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How can I protect my hearing as DJ or Music Producer?

How can I protect my hearing as DJ or Music Producer? play video
Written by: Dexxter Clark
Being able to hear is the most important asset as a DJ and even more so as a music producer.
Your entire career depends on how well you can hear.
The number one physical health issue for DJs is noise induced hearing loss.

If you are experiencing the first symptoms, you are already too late, because it is irreversible.

What is Noise induced hearing loss?

A common misconception is that high pitched sounds are the cause of hearing loss.

That is not the case, it is the bass sounds.
In your cochlea, tiny sensitive hairs translate the sound they perceive into an electric signal by vibrating.

That signal is translated by your brain to a sound, so you can ‘hear’.
But, when you expose those tiny hairs to sound that is too loud, those hairs get ‘scared’ and lie down.
The hairs that are lying down are touching each other and make an electric short.

That short causes a high pitched tone in your ‘ear’.

When you are younger, you have bigger chance of recovering from that and the noise will disappear after a couple of hours (if the sound wasn’t too loud).

This is still dangerous, even if your ears recover, because there is a day when it is permanent.
If it’s permanent you have tinnitus, that means: always a high pitched sound in your ear!
If you have tinnitus the hairs in your cochlea can’t vibrate enough to perceive a clear loud sound, a.k.a. you have hearing loss.




Tinnitus can drive people crazy!

Imagine you have to listen to a high pitched sound whole day long: when you are in your car, talking to your girlfriend, when you are having sex and especially when you go for a quiet walk and when you go to sleep.

I said that the bass sounds are the culprit.

This is because the hairs in your cochlea that receive bass tones are the first hairs that perceive sound in your cochlea, so the first that are getting damaged.

Further down the organ the higher pitched sounds are perceived.

If you have tinnitus you are not stone death.

The way you perceive sound is different, especially challenging for a the music producer.

Higher pitched sounds are more hurtful, like “s”-sounds or the sound of the crappy speakers in your 2000,- euro Macbook Pro, or the sound of glasses you put in you dishwasher.
The funny thing is, although you hear less, you have an extra big dip around the 4000 Hz in the frequency spectrum.

This means you have to compensate for that in your music productions.


But hey, you can make it easier on yourself and just wear hearing protection in a club.

If you are serious about DJing and want to take it to the next level on the CDJ,
you should check out my CDJ 2000 video course.

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photo author dexxter clark
Dexxter Clark
Music Producer / YouTuber

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