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Hi all! This post is a bit pre-emptive as I don’t yet use hearing aids, but my hearing is deteriorating. It has caused me to think what it will be like when I reach that stage when my partner ‘strongly encourages’ me to get them after being repeatedly asked to repeat herself. Now that songwriting and home recording is an all-consuming hobby, what is it like to record and mix with poor hearing or while wearing hearing aids, or do you pull them out while doing it? I’d love to hear from anyone that has navigated this transition, what your experiences were, and what recommendations you would have. I do a lot of headphone mixing, so considering open back headphones to reduce ear fatigue. I feel my hearing is worse in my left ear. Is there any tech that helps compensate for this when mixing etc., or is it a case of being more visually attentive to meters when mixing? Thanks in advance for any comments. EDIT: DrDan let me know this topic has already been discussed, so I have included the URL here to that thread: General Discussion > Off Topic > 850344 Andrew
Last edited by Andrew Dee; 08/12/25 10:45 PM.
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Been there and done that. It is a long dark journey and hearing only tends to deteriorate with age. The hearing aids will help with those conversations you still need to have until you don't need to have them any longer. But as far as music mixing I have nothing good to tell you. You really can mix only what you hear. I never heard of viewing the meters as a substitute. At the end the volume knob will be your best friend in mixing. Sorry for the gloom and doom prediction. I am going through something at this time.  Do a search for key words in the forums here. This topic has been dicussed at some length in the past year.
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I use hearing aids. I'm sure you know that your technician will 'tune' the balance and frequency response curve to your needs. I bought a type that allows separate left/right volume adjustments, since (as I assume is common) one ear has considerably worse hearing than the other. To explain, I am aware of another style of hearing aids where you tap one ear to increase the volume, or the other ear to decrease the volume, but BOTH ears are affected. This would not work for me.
I do not and would not mix with headphones. I only use them as one way of checking a mix. Wearing hearing aids doesn't present any problem when listening through closed headphones; just watch your gain. I used to love open headphones (unless tracking) but find the pads rubbing against the hearing aid (mine are over the ear, not in-ear) makes a bit of noise with any motion.
For live performances, since I play horns, I remove the hearing aid from the better ear, so I can better hear the ambience of how I sound in the room or hall.
I don't know if any of that helped you, but good luck.
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Been there and done that. It is a long dark journey and hearing only tends to deteriorate with age. The hearing aids will help with those conversations you still need to have until you don't need to have them any longer. But as far as music mixing I have nothing good to tell you. You really can mix only what you hear. I never heard of viewing the meters as a substitute. At the end the volume knob will be your best friend in mixing. Sorry for the gloom and doom prediction. I am going through something at this time. Do a search for key words in the forums here. This topic has been dicussed at some length in the past year. Thanks Dan - I didn't think to search Off Topic. So, I have included the link here and will edit my OP to include it. I'm glad I asked early so I can plan ahead. Andrew
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I use hearing aids. I'm sure you know that your technician will 'tune' the balance and frequency response curve to your needs. I bought a type that allows separate left/right volume adjustments, since (as I assume is common) one ear has considerably worse hearing than the other. ... I used to love open headphones (unless tracking) but find the pads rubbing against the hearing aid (mine are over the ear, not in-ear) makes a bit of noise with any motion.
...
I don't know if any of that helped you, but good luck. Thanks Matt!. When the time comes, I might investigate headphones so see if there are any that have more 'clearance' - if that's such a thing. I have to keep the noise down so that my wife can hear Netflix. Andrew
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I use Beyerdynamic 770 headphones, which have plenty of clearance.
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There are headphones that can be calibrated aa well as plugins for 'phones and studio monitors. Here's a recent discussion on this. For those with damaged hearing
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There are a couple or three people I've collaborated with on the forum who wear aids. You wouldn't know it from their mixes.They don't mix with headphones either. Good aids well calibrated is what they tell me they use.
I've some hearing loss, as expected for a 68 year old. More in the left ear than the right. Self awareness and diagnosis helped. I know which freqs are effected and the extent...both added to by tinnitus. Forums like this one also help...another set of, TRUSTED, ears to check things for you. Once you are aware of those folks that seem to have good ears and can communicate what they hear rather than jolly back patters you'll know whose suggestions to follow up on. After that metering can help a bit...not too much though.
Last edited by rayc; 08/13/25 01:41 PM.
