loud music

[Don Cicchetti <dcicchet@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Stephen Albrecht said: (edit edit)

- ----
I used to arrive at work stone
deaf for the next couple of hours. I never was able to get it loud
enough to find the clipping point. And I like LOUD music. If it's too
loud, then you are too old!!! BTW, I'm over 50 and haven't grown up yet,
and don't plan to anytime in the near OR distant future. "Grow old - not
up"
- ----

What happened to you during your drive is called "temporary threshold
shift" and enough instances of this, and you permanently lose most of the
high frequencies in your hearing.

When you lose those frequencies, music becomes flat and lifeless, and it
doesn't feel as good to listen to anymore.

When you assault your ears with excessive sound pressure level, you are
literally tearing off the little hairs inside your cochlea that transduce
the music into information your brain can understand.  When these little
hairs are floating about in the fluid of the inner ear, instead of being
attached, those sounds are gone forever.

Maybe "if it's too loud, you're too DEAF"...  hmmmm

Not to grind on Stephen here, but this "rock n roll" attitude makes about
as much sense as developing a ritual wherin we pass radioactive materials
around "for fun" and "cuz it's rock n roll mannnnn"....   But we
deliberately, permanently damage our precious hearing to be hip?  To be a
"rebel"?

It's BS.

Oh, and before you wave your freak flag high at me, I am a rock and blues
guitar player of over 30 years in addition to being an audio engineer.  I
have both a JCM2000 Marshall, and a HIWATT stack, and if you want to come
over and play some Who or Hendrix, I am your man.   BUT, it sounds just as
cool at 105db as 120db.   (Actually it sounds a lot better)

Ask someone who has lost their upper ranges, or better yet, ask someone
with persistent tinnitus.  (constant, light to severe ringing in the ears)
Severe cases of tinnitus have caused suicides just to escape the howling...

Now THAT'S rock 'n roll    mannnn

;-]

DC


____________________________________________________
Don Cicchetti, Coordinator
La Sierra University Library Media Services
Academic technology support, Technology education, Audio recording,
CD mastering, Event sound, Video production, Computer graphics.
Web Page  http://www.lasierra.edu/library/medias/media_main.html
email  dcicchet@domain.elided


Not everything that can be counted counts,
and not everything that counts can be counted

- - Albert Einstein
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