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.

Setting hearing aid gains for various music genres- is this necessary?

Marshall Chasin

Several hearing aid manufacturers have a tab on their fitting software that allows the hearing health care professional to adjust the parameters of the “music program” for various music genres. For example, one manufacturer specifies less gain for rock and roll and more gain for jazz and blues. The rationale is that they want to obtain the same output regardless

In-ear monitors : one, two, or three,…, or five

Marshall Chasin

In-ear monitors are personalized monitors that many musicians are now using. They look like hearing aids, smell like hearing aids, and perhaps, even taste like hearing aids. But they are not hearing aids- they have a pre-amp, some have an “in situ” microphone, most are built into custom shells, and they have a receiver…. well, maybe they are hearing aids

The mysterious case of the missing C#

Marshall Chasin

It was a dark and stormy Thursday when suddenly the telephone rang. I heard a voice that I didn’t recognize but something about it was familiar. He said that he had lost something that was very important to him and he had to see me right away. I gave him an appointment for later that evening. He said his name

Auditory Toughening

Marshall Chasin

From time to time, I am asked about the concept of auditory toughening and what would the implications for musicians be. It is worthwhile to do a brief review. Much of the data is 20 years old but all of these experiments were well done and highly controlled for confounding factors. When one thinks of auditory toughening, it conjures up

Should musicians smoke?

Marshall Chasin

The short answer is of course not. What a stupid question! There are very few short term benefits to smoking, and absolutely no benefits to long term smoking. Don’t smoke! So why am I writing a blog with such a silly topic? The short answer is “don’t smoke,” but the long answer is, well, a bit longer. Many professional organizations

What does TTS tell us about PTS?

Marshall Chasin

In the first course about noise exposure that any audiologist takes, they are confronted with a pile high list of articles and research papers about the many studies concerning hearing loss and noise. Animal studies are generally about creating a permanent hearing loss (or permanent threshold shift PTS) and human studies concentrate on creating temporary hearing losses (or temporary threshold

Well, I was wrong

Marshall Chasin

Well, maybe not completely wrong, but maybe partly wrong. In previous blogs I delineated the electro-acoustic properties that all hearing aids should have in order to be optimized for listening to, and playing music. As a review, an optimal hearing aid should have: a sufficiently high peak input limiting level so as not to distort the more intense stimuli associated

Earphones for kids

Marshall Chasin

A question I frequently hear from parents and grandparents is what MP3 player should I get my kids. Most people in the baby boomer generation are aware that too much music is not a good idea- they have been inundated with media reports since the early 1980s. Yet, there are advantages to having portable music, especially on long car trips.

Hearing Loss Prevention for Musicians – ear plugs, humming and moderation- Infomation sheet- part 6

Marshall Chasin

This is the final installment of the 6 fact sheets that can be copied onto your office letterhead and provided to musicians. There have been ones that relate to each musician instrument, and this one is obviously (as can be seen in the title) a general information sheet about hearing loss prevention. These are used in the Musicians’ Clinics of

Violin and viola players- information sheet part #5

Marshall Chasin

This is the fifth in a list of 6 fact sheets that can be copied onto your office letterhead and provided to musicians. There will be one that relates to each musician instrument, and this one is obviously (as can be seen in the title) about violas and violins. These are used in the Musicians’ Clinics of Canada (www.musiciansclinics.com) and