A Strange Thing To Consider

[Dani Pace]

I'm not sure where to post this so I'll start here. We all run into all sorts of distortion problems, lately I've been thinking about a new one. Question; at what volume level does the humsn ear distort? At high volume do we actually hear the sounds being produced. Has anyone else ever wondered about this? I know recording at high volume creates some unique and often frustrating situations, I've been wondering about how much volume levels affect the way we hear things. I welcome any ideas, theorys, opinions or medical facts relating to this. After all, if we don't hear it right, how can we expect to record it right?

 

[SureShotStudio]

hi,

you have to realise that you hearing is hearing differently when the sound gets louder. The sensitivity of the ear for certain frequencies changes depending on how loud those frequencies are. for instance your ears are way more sensitive to mid frequencies when the soundlevel is low, that's why most home stereos have a loundness button to make you hear everything at lower volumes. This link 'll explain further http://www.webervst.com/fm.htm . to combat this effect i listen to varing sound levels when mixing.

another thing that you should know is that the ear has a build in hearing protection that kicks in when listening to a loud source for too long. When this happens a tiny bone in the ear tightens and dampens the ear drum. Thats why you hear less when you've been to a loud concert.

the human hearing doesn't really distort but when it does you damage your hearing..... here's a quote from a site on the web :

"The upper limit is more a question of the limit where the ear will be physically harmed (see also hearing disability). This limit depends also on the time exposed to the sound. Sometimes, the ear can be exposed to short periods of sounds of 120 dB without harm, but long times of 80 dB sounds will harm the ear."

if you wanna know more about the human hearing google "psychoacoustics" or buy/loan a book on the subject.

i listen to my monitors when tracking to know what i'm tracking(after getting the sound i want in the room... of course). that way i don't have to put my ears next to an amp screaming at 120db... and i get an idea what my signal chain is doing to the sound....

hope this helps

Thomas

 

[Dani Pace]

Thanks Thomas. I got to thinking about this after trying to record some guys who all like to play really loud. I mean at concert volume in a 12X15 room and seem to think louder means better. When I played it back they all thought it sounded like crap, (in my opinion it did sound pretty bad,) but when I pulled a line out to their PA and let them crank it up and boost the bass way too much, they thought it was fantastic. I thought it sounded awful, all muddy and slured together. Maybe it was just a matter of preferance, but at the volume where everything started loosing it's distinction for me was about the same place where they thought things started to clear up. Maybe my ears are just more sensitive or they are about deaf or imune to high volume. My ears rang for hours after being in the same room with them for only a few minutes.

 

[AGCurry]

I think they probably have a case of brain distortion. People who play extremely loud in a small room are generally young or stupid, or both.

I've asked myself the same question, though. At what level does the ear begin to distort? If, as Thomas writes, the ear has a natural "pad" which kicks in, I guess that would be the point where distortion begins, as any change from "straight through" can be considered distortion.

 

[smtcharlie]

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I think they probably have a case of brain distortion. People who play extremely loud in a small room are generally young or stupid, or both.
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Ah, I remember those days......I had a Carvin combo amp that sounded like crap, but it was the loudest combo amp that I've ever encountered.

Good times.....

 

[brett304]

Another post

Just wanted to add my two cents...I know it'll probably be slightly off topic, but i figured it would be constructive twist to this conversation!

When people start playing live all the time they find a sound with their equipment that sounds good (to their ears of course) at a volume to play/practice with... This is something they get used to as it gives them a certain instrument "response" that they also get used to and its hard when they go into a studio to convince them to deviate from it... They devolop the sound around these types of factors and when you ask them to compromise for the sake of the recording it can be asking too much... They can't play their instrument in the same manner and this can be hard for a band doing a demo to work around... As a recording musician I can appreciate the effect that these kind of compromises can have on your recording, ear, and playing, etc., but from their point of view it is definitely understandable!!!!

Depending on the setup there may be some ways to work around it, but sometimes there seems to be very little... They have to understand that its going to be a little different or you could tell them that they'll have to sacrifice quality to some extent by using room mic techiniques...



UNLESS some of the recording experts can share some helpful insight when we come into these situations, but in my opinion its going to depend on the recording environment, equipment, setup, etc... Hopefully someone here will give us some insight...

 

[The Green Hornet]

Yo Dani:

Make your LOUD guys record softer--THEN, you make them LOUDER when you mix. You'll get a much better mix when you master. Hey, that's a MIXMASTER!!! [I hate corny jokes too.]

You can do a track via a mic pre amp--[I do it all of the time] and then from the pre amp into a compressor--set the levels of the compressor to your pleasure.

I love the RNC because it has a "real nice compression" button that works quite well for most of the tracks I record.

The compressor will get to a "loud" level without clipping.

Remember, when you mix your stereo track you get "loud" TWICE from two tracks. It took me a while to figure out that the stereo track will really be dynamic when you do "loud tracks" into TWO loud tracks.

Give it a spin.

Green Hornet