[Harp-L] Signal to noise ratio...volume

[William Jennings <will@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hearing loss resulting from chronic or even acute exposure to high  
decibel sound
is especially problematic for the young and those who imbibe while  
being exposed to these sound levels.

Since chronic hearing loss is not an injury sustained in the same way  
as a traumatic amputation,
concussion, broken bone, or deeply bruising contusion, the victim  
does not always recognize
the onset of symptoms, or acknowledge them in relationship to the  
likely cause.

Young people can tolerate fairly high sound levels w/o qualifying  
such exposure as a negative experience.

People under the influence of alcohol and some mind/mood altering  
substances also experience
a transient decrease in noise sensitivity.

The first issue is one reason why headphones are so problematic for  
younger people.
On a recent air flight, a teen sitting three rows down and across the  
aisle from me was listening
to an iPod at a volume loud enough for everyone within ten rows to  
hear the headphone bleed through,
and this was over the generally high noise background of a commercial  
jet.  He kept rocking for at least two hours.

The guy who sticks is head into the horns of a club's pa stack is  
another phenomena worth more than a
cursory tsk tsk and a head shake.  Alcohol dulls and desensitizes.

In both cases, the noise IS the signal.

Occupational hearing loss occurs because the noise is the signal and  
the noise means a profit is being made.
No noise, no commerce. No commerce, no job. No job, no hearing loss.  
You wanna eat and hear? Buy your own plugs.
All those folks chasing lawn scraps with leaf blowers and NOT wearing  
plugs....half the people I knew when I used
to work on printing presses....or in factories....huh? whattedhesay?

I started wearing custom fit ear plugs on stage because too many of  
our club gigs required very tight stage plots.
I was often standing with the back of my head at ride cymbal level,  
right in front of the drums.  Even with a sensitive
and cooperative drummer, w/o the ear plugs, I'd consistently over  
play, over sing, and end up with a sore throat
and a splitting headache.  Even when the band cooperates to limit  
over all stage volume, you may still be dealing
with too much noise and not enough signal.

Bose PA systems, in-ear monitors, or going with a one-large-diaphragm- 
condenser-mic-in-the-middle set up....
all are reasonable ways of favoring the signal over the noise. Some  
cost more than others, and some work better
than others in different venues.  Clubs that favor large, loud,  
crowds and want you to compete for their attention...
well, that's a fight that your ears will lose...it may take a month,  
a year, or half a career, but your ears will lose.

I have found that when I want to argue in favor of the signal over  
the noise,
it helps when I know if those I'm trying to persuade already consider  
the noise to be a large, defining part of the signal.
If so, I can adjust my strategy...but in nearly every case, be it  
band members or club owners, or people in the audience,
it's an argument I'm less and less willing to have.  I just don't  
play those gigs anymore.

Now will someone please, please, please answer that phone that's been  
ringing for the past hour??????


-Will