, there was some extremely relatable parts, thank you!

Had no idea. I was blown away when you explained drum compression, and then with much effort I could hear it, gave me the chills.. and my hearing is pretty fantastic. Just goes to show the skill makes up for the handicap. Think you hear way better than I with that thought.

I have a dip in my right ear around 3-6000k. I struggled with balancing guitars etc for years but now that I know, I flip the L/R to the point there’s not much difference at all. Love that you’re talking about this 💕

You don't know what you've got, til it's gone. Been wearing er-20 ear plugs on my keychain for 20 years. Tinnitus, and a few db loss here and there, assuming from cymbals. I respect this vid a lot.

Thanks for raising this discussion, definitely a sensitive but very important topic. I personally suffer from nerve damage effecting my hearing from birth, scaring on my ear drums and moderate tinnitus all resulting me not being able to hear above 9k (23 years old). Its really hard to be transparent due to how competitive the music scene is, I think its natural to want to keep secrecy around this subject due to how important the hearing is, as personally I feel if a customer for example was made aware of your compromised hearing that could be a big turn off. Regardless its definitely possible to learn to work with your own hearing capabilities and Its really motivating to hear you say that its a-lot more common than you would think amongst sound engineers/mixing engineers alike. Thanks for the video! And look after your ears people!!

I can’t hear anything above 17k. Sounds like I still have a good range but I’m 17 and I’ve got that sinus/tinnitus thing going on too. God bless you for bringing this to my attention I’m def going to take more measures to protect what’s left of my hearing!

I’m 50db down at 6k in my left ear from a 40 lb block of ice hitting me in the left side of my head, and I’m pretty sure a slipknot concert a couple years prior did some of the degrading. I’m so grateful for this video, to know that I can still make quality mixes with these issues.

I totally relate to not being able to hear imaging! Really appreciate you being vulnerable and speaking your truth also. Much love my dude

Man it is such a relief to hear that you have the same issues as me, particularly considering all your mixes are brilliant. I got tinnitus two years ago when I was 19 and freaked the fuck out. Since i've come to terms with it. I still sometimes listen to music on headphones, though often for no more than an hour a day, but playing live and going to gigs are an absolute no go for not using hearing protection. It really does seem to be an occupational hazard for us musicians/producers (I'm more on the musician side but still appreciate the mechanics and theory behind production), much the same way a footballer is much more likely to suffer a broken leg than the average person.

Woah, I also have one severely damaged ear. Just knowing that it is still possible to produce and mix at your level gives me a lot of hope. Thanks Greg, you've taught me so much, whether that be spiritually or technically.

Thanks for posting this. I've had tinnitus for a long time and it's great to hear someone in the industry highlight how difficult it can be.

According to me, you're simply the most inspiring producing-artist / gear designer viewable on KZfaq. With you, everything is about "feeling" - "organic" - "spiritual" - "experience" and "groove". Of course you somehow and sometimes come to talking about frequencies or ratios... but always in the aim of getting the result you want, checking things out or balancing them the way you want. Man, your "after-hour show" is also so soft, calm, and soothing, from the intro title to the lighting of your studio, passing by your sweet and reassuring voice. Thank you Gregory for regurlarly sharing your experience, tips and philosophy !

I cannot say thank you enough for this! I’ve suffered with hearing loss since I was young and this really helped me push my excuses aside and work with what I got. ❤️

At 51, I've got my share of tinnitus tones. I'm mostly okay with that now (sometimes they stick out more, day to day) because I'd managed to recover from a nasty few months of hyperacusis, which is a hell all its own. I'd still say I'm "sensitive" to loudness, and can't really handle even small stage levels, which has really put the kibosh on starting a new live project. I have to wear noise isolating hearing protect cans if I'm playing drums at home, but honestly, I should've been doing that decades earlier! Seriously, I wish people talked about this when I was younger. I get the word out any time I can, these days!

gotta say man, it's really encouraging to hear you say we can all still do amazing work with damaged ears. My frequency response is creeping down and it's something i worry about a lot. thanks for the reassuring words and advice. btw your mixes have always blown me away

this was really so good to hear for me, because my ears have always reacted heavily to any [stress] situations - when performing, during exams, whenever i struggle with my mental health - by closing up randomly, even before i started producing. i'm 20 and study music production and sound engineering now, so sometimes i feel pretty alone in a classroom full of people who seem to be able to hear everything at any time. it's nice to see that there's ways to work around it, or even just that being open about it can also help. thank you!