Cheers
rayc
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Like many people, I have tinnitus and a marked reduced hearing curve in the higher frequencies where my tinnitus lives. (Guns and guitars)
I've come to trust my tools and have learned that what I might hear as not as crispy as I'd like, is often within the acceptable normal range for the majority of people.
Many of the modern mastering plugs now do a lot of the EQ for you and put the mix right where it needs to be.
You can find my music at: www.herbhartley.comAdd nothing that adds nothing to the music. You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both. The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.
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Caveat: I have mixed since the 60's and never used headphones at the board so the following is based on speakers. I have what is technically described as a profound hearing loss in each ear. I'm well schooled on over the counter aids and aids via audiologists, etc., and I have explored many options over the past 12 years since I started wearing them. Firstly irrespective of what your audiogram indicates your provider cannot enter your phenomenology. You know your hearing experience. Many audiologists are overly conversation oriented. Why, because most folks want to hear conversations in a variety of environments. Nothing wrong with that. But it’s a bit different for musicians and music producers. And many of the presets used will not offer the enhancement musicians desire even the ones claimed to be for music. I was lucky to have started with a young Ph.D. audiologist who was quite intrigued by my knowledge of eq, compression, etc. Bottom line is together we created a preset that I use for listening to and creating music. With the typical configurations I would not hear high hats, cymbals and much more. And you can add many birds, tree frogs and more nature sounds to that.  Over time I have gotten so used to the preset that I use it most of the time. I have found, as have other music folks, that the settings to enhance conversation are often to the detriment of listening to music - at least from the perspective that us music makers need. All I’m babbling about is that a quick fitting at Costco, etc., may not work for you. Use your ears and tell them what you are hearing. After you get fitted sit down at the DAW and listen while changing eq and compression settings. Take notes and hope you will have an audiologist or associate who is willing to work with you. It changed my life. Bud
Our albums and singles are on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, Pandora and more. If interested search on Janice Merritt. Thanks! Our Videos
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Fortunately, I have no hearing issues that I’m aware of, but I am an engineer and engineers think about solutions. So, being relatively ignorant in this domain, here is my vision.
Imagine a hearing aid that doesn’t just amplify sound in a gross sense, but dynamically sculpts it; section by section of the spectrum so that every nuance of your favorite track or live performance emerges in perfect clarity. By combining user-driven EQ feedback with adaptive optimization algorithms (on a smart phone interface for example) musicians could train their hearing aids in minutes to addres their highly personal hearing deficit and sonic preferences. This could be done song by song or genre by genre, or studio monitor vs headphones, or live concert setting, or combinations of the above, etc. Near-zero latency DSP on the device might be required, but hardware advances are happening all the time.
Much like we have 20-20kHz EQ capabilities in our DAWs to sculpt tracks in our mix to our liking, so too we’d be able to sculpt what we hear on-demand as the various situations in our sonic environments require. Think, any effects plugin available in your DAW would be available onboard in this “hearing aid” system.
As a practical matter I could see such a system generating 5 or so candidate multi-band EQ curves that the user would judge or rank as to how pleasing they are for a particular piece of music. If the most pleasing of these curves is good enough it’s done. If not, a second or third pass would further refine it to what it is you want.
Then as a refinement to this you’d just say “boost the hi-hat” or “enhance the female vocals” and it (possibly via AI) would know exactly where and how to adjust.
I’m assuming that such a system does not yet exist and that today’s hearing aid technology is limited to hard presets for quiet conversation, conversations filled with background noise, TV watching, driving a car, all-purpose, etc.
Just an idea . . .
https://soundcloud.com/user-646279677BiaB 2026 Windows For me there’s no better place in the band than to have one leg in the harmony world and the other in the percussive. Thank you Paul Tutmarc and Leo Fender.
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Same experience here. My audiologist listens to me and makes the adjustments I ask for, which is nice. Due to go in again in a couple weeks, and I have notes this time
I do not work here, but the benefits are still awesome
Make your sound your own!
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Matt, Mike, Ray, Herb, Bud, Steve …
Thanks for sharing your experiences, suggestions and recommendations. This thread, coupled with another earlier thread on this topic has been an eye-opener for me - or should I say ear-opener? I’m just glad that I live in a time where these options exist and continuing to develop.
I did several online tests - as good as they are - and confirmed that both ears have a significant drop from 5K upwards. I don’t tend to dabble with the EQ at the high end so maybe it’s not a problem, but I’m going to start asking for feedback when I post new songs. The idea of looking for an audiologist with music insights here in Adelaide is one that I’m going to pursue, and what the hearing aid options are. I like Bassthumper’s ideas - surely there’s a market for such tech?
