Thriving in Music With Hearing Damage: How to Beat Tinnitus & Hearing Loss (w Jack Rubinacci)

[@The_Last_Hard_Drive]

Music was my identity and my value from 1998 to 2010. In 2009 I developed such terrible Tinnitus that I walked away from music. It sent me into a deep depression and I had to reinvent myself. At the start of this year, I started working on music again. Its been a difficult, but a rewarding experience. I wish we had resources like this back when I first got my Tinnitus.

[@SonicScoop]

Thanks so much for sharing your story. Best wishes with this new phase of your journey! You are not alone. -Justin

[@Atezian]

I'm 26 and have been fairly careful about loud noise. I rarely go to live concerts now but when I was younger about 15, I saw parkway drive and some other metal bands and I remember I had ringing for about 2 days after that. That was when I knew I had to avoid loud noises and later learnt about NIHL around 18 years old. I'm noticing that openback headphones that I bought last year seem to be causing me very slight temporary tinnitus at medium volume levels. I never had this with closed back headphones. I'm a bit concerned however I'm not sure if my ears are overly sensitive and it's just my bodies reaction, or if the openbacks sound quieter than they actually are and that they are actually louder than I think they are. Either way I am trying to teach my ears what music sounds like at quieter volumes everyday so as to obtain longevity during working on audio.

[@leftoverking]

i flip my headphones back and forth to double check mixes all the time! i have mid and high damage on one side due to years standing next to a super hard hitting drummer. i have heard of some new advances in tinnitus research that suggest it can be corrected.

[@JoeLSoL]

Tinnitus is no joke. I’ve been suffering from tinnitus in one ear since the year 2000 when someone at my first real job as a dishwasher played a prank at work by creating a small bubble from a plastic wrap material. It was so loud when he popped it behind me next to my ear, it sounded like a gunshot. I literally had ringing in the right ear and sensitivity to sound for the next year. I later realized I lost some high frequency hearing with damage to the small hair cells in the ear. Back then the hospital only tested for normal hearing range and not the high frequencies like they do now. At the time, I fell into depression because my plan was to go to audio engineering school. Life happened and chose a different career and always wondered how my life would have been if I studied audio in the year 2000. I never gave up on music as in 2010 I produced my own Spanish album as a goal to record 10 songs and hire a mix engineer to record and mix my album. A goal I met and still proud of today. I do know that as time goes on your body adjusts to deficiencies such as mild hearing loss so you work harder to listen to small details and perfect them. Now, I try to mix and master my own productions as a hobby and enjoy doing it. Being a music lover is great, realizing how important and sensitive our sense of hearing is at such a young age makes you appreciate the fact to take care of your hearing.

[@SonicScoop]

Thanks so much for sharing your story! So glad you were still able to craft a life where music plays an important role. -Justin

[@charlienyc1]

I listened to the podcast version of this, and could not get the image of Robert Plant out of my head when hearing Jack's voice. Great episode. Thanks, Justin!

[@castawaymusic144]

I always use the foam inserts when attending any stadium these days. In LA, SoFi and Crypto stadiums are so loud. 59 years old. My Tinnitus is right at 9K. I always have to mix with this in mind otherwise my mixes are way too bright. Great Topic!!

[@thomasurbanevents]

I have chronic low end and highend tinnitus from exposure and a series of infections that followed a perforated ear drum. some basic advice although seemingly obvious it should still be said. never check a speaker with your ears. always test using meters and analysers. never stand directly in front of a high powered speaker or system without hearing protection including line arrays. I have seen people's ears blow out with a rake of a guitar through an efficient speaker system. I ended up with a mix of spikey tinnitus tones across 300 to 6.5k and the top end noise is just a constant white noise. I found that some ear training similar to what I did in my early audio engineering days of listening to tones or spike frequencies on instruments helped retrain my brain. selecting a tone that your tinnitus is producing and matching that tone with a generator by playing it back in both ears on headphones and then with harmonics at random intervals and in random sequences helps form new naural pathways. I did this at low volumes for sessions lasting 15minutes to 1.5 hours long. if you are A symmetric the binaural relationship may help form connections in the other ear. I found that some frequencies altered how the tinnitus reacted. in some case a tone sounded split. I found it help the tones I was hearing between 600 and 6.5k and the split tone phenomenon went away. as for the horrible low stuff and the not so bothered with end stuff it's just management.

[@castawaymusic144]

I've found that when my blood pressure is up so is my Tinnitus. Keeping my blood pressure down (normal) really helps the ringing stay down substantially.

[@soranahmed7174]

🎉🎉🎉

[@aaroncafaro2]

"The only thing giving your tinnitus energy is you." ...... wow, that's so profound & very helpful. This is by far some of the best content on hearing loss & tinnitus I've ever seen. Great work with this one, Justin.