Well it's not a breaking news for me, that your channel is one of the most genuine source of good information about mixing and stuff. And one the greatest thing about it is that you are beautifully expose pleasant thing for me and many others that we are actually capable to create a good mixes even in not best environment. But today you've got my heart stolen completely! How many times I had those procrastination moments when I thought that some dullness and asymmetrical hearing making me incapable for doing good mixes. I was suspicious about it, though. In one video Dave Pensado said that he has swap stereo channels plugin and use it for 'don't ask why' purposes. Thank you very much for cleared that up!

I’m so glad you’ve shared this. My eardrums are a mass of scar tissue from many childhood middle-ear infections with burst eardrums, so my top end is non-existent. I can’t hear half of the tweaks that engineers demonstrate. Thanks for showing that there are ways round such issues.

The timing of this video is amazing! Thank you so much for talking about this!

Thank you so much for this!! This came into my life at just the right time! I’ve been feeling down about my hearing lose lately, but I now take Comfort in knowing that I can still be a great producer despite my impairment. 🙏

I believe the Tonal Balance Control envelope comes from a large library of mixes, not from a pink noise. You can select it by genre of music. Thank you much for the great video and very important discussion for us all !

I'm a little late on this, so sorry. Thank you so much for this, it means such an incredible amount, I wanted to hug you! I wish, when I got tinnitus some 6 years ago, that someone had told me it would eventually take more of a back seat or it would be easier to live with, over time and that everyone loses some hearing over time and there are ways to compensate. In the first few months, I was on the verge of suicide nightly. If I'd seen this video, it would have made a big difference. As for the comment by Agnus Dias, I don't think he can be a a real musician or producer or whatever he says he is, for the simple reason he couldn't empathise and that he didn't know immediately, like the rest of us, that you can't easily (or even not easily) do something else, because your soul is embedded in what you do. When I read his comment, I immediately thought of the lyrics of Ballad Of A Thin Man. Anyway, thank you so much Gregory.

I appreciate your bravery man, it is very inspiring how you address an issue that so many of us avoid. Keep it going and I wish you the best!

Thank you so much for talking about this🙏 My Ear problems are simular to yours and I am so happy to hear that there are workarounds when you mix.

I feel ya Brother. I listen to these demo videos and I can never hear the difference that people are trying to show me.

I’m a 18 year old whose been producing for about 8 months and really grateful to have found you and other artists who talk about protecting hearing. Gonna buy a good SPL meter soon and check my levels but I’ve been very conscious of keeping things lower volume when I can. For me my hearing is the most important sensory thing I have. It’s how I take in a lot of the world around me and I’m gonna do my best to treat my ears liek royalty.

Thanks so much for having the humility to talk about this. Your timing is perfect. I am right now struggling with some nasty infection that won't go away. My ears are ringing like a grenade went off and, after having such tragedy in my life with chronic health issues that have stopped me from working, and more recently the loss of my wife, music is the one thing that I have to enjoy and retreat to... and so this hearing issue really is hitting me hard. I stopped working on music. You have given me a little bit of hope and determination. I needed that. Thanks.

This video has to be one of the most useful videos on KZfaq for musicians/mixers. Thank you for doing this. I'm similar in age and have a similar hearing profile (guitar instead of drums..though probably have some of that from playing in bands). I appreciate the tips and techniques. Keep the vibe going, Gregory.

Mixing with headphones for 2 year's. Really insightful too hear this. I stifle between multiple pair's/brands to mix longer but I need to get some monitors.

I’m 40 years old. Always worn plugs. Yet I’ve still ended up with tinnitus. I’m decent till 13k. Good balance between both ears. Latest hearing test 6 months ago said I wasn’t lacking in any particular frequency. All in all pretty good. But THAT SODDING TINNITUS!!!! Grrrrrrr.

Such a brave testimonial, thank you Gregory Scott for sharing this with us!

