Those danged ears

[Margo wrote:]
>While prudence might suggest that I'm not so overcautious to use ear
>plugs or protective ear muffs, for example, when leaf blowers are
>being run outside my apartment, the question is how far to carry this.
>The balance between real hearing conservation concerns and nervousness
>about any moderately loud sound can be a delicate one. Defining and
>nurturing a safe space between "inaudible" and "threatening" is a
>psychological imperative.

Margo, again my sympathies for your challenge. Your post goes on to
make lemonade out of lemons, which is laudable, yet I'd be happier if
you had fewer lemons to deal with (I have no doubt there'd be a good
supply of lemonade from you regardless!).

I wish I knew more about the conditions you describe. I do have a sense
that hearing problems are often paradoxically connected with hearing
sensitivity, so that, for example, people who wear hearing aids are
often on the edge of pain, in not within that realm, when they amplify
sounds in an attempt to hear them clearly.

My own reaction to loud sounds is to pop in earplugs without hesitation.
If I'm at an over-amplified concert and haven't brought any, I tear off
a corner of a napkin, wad it up, and stick it in. Wrong size, just
start again! This provides only a small relief, but is welcome just
the same.

For more serious sound relief, I recommend wax earplugs, available at
any pharmacy. These, unfortunately, do distort the _quality_ of the
sound, tending to favor lower frequencies, but sometimes the tradeoff
might still be worthwhile, if it means being able to attend a concert
that one would otherwise forego.

Now for a closely-related subject: music with a dynamic range wider than
is convenient. I'm a big fan of classical music, but find that the
dynamic range of many pieces makes them impractical to hear under
realistic conditions. This is especially a problem when there is a
large amount of background noise, as, for example, in a car. To deal
with this, I wrote a program, called Anita (the full name is slightly
off-color: Anita, the Perfect Knob Attendant), which adjusts the volume
of music on the fly. It's nothing earth-shattering, just a compressor
program, which does practice look-ahead so that changes in volume aren't
made suddenly. It's really amazing to me how much difference Anita
makes, and how smoothly she does it! There are a number of works, such
as the William Tell Overture, Ravel's Left-hand Concerto, etc., which I
listen to _only_ in Anita'd versions, because otherwise there's no
volume setting that works for me.

Some day, if I figure out how to "rip" digital music from audio CD's on
the fly, Anita might be a product available for real-time use. For now,
she's a batch program, and it requires some effort to invoke her
(extract .wav files from a CD, Anita them, and burn them back onto a
new CD).

So the offer I want to make to you, Margo, is to prepare one or more
CD's for you, of music which otherwise is a problem because of its
dynamic range. When the music is of a living composer (such as Mary
Ackerley), I'd probably touch base to make sure this wouldn't be
considered a degradation of the musical message, but other than that
the world is open! Natch, it's a given that we won't use Anita to
circumvent copyright.

Good luck, Margo, with your challenge! Please let me know if I can
help.

JdL

The last few items on this page link to companies that sell musician's
earplugs.
http://homepage.tinet.ie/~bclear/clubie/linkstinnitus.html

, for example, when leaf blowers are
>being run outside my apartment, the question is how far to carry
this.

Over the last year I've become progressively more sensitive to leaf
blowers to the point where I feel violence is being done as I have no
where to run to evade their assault. So one day. one the verge of
becoming the Mad Woman of Sabal Cove, I ran outside and demanded that
the lawn service use only rakes on our property. It was an act of
desperation (and I can be a bit terrifying in person too :-)) and it
worked!!! An enormous difference. Now I notice that many other
properties are getting raked again, as others have noticed there is
no need to use blowers.

We joke it that Tuesdays, lawn service day, has become Zen like as
workers spend their time carefully raking sand.

Just an alternative suggestion to earplugs.

Mary

Mary,

when you made your demand, i hope you didn't yell. That could hurt
everybody's ears.

HAHA.

BTW, i tried to order I.O.M. from your site, but it said page not found or
something to that effect.

Where else can i get one?

GZ

nanom3@... wrote:

> , for example, when leaf blowers are
> >being run outside my apartment, the question is how far to carry
> this.
>
> Over the last year I've become progressively more sensitive to leaf
> blowers to the point where I feel violence is being done as I have no
> where to run to evade their assault. So one day. one the verge of
> becoming the Mad Woman of Sabal Cove, I ran outside and demanded that
> the lawn service use only rakes on our property. It was an act of
> desperation (and I can be a bit terrifying in person too :-)) and it
> worked!!! An enormous difference. Now I notice that many other
> properties are getting raked again, as others have noticed there is
> no need to use blowers.
>
> We joke it that Tuesdays, lawn service day, has become Zen like as
> workers spend their time carefully raking sand.
>
> Just an alternative suggestion to earplugs.
>
> Mary
>
> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
> crazy_music-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
>
>
>
> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/

when you made your demand, i hope you didn't yell. That could hurt
everybody's ears.

Nah I just tried to looked fierce.

With leafblowers I feel the vibration throught my body, as well as
hear it, and I think that is what makes them so unbearable for me.
>
>
> BTW, i tried to order I.O.M. from your site, but it said page not
found or
> something to that effect.

I am moving my site to a bigger server, and currently not all the
links have been reset. I also never went to accepting credit cards
on the site, the expense didn't seem worth it. Have others here
found satisfactory solutions for selling their work. I think Amazon
has some sort of resellers program. I also wonder about the pay for
download sites - anyone look into that?

