Forgive me Father.. aka confession of audio heretic..

[christopher3393]

"HE CAME BACK FROM HIS prayer to the cat on his lap. He fed the cat, he let her go out to the moonlight, and he hid in the pages of Abraham. Like one newly circumcised, he hid himself away, he waited in the trust of healing. Faces of women appeared, and they explained themselves to him, connecting feature to character, beauty to kindness. Various families came to him and showed him all the chairs he might sit in. ‘How can I say this gently?’ he said. ‘Though I love your company, your instructions are wasted here. I will always choose the woman who carries me off, I will always sit with the family of loneliness.’ Saying many words of encouragement his visitors departed, and he entered more deeply into his hiding. He asked for his heart to be focused toward the source of mercy, and he lifted up a corner, and he moved a millimetre forward under the shadow of the tabernacle of peace. His cat came back from the moonlight, flew softly to her place on his lap, and waited for him to come back from his prayer."

 

Leonard Cohen, Book of Mercy

[christopher3393]

4 hours ago, sphinxsix said:

You're absolutely right! I am personally immensely grateful to all the musicians who sacrifice themselves (actually simply to all good musicians)! Without them my life would be very different. Definitely not better 

Have you ever played a loud note on eg tenor sax in a small or medium size room.? I did. I'm pretty sure it reaches the sound level of about 120db. I do have a 300W electric bass combo and a bass with both active and passive mode. I'm pretty sure, in particular in the former one it's even louder.

Have ever measured the maximum sound level of your listening session? I'm pretty sure it's less than that! So maybe you also should be 'immensely grateful' to them  not only for the music but also for their countless hours spent practicing and playing in what sometimes is very loud environment.

The law protects us, ordinary people from something like that but not them..

Here is SPL chart for some instruments.

 

https://www.gcaudio.com/tips-tricks/decibel-loudness-comparison-chart/

Some quotes: 

Piano Fortissimo

84 - 103dB

Clarinet

85 - 114dB

Trombone

85 - 114dB

Symphonic music peak

120 - 137dB

Rock music peak

150dB

From the 'Notes' of the above article:

"The incidence of hearing loss in classical musicians has been estimated at 4  - 43%, in rock musicians 13 - 30%."

I was actually thinking about the well known fact that musicians usually don't care about the sound reproduction quality. I have friends who are musicians, I know they hear music in a different way than non-musicians but I really wonder how many of them have some level of hearing damage due to their professional activity..

A very quick google search:

"Professional musicians are almost four times as likely to develop noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) as the general public, reveals research. And they are 57% more likely to develop tinnitus—incessant ringing in the ears—as a result of their job, the findings show."

Hearing loss among musicians

So have I convinced you.? I am definitely ready to pause for a minute of silence to honor all of them, will you join me.?

 

 

** measurements missing for some crucial instruments for any audiophile collection that values a wide variety of traditional/folk music and numerous sub genres and sub-sub-genres 'n s**t on into obscurity.

 

Bagpipes (single set can reach 120dB)

 

Banjo (80-95dB)

 

Accordion (piano accordion 80-95dB)

 

Hurdy Gurdy (unmeasurable, can break sound meters)

 

A reminder that not loudness is only one factor. Pitch is also important as well as what some generalize and report subjectively as "Irritation Factor". For example, hurdy gurdy is off the charts for irritation factor. (I LOVE hurdy gurdy!)

 

If you want to play a lot of, for example, medieval music, a good deal of which has poor recording quality as well as potentially irritating singing and instrumentation,  and if you want to include the above instruments for folk, bluegrass, polka, etc. (if you want to enjoy Garth Hudson's accordion on The Band's version of "When I Paint My Masterpiece" and a number of other  performances by The Band, or enjoy Flaco Jimenez on any number of Ry Cooder recordings and other Tex-Mex/ Tijano music, or David Hidalgo's accordion on at least 2 tracks of any Los Lobos album, etc., etc. etc., you need a system that is ....."Forgiving". There, the heretical word has been uttered. Let Burning at the Stake for Euphonic Possession commence. Now, back to hiding in Music in General (they'll never find me there!)

 

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