Marshall Chasin

Marshall Chasin, AuD, is an audiologist and the Director of Auditory Research at the Musicians’ Clinics of Canada, Adjunct Professor at the University of Toronto (in Linguistics), Associate Professor in the School of Communication Disorders and Sciences at the Western University. He is the author of over 200 articles and 7 books including Musicians and the Prevention of Hearing Loss. Dr. Chasin has been the recipient of many awards over the years including the 2012 Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Award for service to Canada and the Canada 150 Medal in 2017. He has developed a new TTS app called Temporary Hearing Loss Test app.

January 13th – the anniversary of the passing of Steven Foster

Marshall Chasin

Steven Foster died on January 13 in 1864 at the age of 37 (1826-1864). Reports are inconsistent; some say that he was a godly man who never drank while other reports said he was an alcoholic and died from complications. What is known is that his brother Morrison sought to white-wash Steven’s reputation after his death to protect the family

Star Wars and a return to the low-frequency side of the Force- part 2

Marshall Chasin

In part 1 of this blog series, the use of 80 Hz was discussed as an important part of the force in Star Wars. Even Darth Vader knew that an 80 Hz rumble would enhance his control over the dark side but in 1977 (Episode IV) this would have been difficult. If Darth Vader had survived episode VI and was back

Pour l’amour de l’ASL

Marshall Chasin

Par John Bisson Je suis réellement heureux d’être instructeur de l’American Sign Language (ASL) (langage gestuel américain) à la SCO. J’adore le langage, la culture des sourds, l’enseignement et l’apprentissage et j’espère pouvoir inciter des étudiants du langage à devenir interprètes. Je n’ai pas toujours été sûr de mon identité comme personne malentendante. Je suis né à New Liskeard, Ontario,

Star Wars and a return to the low-frequency side of the Force- part 1

Marshall Chasin

I just saw Star Wars and I will not give you my opinion of it, nor let the cat out of the bag about any plot details but it seems that this third generation of Star Wars now uses an 80 Hz rumble whenever the force is used. It’s always amazing how non-speech and non-music sound effects, or FX, can

Best of Hear the Music: American Pharoah and Hearing Protection

Marshall Chasin

I am off on holidays this week, but hope you will enjoy this top post from Hear the Music in 2015. This past week, American Pharoah won the third leg of horse racing’s Triple Crown. The last time that this was accomplished was 37 years ago, and the time before that was 41 years ago by Secretariat. (Secretariat’s trainer

Touchable Music

Marshall Chasin

In a recent Reuters news release there was an item about touchable holograms. This is actually quite neat and conjures up images of the holodeck on “Star Trek-The Next Generation”. For the one or two people in the universe that don’t know about the holodeck, it’s a room (below, left) fitted out with holographic projectors and can create any number

A New Reference Test Gain Standard for Hearing Aids and Music- Part 2

Marshall Chasin

The reference test gain is a child of the ANSI S3.22 hearing aid standard (and the equivalent European IEC standard) and is that gain setting where many hearing aid tests are performed. This includes measures of internal noise, distortion, and the frequency response of the hearing aid. In part one of this blog series about the reference test

Mes 1 000 prochaines années

Marshall Chasin

Par Robert Kendrick Un nouveau millénaire pointait à l’horizon lorsque mon monde a changé. Vous souvenez-vous de ces histoires de catastrophe imminente inondant les nouvelles à propos du passage de 1999 à l’an 2000. Tous nos ordinateurs allaient-ils tomber en panne? Notre monde technologique allait-il imploser? La vie telle que nous la connaissions allait-elle prendre fin? Et bien, la mienne

A new reference test gain standard for music? Part 1

Marshall Chasin

Audiologists are quite aware of the ANSI standard S3.22 (and the equivalent IEC European standard) which specifies how to report whether a hearing aid works or doesn’t work. This is not a performance standard that states that a hearing aid should work in a specific way; but just a reporting standard on how to perform each test and then make conclusions

Musicians are not good listeners – or maybe it’s us?

Marshall Chasin

Hearing loss prevention is just that – hearing loss prevention. What can be done today to ensure that 30 years from now you will still be able to hear, at least relatively well? We can tell a musician that they should turn down the volume, but they won’t listen to us – they are just not good listeners. Actually, it’s