Interesting special issue of Mix Magazine

[lazzaro <lazzaro@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi everyone,

	The May issue of Mix Magazine -- full-text online free here:

http://mixonline.com/issue_20070501/

	is a special issue on health hazards in audio workplaces.
One article is on hearing damage due to in-ear monitoring for
artists playing on amplified stages caught my eye:

http://mixonline.com/live/applications/audio_quiet_stage/

	The article was a surprise to me -- I would think that in-ear  
monitoring
would always be healthier than having high-volume speaker wedges on  
the floor
aimed at your head.  But its not always so.  It seems common on tours  
to find that
the volume level set by the artists in their in-ear monitors  
increases as the tour
goes on -- a bad sign.

	There are several causes discussed in the article, but the meta-issue
seems to be that no one has the knowledge to set the levels  
correctly.  The front-of-house
mixer can't tell how much leakage is getting through the ear-canal  
seal.  And so, the
artists take control of their own levels, and tend to err on the side  
of too loud --
due to adaptation, I would guess, not to mention pre-occupation with  
performing.

---
John Lazzaro
http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~lazzaro
lazzaro [at] cs [dot] berkeley [dot] edu
---