Anyway, thanks for your input!
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With my Spark Amplifier, I simply connect my tablet to it via bluetooth. With the Tablet running the Spark software, I can select from a variety of amp models.... all with different tones and characteristics, add pedals for compression, gain, EQ, reverb, phasing and more. I can then save it as a preset to recall as needed.
Why not the same sort of thing for hearing aids as BT was alluding? This would allow the user to customize the device for the purpose. Maybe even save a number of presets that you could cycle through by pressing a button on the device while it announced internally.... Conversation mode. TV listening mode. Music listening mode. Music mixing mode. Etc....
Or maybe this already exists and I don't realize it?
You can find my music at: www.herbhartley.comAdd nothing that adds nothing to the music. You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both. The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.
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Maybe even save a number of presets that you could cycle through by pressing a button on the device while it announced internally.... Conversation mode. TV listening mode. Music listening mode. Music mixing mode. Etc....
Or maybe this already exists and I don't realize it? They exist already I'm lucky, neither of my ears has any dips or other problems, but my wife needs a hearing aid for one ear, and this one actually has presets for conversations, watching TV, talking on the phone and what not, and you can even create your own presets with the accompanying phone app. It's amazing that these tiny in-ear headphones can communicate with a phone via Bluetooth.
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Maybe even save a number of presets that you could cycle through by pressing a button on the device while it announced internally.... Conversation mode. TV listening mode. Music listening mode. Music mixing mode. Etc....
Or maybe this already exists and I don't realize it? They exist already I'm lucky, neither of my ears has any dips or other problems, but my wife needs a hearing aid for one ear, and this one actually has presets for conversations, watching TV, talking on the phone and what not, and you can even create your own presets with the accompanying phone app. It's amazing that these tiny in-ear headphones can communicate with a phone via Bluetooth. My faith in technology is renewed
You can find my music at: www.herbhartley.comAdd nothing that adds nothing to the music. You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both. The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.
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It's amazing that these tiny in-ear headphones can communicate with a phone via Bluetooth. Indeed ... the company for which I worked from early 70s had previously made hearing aids, at one time with those tiny puffed-wheat sized tubes and by the early 50s with some of the first production transistors. Now then have two transducers, battery, digital sound processing and bluetooth including its antenna, all in an in-ear sized device. I continue to be amazed by these apparently mundane little devices.
Jazz relative beginner, starting at a much older age than was helpful.
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Now then have two transducers, battery, digital sound processing and bluetooth including its antenna, all in an in-ear sized device. I continue to be amazed by these apparently mundane little devices. Alien technology.
You can find my music at: www.herbhartley.comAdd nothing that adds nothing to the music. You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both. The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.
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Now then have two transducers, battery, digital sound processing and bluetooth including its antenna, all in an in-ear sized device. I continue to be amazed by these apparently mundane little devices. Alien technology. Nope ... Engineers.  Mind you I have sometimes been described as from another planet, and sometimes I almost wonder myself ... usually when I try to explain something and find I'd need to spend a couple of hours just explaining the context and the principles and they glaze over in two minutes. Ho Hum.
Jazz relative beginner, starting at a much older age than was helpful.
AVL:MXE Linux; Windows 11
BIAB2026 Audiophile, a bunch of other software.
Kawai MP6, Ui24R, Focusrite Saffire Pro40 and Scarletts
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Nope ... Engineers. Mind you I have sometimes been described as from another planet, and sometimes I almost wonder myself ... usually when I try to explain something and find I'd need to spend a couple of hours just explaining the context and the principles and they glaze over in two minutes. Ho Hum. You and me too brother. I've [tried] to give up on asking people what their favorite probability density function is, or if they want to engage in a nerdathon on fast radio bursts, the subtlties of where AI is right now, the joy of discussing neuro-transmitter chemicals or pretty much anything STEM. When they can't understand what a white paper is or can't understand the scientific method they roll their eyes, and so do I. I do have a choice set of friends that enjoy such dialog, but some are aging and tire easily. And I know my time will come soon enough. Oh well, if I'm from a distant galaxy so be it. I count it a gain; Mr. Spock and Data might agree This looks interesting https://royalsociety.org/
https://soundcloud.com/user-646279677BiaB 2026 Windows For me there’s no better place in the band than to have one leg in the harmony world and the other in the percussive. Thank you Paul Tutmarc and Leo Fender.
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