Hearing is one of the essential auditory senses for us, but sadly it can get damaged at any point in our life. Therefore, hearing health is one of the prerequisites of everyday life and getting on with things comfortably. Especially people in the music sector need perfect hearing health more than anyone else, as they have to listen properly to what they are trying to create. So, suppose if any musician or music producer faces hearing loss to some degree. In that case, it is vital to take measures to prevent further problems that affect your work and daily life. Still, your career is entirely dependent on your hearing ability if you are a music producer.
How Hearing Loss Affects Musicians
Musicians need to have an excellent hearing ability to compose new music, as compositions usually include vocal tracks and multiple instruments running simultaneously Therefore, great hearing is essential whether you’re singing, playing an instrument, or mixing the song.
However, the harsh reality is that musicians are always at significant risk of hearing loss. Phil Collins, Pete Townsend, and Chris Martin were heard as suffering from hearing loss or tinnitus. It shouldn’t be a surprise if musicians face hearing loss due to long-term exposure to loud noise in the studio and on tours.
Musicians tend to have progressive hearing loss in many cases. Even if a hearing loss might be mild right now, it can gradually worsen to higher degrees. So, it is a must to take steps if there’re symptoms of hearing loss.
Professional Musicians Need Professional Technology
When you are a professional musician with hearing loss problems and have to work with music all the time, you can’t just get on with general hearing aids. Even though available hearing aids collections might help you listen to music and watch shows or movies without any trouble, you need better and more enhanced OTC (over-the-counter) hearing aids while you are constantly working to create or produce music. You need to understand every note, change in rhythm, drop in tone, and other stuff to pursue a professional career in music, and if you have hearing loss problems, it becomes challenging, but you can still do it. However, you’ll need hearing aids behind the ear with professional technology that will particularly help you in music and help you pursue your career in the music industry properly. You can’t do so with generic hearing aids. So hearing aids specially made for music professionals are needed here.
Speech Versus Music
There are many common grounds between music spectra and speech, and there are many differences too. And it’s the same case for the intuitive requirements for music and speech too. Speech is usually a better-controlled spectrum with predictable and established perceptual characteristics than music. On the other hand, the scopes of music are variable on a higher number, and the intuitive requirements of music can differ based on a musician and their instrument.
Usually, manufacturers design hearing aids where the aid’s primary focus’ acoustic signal is speech. And for that, you can’t use them for music too; you’ll need different technology. Manufacturing hearing aids that will work better for music too can be quite a tough job. However, generic hearing aids can use specific parameters to amplify of a musical signal of high fidelity. And the thresholds of the compression detector can also be increased, and compressors can also defer. And these might improve the usefulness of these hearing aids for singers and musicians with hearing loss problems. Hearing aids need to allow the users to adjust it easily to gain requirements to listen and understand music.
What the Audiologist Suggests
If you are a musician and facing obstacles in your career due to hearing loss problems, you must consult with an audiologist to help you determine your next steps. However, an audiologist will suggest the proper hearing aids that will best suit your needs in order to pursue your career properly, and help you adapt to the new systems and fits. Also, the audiologist will sit with you to understand what type of setting you need from hearing aids by letting you play your preferred instruments. Then, let you work in your usual way to find the best possible setting and fit for you to have an excellent career in music despite hearing loss problems.
Relieve Tinnitus with Music
You might not know, but music can help to get rid of some hearing problems too. There is a specific hearing problem called tinnitus, and when someone suffers from it, they tend to listen to a buzzing, beeping, or ringing sound in their ears constantly, even though there isn’t any source for these sounds around. To help patients with these problems, there is a particular type of hearing aid. Tinnitus hearing aids use “tinnitus masking” to help people with tinnitus to get relieved of it. And in tinnitus masking, special sound effects or music is used to divert the patient’s hearing so that they can learn to ignore the buzzing sound they’ve heard due to tinnitus. So, through the tinnitus masking process, music can indeed help relieve tinnitus.
Hearing Aids For Music Lovers
If you are a musician or music producer, you must take care of the problem efficiently and quickly, as hearing loss is too severe of an issue for you. However, if an audiologist determines that you are suffering from hearing loss, hearing aids are most likely the best possible solution. As you can’t grow your hearing back naturally, you can enhance your hearing ability by using hearing aids. They won’t only increase your hearing; they’ll also keep your hearing healthy and safe from further damage.
