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.

Featured image for “Masking and Music – Temporal masking – part 3”

Masking and Music – Temporal masking – part 3

Marshall Chasin

The following 4 part series of blogs, overviewing the phenomenon of masking, is written for the musician, and not the audiologist. The first three parts (upwards spread of masking, downwards spread of masking, and temporal masking) relate to the function and structure of the cochlea and associated neural structures, whereas the last part (phase) refers to the acoustics of any

Featured image for “Masking and Music – Downwards spread of masking – part 2”

Masking and Music – Downwards spread of masking – part 2

Marshall Chasin

The following 4 part series of posts, overviewing the phenomenon of masking, is written for the musician, and not the audiologist. The first three parts (upwards spread of masking, downwards spread of masking, and temporal masking) relate to the function and structure of the cochlea and associated neural structures, whereas the last part (phase) refers to the acoustics of any

Featured image for “Masking and Music- Upwards spread of masking – part 1”

Masking and Music- Upwards spread of masking – part 1

Marshall Chasin

The following 4 part series of blogs overviews the phenomenon of masking. It is written for the musician, and not the audiologist. The first three parts (upwards spread of masking, downwards spread of masking, and temporal masking) relate to the function and structure of the cochlea and associated neural structures, whereas the last part (phase) refers to the acoustics of

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Don’t drop the microphone… actually it’s OK, Part 2

Marshall Chasin

In part one of this blog series, the drawbacks of dropping a piezo-electric microphone were discussed. While dropping a microphone looks cool, the crystal in these microphones were very brittle and dropping these microphones would mean that they were “ex-microphones” In more modern days, microphones tend to be either dynamic or capacitor. And if you are over age 50, these capacitor

Featured image for “Don’t drop the microphone – actually it’s OK! Part 1”

Don’t drop the microphone – actually it’s OK! Part 1

Marshall Chasin

I recall sitting in a movie theatre and watching Michael Corleone drop the gun that he had just used to “off” some dirty cops in The Godfather. It’s the first time that I saw this done. Since then there have been many runner-ups to that, with microphones and not guns: JayZ at the Superbowl and President Obama during his last

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Old tapes and old vinyl records

Marshall Chasin

Almost every week I hear about a move in the field back to the olden days. A few weeks ago, I heard (on NPR) about a move back towards 8 track cassette players and indeed I still have one in my car. Actually, that is true. We were cleaning out my mother-in-law’s house and I came across a large 8

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100 years of Jazz

Marshall Chasin

Well, this month (February 2017) marks the 100th year anniversary of Jazz, and I must admit, that from time to time, I still don’t get it. I frequently look in awe at those around me who are listening to what I am thinking is a mere cacophony of sound and they seem to be hearing something different than me. It’s

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Gratuitous Self-Promotion

Marshall Chasin

Being Canadian, we tend to be more subtle in our self-promotion. It’s true that we invented penicillin, time zones, insulin, put the first person on the moon, and of course, the internet. But sometimes being subtle goes right past a person! So please forgive me (I’m being Canadian, eh?) but HearingHealthMatters.org has just published a wonderful new e-book that I

Featured image for “Composers of Old and New…”

Composers of Old and New…

Marshall Chasin

I was chatting with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart the other day about how music composition may have changed over the years. Technology does seem to get its fingers into all sorts of areas and the arts are no exception. Now Mozart, like Beethoven (although I have never met Beethoven before), could conceive of a full orchestral score (usually in several voicings) in

Featured image for “While Returning from the Lunar Colonies…”

While Returning from the Lunar Colonies…

Marshall Chasin

While returning from a short vacation in the Lunar Colonies, as I plummeted to earth, I thought that I would do an experiment. Once the parachute opened I stepped out of the lunar shuttle to take some measurements on the way down. As we know, almost all of acoustics, whether it’s the study of our hearing, musical instruments, noise in