I'm so glad someone in this business is talking about this. Thank you so much for sharing it with us

10+ years of bartending here while working on audio at the same time. 38 now and I definitely have tinnitus, and my stereo balance is out of whack. (Don’t notice any difference in frequency response between my left/right hear, just sounds like my right has the “gain” turned up 2-3db vs my left 🤷🏻‍♂️). Totally agree with the L/R swap technique! Once I purchased a monitor controller with that feature and learned how to add it to my work flow been a game changer if for no other team than to make sure what I’m hearing is actually what’s being recorded. Thanks for the open talk on the subject mate! Been having self doubt about my mixes because of my hearing degradation, good to know I’m not the only fool in this boat 🤣😂

I also remember me wearing headphones, minding smthing in my DAW when I clicked on some noise generator (as it was no calibrated) so there was this +18 db hit. It only took me some fraction of a second to tear my headphones off of my head. But those highs. Not only my ears rang, i felt sick, dizzy and shaking a bit for some time, true story, too loud sound had its impact on my whole body. Just be careful with them headphones and set volume first, before putting them on. Always.

Yo! Thank you so much for making this video. I feel like musicians and audiophiles everywhere need this is much ❤️❤️❤️

I have been a musician for 60 years. Started playing the saxophone when I was eight. I've played in all kinds of bands and venues, and have been exposed to some very loud music. Not to mention extremely loud rehearsals. My hearing at around 6K is gone in my right ear. I have tennitous. I compensate for it. Been a music producer and audio engineer for the past 15 years. I try to keep my levels low and practice my horn with closed back headphones in the studio (the sax is loud and the headphones isolate the volume). Anything I do (cut grass, chain saw, any equipment) I use hearing protection. Good video Gregory. Thanks.

This video is great, I’m just getting into engineering and realized I can barely hear 15k. I really freaked out and got sad, as I’m trying to make it a career. This helped me feel more confident about my future

I have had tinnitus for 13 years. Been religiously wearing earplugs everywhere I go. Even bars without music. I'm a DJ and produce music pretty much every day. My tinnitus has gotten worse over the years regardless of wearing earplugs. The tinnitus I can handle, even though I hear it EVERYWHERE. But I also have hyperacusis on and off and that is soul crushing when It's bad. The weird thing is, I do hearing tests every year and apparently my hearing is insane. 5 to 10 db above the 0 "perfect hearing line" in the lows and mids. In the highs I'm even 20 db above that same 0 line, compared to the -15 or more the average person my age has. So the times I've went to tinnitus specialist they've looked very confused when I tell them I think I have hearing loss, because to me sometimes It feels the volume in my head is turned down a lot. My reasoning for the hyperacusis is, because I apparently hear better than most, I'm also a lot more sensitive than most to sound. I especially struggle with the highs and they can be very painful. Also my left ear seems a lot louder than my right.

Thanks for opening up the subject, it's definitely something that is simply not talked about enough! Seeing that there is engineers still working a top level with damage hearing is somewhat reassuring, so thanks for taking the time to talk about it!

ok! I'm so glad you spoke about this. I was at a gig when I was 18 and there was so much high end hurting my ear when the singer did anything into the mic that I had to hide in a hallway. I woke up the next day with an overwhelming ringing in my ears and it sounded like everyone was whispering. 3 days it lasted and ever since I've been carful about my hearing but going to music college as a mature student brought back a lot of the tinnitus. I've always been sensitive to particular frequencies, have a desperate time with ambient sound in bars and rely heavily on lipreading when I'm out. Masks are killing my ability to effectively communicate when I'm out. This video reminded me to book another session with an audiologist. It's been 15 years since my last one. I've only recently been getting into production and mixing, so I'm nervous to find out what I'm missing. Thank you for talking about this!

Thank you for talking about this. Standing too close to PA speakers at gigs without hearing protection when I was younger got me. Tinnitus in both ears (not severely loud, only really bothers me when it's quiet). But the main thing that bummed me out for a while is that things panned centre sound somewhat panned to the left to me. I haven't had my hearing tested but oddly, I'm pretty sure the hearing loss in my right ear that causes this is mostly between 100 and 200hz. If I wear ear phones and play a sine wave in my right ear only, there's a bunch of frequencies somewhere in that range that just sound like nonsense, can't discern a pitch etc. Took me a long time to realise it wasn't actually that big of a deal and I could work around it.

This was such a relief to watch! I’m a 70s kid too and pretty much wrecked my ears similar to you Gregory. I can’t remember life without tinnitus. And then ruined it further by going to raves in the late 80s.

I really appreciate your openness & honesty, Gregory. It means so much to have engineers talk about their experiences on this subject. Much love & respect.