In-The-Ear (ITE) hearing aids are preferred mainly by the musicians of the three main hearing aids, as these hearing aids fit perfectly in the ear canal. Among the others, there are also headphones with hearing aids. The behind-the-ear (BTE) hearing aids don’t catch the noise if you play through headphones. Also, you can prefer in-the-canal (ITC) hearing aids, as they provide a natural and good listening experience.
Some hearing aid features and styles are designed specifically for musicians and your audiologist might also help you choose the best options for your specific needs. The best hearing aids for musicians feature technological advancements, which can provide huge convenience to musicians.
Modern music hearing aids can distinguish between music and voices, and process them differently to provide better clarity to the user. And they can also process a more extensive resolution range. Sound therapy and aural rehab can also be used cooperatively with hearing aids, but choosing an ideal device is the best option.
Hearing Aid Adjustments for Musicians
There are some adjustment options for the hearing aids for musicians, which can be vital while during setting the aids correctly. These adjustment options are:
Peak Input Limiting Level
Peak input levels are significant while you want to select selected electroacoustic parameters ideal for enjoying enhanced music via your hearing aids. Many hearing aids have a clipper or a limiter, which stops sounds above 85-90 dB SPL from getting through it effectively. But these days, advanced hearing aids mostly feature peak input limiting levels of 100-105 dB SPL.
Compression
Compression of hearing aids is used to turn louder sounds down, exceeding a set volume level. It reduces a sound’s dynamic range, and it is also used to provide a person with hearing loss with more audible sounds. However, less compression is recommended for music that is more natural-sounding.
Feedback Reduction Systems
As the music’s spectral intensity is greater than speech, the feedback received by the aids is not much of an issue. It’s less than speech typically in the cases of inputs of a higher level. But feedback in various cases, or you won’t be able to disable the feedback circuit in music programs. Also, having systems utilizing a reduction method for gain in the hearing aid can be the best for music.
Noise Reduction
It’s best to disable the noise reduction system of the hearing aid while listening to music. The signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is usually quite favorable, so noise reduction is unnecessary. However, you can’t disable the noise reduction system for some hearing aids. As the primary benefit for noise reduction systems is to improve listening comfort rather than reducing noise, choosing an approach with minimal effect might be beneficial.
Hearing Aid Fitting Settings for Professional Musicians
To have the perfect fitting settings of the hearing aids for a musician, the audiologist will understand what music is to the musician they are sitting with. There are so many variables like the instrument type, room acoustics, orchestra or group size, and the style of music. This difference directly impacts the music’s acoustic properties, such as the long-term standard spectrum, dynamic range, or crest factor. So, having a definitive solution for all the musicians out there with hearing loss problems is impossible.
An audiologist can perfect the fitting of hearing aids of a musician by letting them work with the instrument they play during the hearing aid settings fitting session. The musicians can provide direct feedback and live adjustments to the audiologist during the session that will allow them to use the hearing aids to their full technological potential until they listen to their instrument the way they want to hear it. Even though this approach is alluring and might lead to better gratification in clinical settings, it's impossible to generalize the findings of a clinical setting to various other listening situations, such as when they rehearse, practice, or perform in multiple musical setups.
Finding a Community of Musicians with Hearing Loss
The AAMHL or the Association of Adult Musicians with Hearing Loss can help you find your fellow musicians with hearing loss. Being in the community of musicians with hearing loss can help you pursue your career with the same enthusiasm and confidence despite your hearing loss problems.
This association allows musicians to come together from all over the USA, help each other in various ways, and even organize shows to perform together. Being a musician with hearing loss, you can meet others who have experienced similar things as you and who’ll understand what you are going through and the other preconceived notions that are associated with hearing loss. Here you can learn from others about making your peace using hearing aids and how to properly make music by using them to your advantage, even though the hearing aids can’t fully help you with that. So, you’ll need to learn to adapt, and the community can help you a lot with that.
Final Words
If you have a career in music, good hearing ability is crucial for you. So, make sure to take measures as soon as possible if you find out you have hearing loss to some degree. And the hearing aids mentioned in the list can help you with that. You can easily choose one from the list, as all of them are of excellent quality.
Frequently Asked Questions:
Q: Can hearing aids play music?
Ans: Yes, they can. You can always tune your hearing aids into a wireless stereo headset. Thanks to the Looping systems that serve as wireless loudspeakers which stream audio waves for voice calls, sounds, and external noise.
Q: How do you reduce background noise in a hearing aid?
Ans: Hearing aid with the latest technology has adaptive noise reduction to provide less amplification to noise than speech. This can be achieved by adjusting the amplifiers and identifying the intensity of noise, which creates the event of inaudible or excessive noise.
