Deaf in one ear, any production tips?

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XtremeBudgetMus

New member
As the title says, im deaf in one ear. Things like stereo channels, surround sound, panning, etc are basically theoretical for me.

Any helpful tips?

For instance, I got a great deal on a single Yamaha MSR100 powered monitor\speaker (impressed!), and I was going to buy a mate for it but i thought "Why? I couldn't tell the diff". What do I do??
 
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Heh, that was unfortunate. Fixed it for you.
Sorry Rami. Here to make you look silly again! :p

I can't give you any first hand info but I have two friends who are deaf, or have limited hearing, in one ear.
Both of them mix on stereo setups and I'd imagine there's a good reason.

Even if you are completely stone deaf in left ear, for example, you're still getting information from the left speaker to your right ear.
Ok, your balance is totally skewed but presumably you adapt to some extent.

If something was 100% panned left, you'd still know that, right, just by how it sounds to your right ear.

This perfectly illustrates why mixing on headphones is not the same as mixing on speakers, btw. But, of course, it is. :facepalm:
 
By the way, I'm about 75% deaf in one ear. The government won't pay for a hearing aid because they go by your "good" ear. My "good" ear, which isn't really that good, is slightly good enough for them to not pay for a hearing aid.

Anyway, I'm constantly switching the left and right sides in REAPER. I need to do that or else I'll turn the shit up out of my left side. I've learned to live with it, but man would I love to have my hearing back.
 
Steenamaroo said:
Oh wow, I had no idea.
If it's worth anything to you, Xtreme, RAMI's mixes consistently sound great!
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Thanx, but my lack of hearing makes me very insecure. This is why I post my songs. I truly need to get other people's opinions before I can believe my mixes aren't totally out of wack. I have a "good ear" for things, but I can't hear, if that makes any sense.
 
Yeah, sure man. I can understand that.
I'm aware of a slight imbalance in my hearing in the high end but only if I listen to something on cans for a while then flip them around quickly.
Sometimes I'm not even convinced. I think it might just be perception - getting used to the stereo image then flipping it might sound weird to anyone.

I would never ever have suspected from your mixes that you've diminished hearing in one ear.
 
Steenamaroo said:
I would never ever have suspected from your mixes that you've diminished hearing in one ear.
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Not only diminished in one, but no high end in either. I'm constantly asking people to repeat themselves because when people talk, especially in a place like a crowded restaurant, for example, it sounds like they have their hand over their mouth. No definition.

I actually found a trick that allows me to hear a hi hat in a song. If I put my head down and tuck my chin into my chest, for some reason I get more high end. I have no idea why that works.
 
Double wow then. My Father is just like that.
I don't even think he's aware of how frustrated it makes him, cos it was such a gradual change.
We're always asking him what's wrong and often telling him to wise up 'cos he's getting worked up over what seems like nothing.
I'm convinced it all spawns from not hearing things, mis-hearing, just generally being left out of conversations at no one's fault.
He's constantly interrupting/talking over people and completely obvious to it which just makes him seem rude in new company. Can't be easy, man.
 
So....What was the OP's question again? Sorry Xtreme.

Someone, either Mr. Clean or Armistice....some limey bastard that's been here for a while is deaf in one ear if I remember correctly. Hopefully he'll see this and be able to suggest something for Xtreme. My advice would be to still have a set of stereo speakers and just reverse the L and R to check mixes.
 
RAMI said:
Not only diminished in one, but no high end in either. I'm constantly asking people to repeat themselves because when people talk, especially in a place like a crowded restaurant, for example, it sounds like they have their hand over their mouth. No definition.

I actually found a trick that allows me to hear a hi hat in a song. If I put my head down and tuck my chin into my chest, for some reason I get more high end. I have no idea why that works.
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Ok RAMI........don't laugh at this but the reason you can hear better with your chin pressed against your chest is the same reason you can usually hear better right after you blow your nose and your ears pop a little. As you press your chin down to your chest the pressure on the underside of your chin tends to open up the passageways between your ears and your throat temporarily. You don't hear a pop because the pressure is not that great. If you grit your teeth and press under the back side of your jaw the same thing happens. In essence you hear more of what you can't hear...........but some of the frequencies adjusted by the passageways from your ears to your throat are upper ranges. Learned all that when I had some temporary deafness a few years back. Go ahead and try it.........you won't look too silly :)
 
I think I might be the limey bastard that was deaf in one ear. I'm now deaf in both.

It is indeed a simplistic myth that the one lugged cannot appreciate stereo. In any case the word means "solid", nothing to do with left and right. The good ear is still shadowed by the head and so you retain some directional ability.

Deafness is a real curse and one the rest of the world does not give a shit about.
Just today I tried to find a way to email a complaint to Amazon. Could I buggery. Then the bloody phone range. Bloke from Amazon asking about my query. He was in a CCentre on another continent AND had an accent AND kept speaking too fast. I told him to shut up and LISTEN! " I am deaf I cannot understand you. THAT is why I want an email address (no, keep quiet!) Find me a working address and EMAIL me back"
Did they buggery.

Next up, Carphone Warehouse. Customer Services, awful distorted voice. A company selling communication devices? My arse.

Even our esteemed BBC's subtitles are a joke, bits missing, incomplete, wrong words...

I sympathise that aids are so hard to get. I got two on the NHS bish bosh for nothing. They help a lot but are not the complete answer and music sounds shit on them.

Dave.
 
Mickster said:
Ok RAMI........don't laugh at this but the reason you can hear better with your chin pressed against your chest is the same reason you can usually hear better right after you blow your nose and your ears pop a little. As you press your chin down to your chest the pressure on the underside of your chin tends to open up the passageways between your ears and your throat temporarily. You don't hear a pop because the pressure is not that great. If you grit your teeth and press under the back side of your jaw the same thing happens. In essence you hear more of what you can't hear...........but some of the frequencies adjusted by the passageways from your ears to your throat are upper ranges. Learned all that when I had some temporary deafness a few years back. Go ahead and try it.........you won't look too silly :)
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That makes sense. I figured there was an explanation for it. Thanx Mick.

ecc83 said:
I think I might be the limey bastard that was deaf in one ear.
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Right. I knew you were, too. But someone else around here is also. Doesn't sound like fun, Dave. :(
 
Not trying to make joke out it....but I wonder for those who are completely deaf in one ear, if there would be any benefit to facing sideways, or putting the monitors on your good side so that your good ear is in the center of the L/R image....that way you simultaneously and equally hear both speakers, and you can just tilt your head front/back a bit to get a better idea of what is coming out of each speaker....?
 
miroslav said:
Not trying to make joke out it....but I wonder for those who are completely deaf in one ear, if there would be any benefit to facing sideways, or putting the monitors on your good side so that your good ear is in the center of the L/R image....that way you simultaneously and equally hear both speakers, and you can just tilt your head front/back a bit to get a better idea of what is coming out of each speaker....?
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Speaking for myself, it would make things worse. I'm USED TO not hearing in the way I don't hear. It's even weird for me when I switch left and right side and all of a sudden my drums are backwards. But I'm not 100% deaf in any ear, so I don't know how I'd feel about it if I was.
 
Beethoven was the one that started the whole "YOU WANNA ROCK!?!?!?!?......I CAN'T HEAR YOU!!!!" thing.
 
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