Hear The Music

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

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

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

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

  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

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

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

As clinical audiologists I am sure that we have all had similar training around the world.  Like most, and certainly in my program of study, we were dropped off in the nearest desert with a single bottle of water, a hat, and of course a series of geophones and radar equipment.  A geophone is a microphone that picks up vibrations

The Association of Adult Musicians with Hearing Loss (www.AAMHL.org) has a new website … https://www.musicianswithhearingloss.org. I have written about this association in the past, but with this new website (and new name), I thought it would be time to remind everyone about some of the delightful volunteers associated with this group. It is almost a given that people with hearing loss

Mead Killion and Andy J. Haapapuro, in the November 2015 issue of Hearing Review have finally put to bed the controversy of whether Musicians’Earplugs have a flat or uniform attenuation. There have been some publications over the past several years that have questioned the flatness of commercially available musicians’ earplugs.  These publications have contained rather significant errors; some of which