Curse of the recording engineer

[Hugh G. Rection]

Ever notice how your favorite engineer's mixes get louder and brighter
over the years or how their original mixes from back in the day sound wonderful
played back flat but when that same engineer remasters the music
it suddenly gets aggressive, loud and bright to the point of being unlistenable?

The curse.

Can't really be helped. Most recording and mixing engineers listen back to music clippingly loud
and for years on end. Eventually, a neutrality becomes pointless and barely audible to some
of these guys. Sad but true.

One famous engineer I truly admire recently played back a mix he did in the 1960s and
stated that the high end must have evaporated from the tape due to its age.
Uhh, actually it sounds fine but when the hearing goes, it goes.

 

[NickL]

6kHz is the first area to go in your hearing, thus the brightness

 

[ahjteam]

6kHz is the first area to go in your hearing, thus the brightness

more like the +15khz

 

[John_C]

all those highs do go with long exposure. However, the 2-5khz area is very sensitive to damage as the shape of the ear gives a 12dB boost at ~3.5kHz when measured at the eardrum.

 

[B36arin]

This is why it's very important to have references when you mix.

 

[NickL]

more like the +15khz

Fletcher-Munson curves aside, when audiologists look for noise-induced hearing loss they look for a dip at 6kHz

 

[-Noodles-]

between 4-6KHz is where the hearing goes first.

High end disappears due to age, but with AEs usually 4-6KHz goes due to sustained SPLs in that regions (guitars, snares, vox..). My audiologist described it as the "rock n roll effect".

 

[Arsenu,]

noise induced hearing loss occures at approximately 4khz which is the band whose in charge of clarity and that's why you seem to understand less what people are saying to you.
the high end deteriorates with time even if you won't hear any loud noises in your life at all, thus the brighter mixes come with old age.

off topic: besides hearing loss, the ear has a defence machanisem which is triggered by loud noises which reduces overall volume at all frequencies for about 2-3 weeks when it's triggered.
hence the increase in your mp3 volume to maximum since everytime you turn up the volume the ears "get used" to the louder volume and reduce the hearing threshold.
tip: if you let your ears rest for a week or two after hearing really loud music could actually hear mp3 in decent volume and accecp it as loud enough.

 

[aramism]

tell this aging stuff to andy wallace lol

 

[>>>GENZ<<<]

so we got that modern bright sound just because big mixer guys go deaf,,,
what a bullshit.