db meter: What is your standard level in studio?

Not to incurr in long term earing damages, the max exposure limit is 85dB for 2 hours, 90dB for 50 mins, 100dB for 15 mins. Everything beyond that cause earing loss. A max level allowed at working places is 75dB (still stressful for 8h/day)

I think many use something like 83 dB (I believe), which is where the Fletcher-Munson curve is most balanced.

But many mix at even lower levels much of the time, because there are benefits to that as well.

And check periodically (and shortly) at higher levels to see if bass overwhelms.

Quote from Michael_dk

I think many use something like 83 dB (I believe), which is where the Fletcher-Munson curve is most balanced.

But many mix at even lower levels much of the time, because there are benefits to that as well.

And check periodically (and shortly) at higher levels to see if bass overwhelms.

Agreed

I measured using a phone app so take with a grain of salt. Practice and mix volumes peak at 76db. Headphones peaked at 84db. When wife is out, volumes peak to big ol' jet airliner 'cause it's here that I got to stay.

88dB 😊

This is an excellent topic for discussion and to promote better awareness of the issues

There are entirely differing Health and Safety Standards advised and regulated by statute in Europe and America.

The European Standard errs more to the side of safety than the American Standard which historically has always been rather less cautious and careful in respect to employees.

Although there are Producers about who appear incapable of mixing sound unless its horrendously loud. They are the exception, probably have severe hearing damage, and their example should not be followed.

You only get one set of ears to last a lifetime.

Rather than quote a lot of regulations and figures, and give advice about sound level meters.

I prefer to think about this issue as follows. If you are Producing, whether tracking or mixing, set the level of your monitors at a point where you can comfortably converse with your Recording Engineer across the mixing console, without needing raise your voice.

This approach is easy to implement and will provide a good, safe level for the protection of your ears, and also an excellent listening and working environment. One that will be suitable to utilise for sustained periods without unhelpful and unnecessary fatiguing of the ears of yourself and any others that are present.

Quite apart from the advantage of protection one’s hearing, there is an additional benefit, equally desirable, that no one seems to ever mention. Apart from a small number of colleagues that are world class leading, sought out specifically for their mixing skill.

Generally speaking, in the experience of both myself and other colleagues described above, we share the opinion that mixes which have been created whilst monitoring at an excessively loud level, tend to more easily fall apart when listened to at a far lower, comfortable level by the average consumer in their home environment, who have neighbours to consider.

This is in part due to the Fletcher-Munson effect already mention whereby, due to an inefficiency of the human ear, the bass and treble ends of the frequency spectrum become less audible, as the consumer listening level is decreased.

When the studio monitoring level is especially high, our perception of the bass response tends to become significantly stronger, along with the treble end as well. So, a properly balanced mix created under such circumstances will as a consequence, have its bass and treble frequencies, but particularly bass, adjusted downwardly, more than is ideally intended.

The ears and brain can thus be deceived, because the strong monitoring level increases and misleads the mixers perception of those important frequencies, creating a mix that works well in the studio environment at those settings, but rather less well under differing circumstances. If the recording is sent to a good Mastering Engineer, who recognises the issue, then they can of course take corrective action. But many people today don’t utilise such services, so the issue can remain unrecognised.

Therefore, when the consumer listens to the recording and for reasons of amiable sociability in wider society, chooses to select a more suitably comfortable, lower listening level.

A lower level of a mix created at a significantly higher level with more strongly presented bass and treble frequencies, when the music was mixed. The result is that the bass and treble frequencies, suddenly are no longer presented as they were ideally conceived and intended, and as a result, the mix can more easily fall apart. This is why some consumer quality Hi-Fi amplifiers have a loudness button.

But our experience has been that such undesirable complications do not occur in the same manner utilising a lower monitoring level.

If the mix is created in the recording studio whilst being monitored at a more modest and comfortable listening level as described earlier, and somewhat lower than most musicians might typically expect.

Then, again our experience has been that such a mix, still holds up well if subsequently is listened to at an altogether higher level. Our ears and brains appear to entirely compensate for the consequences of any resulting differences.

Perhaps its that our ears brains especially like the extra bass and Hi-Fi treble’s which may follow when the mix created at a low monitoring level is boosted in volume. Which of course may be the precise reason many people like to record and mix at such a level in the first place. But there are dangers with that approach, and they are not simply the damage they are likely to do to our hearing.

A relative of mine is the Professor who led the team that developed the model of the human ear which is used by surgeons and medical experts, audiologists and audio designers everywhere. He was the vice president of the British Society of Audiologists.

For the university research project, EMI Research Laboratories at Hayes Middlesex designed a special pair of full range speakers for the experiments and KEF manufacturing, fabricated a unique “one off” set of speakers, exactly to their design, especially for the tests, prior to the advent of the C.D.

In order to determine what excellent hearing acuity actually looked like they needed to test the hearing of great numbers of people. Unfortunately, at that time, Disco fever was a popular trend amongst young people, deemed to be most likely to possess excellent hearing acuity, as with age that ability gradually diminishes.

