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.

The ear gets tough- part 1

Marshall Chasin

At the last National Hearing Conservation Association (NHCA) meeting in New Orleans I had the opportunity to run in to Ulf Rosenhall in the elevator. Having never met him, I recognized him by his name tag, and immediately started to tell him about his excellent 1990 study, in perhaps more detail than I should have. Unfortunately for Dr. Rosenhall, his

The Evil Piccolo Player

Marshall Chasin

I had a case last week where a violinist came in complaining about years of violin exposure, and oh yeah, as an afterthought, there is an evil piccolo player to my left. (Actually the piccolo player is very nice, but his instrument is “acoustically evil”.) After taking a case history to ensure that there are no other noise or music

Mick Jagger and his publicists obviously never studied speech sciences

Marshall Chasin

Once upon a time, when he was only 16 years old, Mick Jagger bit off the top of his tongue. There seem to be some confusion whether it was during a basketball game, a soccer game, or during a gymnastics event, but regardless, when he was 16 he bit off the tip of his tongue, or so his publicists say.

Quel est le meilleur instrument de musique pour un enfant malentendant?

Marshall Chasin

par Marshall Chasin, AuD Je reçois parfois des appels téléphoniques et des courriels de parents d’enfants malentendants me demandant de quel instrument de musique leurs d’enfants devraient jouer. En réalité, je reçois ce genre de demande presque chaque semaine! Supposons que l’enfant ait une déficience auditive bilatérale, à haute fréquence, « typique » que l’on trouve communément avec de nombreuses

I just bought a Didgeridoo- part 3

Marshall Chasin

To complete this three part blog series on the Didgeridoo, we need to look at the effect of curves in the tube. Actually we don’t need to look into that… but we will see why shortly. Didgeridoos, because they come from everyday branches or hollowed out trunks of small trees, are not always straight. The same can be said for

I just bought a Didgeridoo- part 2

Marshall Chasin

In part 1 of this blog series, the acoustics of the Didgeridoo were discussed showing that like a trumpet or clarinet, the Digeridoo functions as a quarter wavelength resonator with odd numbered harmonics of the equation F = v/4L where v is the speed of sound and L is the length of the tube. The Didgeridoo that I recently purchased

I Just Bought a Didgeridoo – Part 1

Marshall Chasin

I just returned from a speaking engagement in Australia and learned quite a few things about down-under. Koalas are not bears; they are marsupials, so it’s wrong to call them Koala bears even though everyone I know, does. In certain, less populated areas it’s a smart idea to shake out your shoes before putting them on in the morning in

La Technologie Aide les Personnes Malentendantes à Rester « Bouclées »

Marshall Chasin

Les défenseurs des droits des personnes malentendantes espèrent qu’une technologie qui diminue radicalement le bruit de fond pour les personnes malentendantes trouvera sa place dans les lieux publics partout au Canada. La technologie, appelée « boucle auditive » (hearing loop), est un cable fin émettant des signaux que la plupart des appareils auditifs et des implants cochléaires peuvent capter. Lorsque

Kanye West’s sound engineer is probably wrong…

Marshall Chasin

Kanye West was the main performer at the Pan American games that were just completed in Toronto, Canada. (Actually I think that they should be called the Pan Canadian games…). It was the most successful of games ever with the largest number of athletes of any previous Pan Am games. It was also a nightmare when it came to traffic.

An extra 4 decibels

Marshall Chasin

An extra 4 decibels does not seem like a lot but it is when it comes to the new hearing aid microphones. Recently modern hearing aid microphones could only transduce up to 115 dB SPL (with 3-4% of distortion). Actually that had been the case since the late 1980s. However, the newest incarnation of microphones can transduce up to 119