[@SonicScoop]

Awesome, so glad it was useful Aaron! Very best, Justin

[@AVDRE]

ever since I saw house of kush video on hearing loss I've been super careful about my ears when it comes to loudness. wish i started to protect them sooner! such an important topic!

[@Erix77]

This is right up my alley👍 I've been playing drums(black metal) for 20 years, so I have quite severe tinitus....

[@SonicScoop]

Not uncommon! Hope the episode is useful to you. Are you able to manage it OK? Very best, Justin

[@DavidAndrewsPEC]

you-stay-shun- YVW :)

[@shooten1st]

My tinnitus got much worse after COVID. I don't know if anyone else has experienced this but apparently it's an after effect for a few people. It's probably physiological IMO...

[@DavidAndrewsPEC]

What Jack says makes sense to me. I have both tinnitus and OCD. Nice combo, no? Well ... what I learned about dealing with the intrusive thoughts applies every bit as much to the tinnitus: acknowledge/accept existence, but do not attend to.

[@Atezian]

1:04:29 on the topic of triggers. I've noticed that alcohol does cause my ears to ring. Again, I'm not diagnosed or someone who experiences tinnitus regularly, however, being in a quiet room when I am quite intoxicated by alcohol seems to cause some very real tinnitus for me. From what I've read online, this is caused by an increase in cortisone which increases stress, and also increased blood pressure. The combination of the two are somehow causing the ear nerves to resonate and ring. I suppose it's not so unreal because when you're decently intoxicated by alcohol, at least for me, the whole body is kind of buzzing... for better or worse, which I'm guessing is all the nerves firing.

[@SkySplitterInk]

I have found recently that Alcohol helps my tinnitus. Weed not so much...

[@SkySplitterInk]

I wish it was the other way around though cuz I certainly can't drink all day... haha

[@BrentIraEnman]

I'm 60 best I can do is about 13/14 K and I'll take it. Yea also have full time tinnitus from same thing being a drummer surrounded by marshall stacks for decades!

[@MaraldBes]

Thanks so much for this info, really helpful and calming to know there are many out there in the audio field who suffer from hearing loss or tinnitus as well. I think my tinnitus started because of diving with a small cold and trying to clear my sinuses and ears while descending. They sort of popped as I couldn't easily clear. So my top tip: Never ever dive with even the smallest cold!! Always been quite careful with my ears otherwise. Nowadays using earplugs more and more. But I think (although might be reasonable at the age of 47+) everything above 15kHz is gone for me.

[@SonicScoop]

Thanks so much for sharing your story Marald! -Justin

[@MaraldBes]

@@SonicScoop You're welcome, thanks for all your hard work on the channel and podcasts! Also I forgot to mention, might be interesting for some readers : my wife also has tinnitus which has flared up quite heavily the last year and she tried the Calmer (flareaudio I believe) earbuds. They aim reduce harsh sounds for sensitive people (ADD / ADHD / Autism) and it seems to be working for her as she has less issues with her tinnitus. For around $20, they are definitely worth a try for ppl with these problems.

[@carlos-ni4hn]

justin, could you request the song vette motors by nba for the mix con 2023 ?

[@SonicScoop]

I'll see what I can do! I'm emailing with Jason now, and we'll see what comes of it. Very best, Justin

[@carlos-ni4hn]

@@SonicScoop Yes, let's see if it could be that, I really appreciate it, thank you

[@Erix77]

Did he say he lives in Norway? Me to👍

[@SonicScoop]

He does! -Justin

[@Projacked1]

A good distraction from tinnitus is wind sounds. I suddenly had a more louder beep lately, and I got really careful with my ears about 15 years ago. I measured it around 11.5 K....I can hear higher frequencies still but they have to be loud enough. I noticed that even low levels in my headphones can drive up the tinnitus signal , so to speak. I think it simple revolves around a constant pressure with headphones. So if I do check on headphones it's really short and not loud at all, and/or I swtich to earbuds for a really fast check. It happened to me because of dj-ing and too loud listening at parties. I'm very lucky it isnt worse. DJ's have the tendency to push the cans against their ear with a shoulder. Bad move! Learn to lower the level of the monitors, to where you can hear properly, in combination with the sound in the venue. Which is usually behind P.A. and almost always forces the artist to listen to louder levels. The audio guys don't pay attention to your hearing unless you discuss it with them.

[@quantize]

Take heart , there are people with perfect hearing who make horrible music and mixes...thank you for this video, it cannot be talked about enough - also let us pause to consider the 90's 'rave' generation who are probably experiencing major hearing loss now. Kush's Gregory Scott also has a great video on it. Mozart was deaf writing his final symphony, hearing loss it never the end.

[@Atezian]

Mozart wasn't deaf. Beethoven was.

[@SonicScoop]

I was about to say Beethoven as well, but otherwise, spot on. -Justin