What was found was that the hearing of candidates who simply attended loud Discos, was so severely affected by the experience, (something probably most of them took little notice of, or simply shrugged off), that they were entirely unsuitable for the purposes of the experiments. Which was to determine exactly what excellent hearing actually looked like, by measurement under clinical conditions.

So here above are two good reasons for monitoring a sensible level. To protect your ears reliable functionality, and enable you to create better mixes, that will work well at every level with which they may be subsequently heard.

Quote from Crispy Panther

...

The European Standard errs more to the side of safety than the American Standard which historically has always been rather less cautious and careful in respect to employees.

...

That's why we Americans are true Rebels and throw our tea into the harbor while playing thrash metal really loud.

According to a Sound on Sound article posted several years back, the ideal volume at which to mix varies with room size:

https://imgur.com/a/egGtovA (Sorry, can’t get the pic to embed).

Thank you tedtan for that article.

Since it was published the Health and Safety Executives both in Europe and America have revised their recommendations downward.

As more evidence of the damage to hearing by sustained noise levels has become apparent and regulatory authorities and employers have become more risk averse in the face of litigation from unions for affected employees.

You make a good point regarding the size of listening room and the 85 dB level (now today reduced further) for cinema sized mixing rooms such as those found in Hollywood or Pinewood or the major recording studios that they utilise.

Your excellent point reminded me of a church meeting I visited some time ago where the morning service was in a huge hall with a suspended array P.A. system. However, they had an evening service in a much smaller hall, without a P.A. and the singers belted their voices out at full pelt. It was sharply painful and hurt my ears to be in the same room with them singing, and I was sat right at the back of the hall.

I was able to have an opportunity to speak with them at length afterward about the need to modify the dynamic of their vocal projection according to the size of the room. But really the problem was far less about their voices, and much more about the physical dimensions of the room they were singing in. Failing to understand that and make adjustment for the difference in size of venue. They were kind enough to drive me home afterward! 😊

Many people appear to think that sudden loud bursts of noise or peak levels of music are responsible for most of the damage done to hearing.

In point of fact, our ears do not respond quite in the manner most people imagine. They are predisposed to be adversely affected not so much to sudden transients or peak levels of sound, but rather to average or RMS levels of sound that are usually far lower, but also usually far more constant.

Therefore, the best way to think about this issue is not that your ears will be damaged by a sudden loud sound that takes you by surprise, but by constant, continual lower levels of sound, that your hearing is exposed to over a far longer period of time. It is the sustained period of exposure your ears endure that actually does the damage.

Time is the danger element. Long periods at an average lower level are more dangerous than short periods at a higher level.

Of course, if you set your monitoring level at a high level to start with. Quite apart from the peaks you might encounter, the average level you will be exposed to over a long recording or mixing session is going to be that much more potentially damaging to your hearing.

An analogy.

Your outer and inner ear features Sterocilla, groups of hairs that move when sound enters our ear canal.

Stereocilia (inner ear) - Wikipedia

These in the inner ear do not move in free air but are pushed about by an inner ear gel which moves them as a result of the various mechanism of the ear responding to sound.

We could liken these hairs to a field of wheat. You walk through the field once which doesn’t take long, and it appears no damage is done at all. The wheat moved around a bit but soon recovered.

But if you walk back and forth all for many hours, day long across that same field. Eventually you will notice that quite a bit of wheat has actually been trampled down. The stems have broken and they will never recover.

The hairs of the inner ear are grouped by frequency. So, what happens if you subject your hearing to long periods of sound without proper care, is that you may not really notice any actual loss of hearing at all at first, but you may have partially lost hearing at certain frequencies, dependant upon what you were listen to so loud for so long.

It is therefore often a gradual process of hearing loss, affecting different areas of frequency bit by bit. And by the time in everyday living under certain situations that you really start to notice your hearing just isn’t as good as it once was, lamentably, irreparable damage, has already occurred.

As tedtans article amply demonstrates, once you delve deeply into the matter of level setting, and it varies according to the situation, it can become a mind bogglingly complex business to get your head around.

Old pal Bob Katz who was here a while back lecturing, devised his K-System that some might find helpful. But for those easily bewildered by technical complexities I heartily commend the advice given earlier, which is so easy and simple to implement and follow.

Adjust your monitoring level so that for the overwhelming majority of the time, you could converse across the mixing desk with an engineer, hearing and being heard, without either of you needing to particularly raise your voice. This will be safe and the mixes you create at this level, will hold together well, regardless of what volume the end users set their Hi-Fi to.

Ace mastering engineer Bob Ludwig would at times have a client attending a session who wanted to listen to their mastered recording as a higher level than he normally utilises.

He would set the volume higher as requested without playing anything back, show the client the play and the stop switch. Then leave the room and the client to listen... without him. A professional approach.

Its that serious!