Safety of Producing Music at Low Levels Circa 60-70 dB for Someone with Tinnitus?

[Pink Noise]

Is it ok to continue producing music with tinnitus if done at low levels circa 60 dB?

I don't use headphones anymore. I think that's what caused my tinnitus in the first place

Just wondering if damage to the hearing system (brain included, cochlea etc) is caused by critical listening?

My tinnitus just keeps getting worse - I'm 4 months in. I went to a British Tinnitus Association meet up, fellow sufferers and audiologist advised at that level no damage should occur. I'm trying to carry on with my life doing what I love but worried that I'm causing further damage. I think I have a bit of dysacusis too. Sound sounds slightly distorted like a whirly tube:


^^^ Remember these.

This has only started to occur this week. I have only spent about 10 hours in the studio over the whole week.

 

[MidnightOilAudio]

Let me start this post with the usual caveat that everyone is different. For those with moderate to severe hyperacusis, even those low levels will be troublesome.

I've continued to record and mix music for 5 years with no increase to my tinnitus. I just protect my ears when I need to and mix at appropriately low levels. Mixing at low levels will probably improve your productions/mixes anyway, to be honest.

 

[HeavyMantra]

Is it ok to continue producing music with tinnitus if done at low levels circa 60 dB?

I don't use headphones anymore. I think that's what caused my tinnitus in the first place

Just wondering if damage to the hearing system (brain included, cochlea etc) is caused by critical listening?

My tinnitus just keeps getting worse - I'm 4 months in. I went to a British Tinnitus Association meet up, fellow sufferers and audiologist advised at that level no damage should occur. I'm trying to carry on with my life doing what I love but worried that I'm causing further damage. I think I have a bit of dysacusis too. Sound sounds slightly distorted like a whirly tube:


^^^ Remember these.

This has only started to occur this week. I have only spent about 10 hours in the studio over the whole week.

What monitors are you using?

 

[Pink Noise]

What monitors are you using?

Focal SM9s - Mains
Yamaha NS10S - HiFI reference
Triple P Pyramids - Grot box speaker

 

[Ross McLauchlan]

@Pink Noise

I've had noise induced tinnitus for about three years, likely due to headphones. I still record and mix music daily and have done so since the start. I have a decent set of monitors and don't crank them up past 70 dB often, unless I need to for a particular purpose. I don't use earplugs or anything like that, in general, I just avoid headphones usage; therefore, recording vocals and acoustic instruments tends to take a back seat as I'd have track them with headphones on, which isn't worth it in my opinion.

Take it in small steps, see how you go. I do a few hours at a time and I've never had a spike from home production at lower volumes - if anything, my mixing quality is better now than when my ears were being blasted.

As its quite early on for you, just listen to your body and take a break when you need to. I'm in a position where I rarely wonder about damaging my ears due to production volume but that took some time, patience and not overstretching my ears. Continuing to make music is a form of sound therapy to me, I'm glad I kept pushing myself to keep chipping away.

Take care.

 

[HeavyMantra]

Seems like many music creators and audio engineers have posted on the forums lately, it's nice to see. I was thinking a lot about these things one year ago when tinnitus became a problem in my life. This is what I concluded:

The info on safe decibel levels doesn't necessarily apply to people that already have noise induced tinnitus. Instead we have to pay attention to our ears and tinnitus to gauge what is safe for us. 70 dB or less can be dangerous for some people. Other people can handle more.

Speaker type, the room, and source can matter a lot. Many people report that metal tweeters create more problems than say silk tweeters, but I think Beryllium tweeters are different in this regard and probably better for sensitive ears compared to aluminum tweeters. Apart from regular listening fatigue we can run into specific problems that can be worked around, but it's not going to be the same for everyone. For some people volume is the main factor. For others certain frequencies can be the problem no matter the volume. One trick to try is to find out what frequencies are problematic and just EQ them out in one way or another.

Magnesium, turmeric and NAC can all be good supplements to consider. They are all supposed to be otoprotective so why not take them on days when you listen to a lot of music? I take them every day except NAC which I take when I expose myself to too much noise.

Hyperacusis can be cured and that's positive, but it might require patience and abstinence. I initially just continued making music like I had but on pretty harsh speakers I loaned briefly, but I finally realized I need to take it really really slow. A few weeks ago I bought finally bought monitors. For the last 3 days I've been using them pretty much all day and I've not experienced any spikes. On the contrary my tinnitus has been very low 3 days in a row which is rare. My tinnitus fluctuates but it seems to be completely random.

The only problem I experience is mild ear fullness if I listen too loud or to very harsh material. It's been one year after getting intrusive tinnitus, 6 months after getting mild hyperacusis. I expect the situation to improve even more the coming year if I do things correctly.

There are so many engineers and artists with tinnitus and hyperacusis. I think most of them are still able to do what they do. Myself, my only hope is to be able to listen/create in peace in the studio. I was just going to start playing shows with one of my bands after we released a record, but I've decided that I simply cannot take the risk.