Freesound Forums

My wife, when we're out in nature, occasionally asks: "What was that sound?" To which I usually reply "Huh? What sound?" About everywhere I go, a flock of cicadas follows me. They sound very similar to recording of same that I have posted. As one who is likely to be older than many here, I'd like to pass on a bit of life experience. Over the past 10 years, ringing in my ears has become quite an annoyance, as has that commonly called "the 4000 cycle dip", a loss of ability to hear higher-frequency content (i.e. the s, when heard in the word specticles, the word sounds more sound more like “eckicle”). whatever ...

Thus, I am, of late, asking, more often, for people to repeat what they said (or, more often) take a guess and periodically guess wrong. No nights are ever quiet since the crickets are one with my innards, always singing away, covering softer sounds. Louder sounds, through one ear in particular, are now somewhat garbled - distorted, rattling, like music playing through a broken speaker. A serious side effect is that background noise significantly camouflages the sound that I might want to hear (often conversation from another against traffic noise, ventilation noise such as fans, or music, for example.)

Because of these difficulties, I can no longer trust what I hear nor can I accurately judge the overall accuracy of my recordings no, in general, what I hear. So I, like many others before me, would like to point out to the younger crowd here, who may have crystal clear normal hearing, to care for your ears as you might you eyes. I can blame my acquired auditory deficiencies on numerous phenomena - playing in a band back in the late 60's, racing motorcycles in the 70's, shooting without hearing protectors, many years of driving vehicles absent of air conditioning (liberal volumes of air turbulence and vehicle noise), many years of listening with headphones to synths and music in general.

The Pennsylvania Dutch are said to have a quote "Too soon old, too late smart." So, if you enjoy listening to sounds of any sort and would like to retain that enjoyment, volume is likely to be your primary long-term arch enemy to the clarity of music and, more generally, the accuracy of all sounds heard. The more you can keep volumes as soft as can be tolerated, the better you'll be likely to hear when you wish you still could.

FWIW

sanus_excipio wrote:
The more you can keep volumes as soft as can be tolerated, the better you'll be likely to hear when you wish you still could.

FWIW