In the meantime you can sens a check for 12 dollars, which includes
shipping, to Mary Beth Ackerley
3343 sabal Cove Place
Longboat Key Fl
34228

--- In crazy_music@y..., "John A. deLaubenfels" <jdl@a...> wrote:
> My own reaction to loud sounds is to pop in earplugs without
hesitation.
> If I'm at an over-amplified concert and haven't brought any, I tear
off
> a corner of a napkin, wad it up, and stick it in. Wrong size, just
> start again! This provides only a small relief, but is welcome just
> the same.
>
> For more serious sound relief, I recommend wax earplugs, available
at
> any pharmacy. These, unfortunately, do distort the _quality_ of the
> sound, tending to favor lower frequencies, but sometimes the
tradeoff
> might still be worthwhile, if it means being able to attend a
concert
> that one would otherwise forego.

Yes -- in fact at NWEAMO concerts, they sell the foam ones for
$0.50US :-). I used to be a telemarketer, and I used *one* foam
earplug for my non-telephone ear, which helped me focus on the person
I was talking with. And yes, my sales/appointments went up when I
discovered that. :-)

> Now for a closely-related subject: music with a dynamic range wider
than
> is convenient. I'm a big fan of classical music, but find that the
> dynamic range of many pieces makes them impractical to hear under
> realistic conditions. This is especially a problem when there is a
> large amount of background noise, as, for example, in a car. To
deal
> with this, I wrote a program, called Anita (the full name is
slightly
> off-color: Anita, the Perfect Knob Attendant), which adjusts the
volume
> of music on the fly. It's nothing earth-shattering, just a
compressor
> program, which does practice look-ahead so that changes in volume
aren't
> made suddenly. It's really amazing to me how much difference Anita
> makes, and how smoothly she does it! There are a number of works,
such
> as the William Tell Overture, Ravel's Left-hand Concerto, etc.,
which I
> listen to _only_ in Anita'd versions, because otherwise there's no
> volume setting that works for me.

I don't have that problem with speakers most of the time, but I
certainly do with headphones! I'm a big fan of Shostakovich
Symphonies #4, #11 and #13, and they all have *tremendous* dynamic
range! For example, the version of #13 I have is Sir George Solti
conducting with Sir Anthony Hopkins reading English translations of
the Yevtushenko text. If I turn the volume down to save my ears in
the music, Hopkins is inaudible and if I can hear Hopkins, the music
is beyond the threshold of pain. My CD player does have a compressor
built-in, as do most of the portable Discman types these days. That
seems to do fine on most CDs, but the Solti / Hopkins is beyond its
capabilities. I've never needed earplugs at a live Shostakovivh
symphony concert. Go figure :-)
--
M. Edward (Ed) Borasky, Chief Scientist, Borasky Research
http://www.borasky-research.net http://www.aracnet.com/~znmeb
mailto:znmeb@... mailto:znmeb@...

Stand-Up Comedy: Because Man Does Not Live By Dread Alone

--- In crazy_music@y..., nanom3@h... wrote:
> , for example, when leaf blowers are
> >being run outside my apartment, the question is how far to carry
> this.
>
> Over the last year I've become progressively more sensitive to leaf
> blowers to the point where I feel violence is being done as I have
no
> where to run to evade their assault.

I sympathize completely! I think leaf blowers are about the most
irritating devices ever invented, my mother-in-law's piano excepted.
Jet skis run a close second. Talk about bad vibes. Whoa.

> So one day. one the verge of
> becoming the Mad Woman of Sabal Cove, I ran outside and demanded
that
> the lawn service use only rakes on our property. It was an act of
> desperation (and I can be a bit terrifying in person too :-)) and it
> worked!!!

Way to go!

David

--- In crazy_music@y..., nanom3@h... wrote:
> , for example, when leaf blowers are
> >being run outside my apartment, the question is how far to carry
> this.
>
> Over the last year I've become progressively more sensitive to leaf
> blowers to the point where I feel violence is being done as I have
no
> where to run to evade their assault.

I sympathize completely. I think leaf blowers are about the most
irritating sounding devices ever invented, my mother-in-law's piano
excepted. Jet skis run a close second. Way to go!

David

Now I'm getting echoes, George! Spooky.

> From: David J. Finnamore <daeron@...>
> To: <crazy_music@yahoogroups.com>
> Sent: Tuesday, July 17, 2001 6:48 PM
> Subject: [crazy_music] Re: Those danged ears
>
>
> I sympathize completely. I think leaf blowers are about the most
> irritating sounding devices ever invented, my mother-in-law's piano
> excepted. Jet skis run a close second. Way to go!

You've never heard the trash truck used in emptying the dumpster
next to my apartment a couple of times a week! The truck
pulls up in the alley right under my window, and I swear
these guys are getting paid by the decibel!

It's by far the noisest intrusion I have to bear, in a
place filled with helicopters flying overhead all day and
night (real close to the freeway, and a neighborhood which
the cops like to search too), fire engines or police cars
with screaming sirens at least once a day, and lovely weekends
filled with loud outdoor parties by people in the wonderful
mix of ethnicities surrounding my building.

So I get exposure to Bosnian, Arab, Mexican, and Jamaican music,
as well as plain 'ol "urban contemporary" or whatever the radio
stations call it these days; and actually, all of this stuff
would be truly enjoyable for me if I had some peace and quiet
the rest of the time (from the trashmen, police, etc.).

Anyway, I sympathize with Margo and the rest of you who
have to endure a noisy environment, especially if a hearing
problem aggravates the situation.

-monz
http://www.monz.org
"All roads lead to n^0"

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