How do you keep from going deaf?

Amadou

Amadou

Carbonite Member
I finished a week of production in which I monitored audio through a headphone plugged into the camera. The input volume was set to 5 out of 10 on channel 1 and 3 out of ten on channel 2. Headphone volume was set on 5. Actors spoke and occasionally screamed. Now my ears a beeping. Somebody has to monitor. How does one keep from going deaf? Even a professional sound recordist would have the same problem. Since most of us do our minitoring ourselves, what do you do to spare your ears while at the same time monitoring the audio? Thank you.
 
Should the recording levels be as close as possible to the red or is it fine if the levels stay in the lower midle?
 
Recording levels and listening levels are not the same thing.
And it depends on what red means, but for most modern equipment no you do not want to be as close to red as possible.
Your peaks should not go over -3 dBfs and in general should be bouncing around in the -12 dBfs range. But it really depends on the dynamics and what you are recording. Doing SFX I push a higher than I would doing dialog.

But there is a headphone level and I set that for what is comfortable. Doesn't always work, I had ear plugs in recording an F-14 and it was so loud it shut down the recorder.
 
I still follow broadcast UK standards for recording and peak at -10 dbfs, (-12dbfs in the USA) I also have my limiters set to that too and it prevents any overload.

If you are overloading the mic input then the -10db pad should be switched in or a -10db XLR adaptor fitted.

Headphone or speaker monitoring level is set and fixed for comfort and after 38 years in the industry I still hear pretty good.
 
Where it can get really loud is on a mix stage. Too many directors are a bit deaf and mixes can get really loud. SZ Film Center used to post the Peak level from the mix and a lot of times it was over 100dB, which is crazy. Mix techs would get custom earplugs, I got fitted for a pair at AES a number of years ago. They are molded to your ears and they are made to cut the sound level evenly across the spectrum. Mine only knock 15dB off so they are not enough for crazy loud, but I carry them everywhere. I also pack the foam construction types if I'm heading to a concert just in case. You ca switch out the filters and they make a 25dB also.
 
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