L-R: Doron Schachter and Benj Kanters
Tuesday's workshop was especially aimed at students, and so was held at the Steinhardt-Music Technology center of New York University. About 40 people attended, including both students and veterans of audio engineering, filling a multi-media classroom adjacent to one of the center's recording studios.
Most of the material presented by Professor Kanters was not new, but it was unusual to find such a wealth of information about the functioning of human hearing and the various issues associated with hearing loss and hearing conservation, all in the same presentation. I have not seen a better exposition of the remarkable structure and performance of the human ear—its wide bandwidth, dynamic range and ingenious solutions to real life demands. And, as he celebrated the capabilities of the ear, Prof. Kanters addressed the contrasting neglect of sound and hearing in our culture.
"We take better care of our feet than we do of our ears. We know enough to use sunglasses to protect our eyes from the sun, but do we use earplugs to protect our ears from excessively loud sound? It's OK to use glasses to correct our vision, but wear a hearing aid...." and the social reaction is very different. In a visually-oriented culture, we are experiencing an epidemic of noise and music-induced hearing loss.
An example: the widespread use of earbud-style headphones with iPods while riding the subway. The problem is not anything inherently bad about earbuds or iPods—both can be used with perfect safety in suitable situations. But earbuds offer little or no isolation from outside sound, and subway cars frequently have sound levels in the vicinity of 95 dBA. The iPod user turns up the music to be heard over the ambience, which requires levels 3 to 6 dB louder than the noise. The resulting total level cannot be tolerated for very long without hearing loss.
Prof. Kanters gave a detailed description of the mechanics of noise-induced hearing loss. He then examined currently accepted noise exposure limits (the OHSA limits are, in fact a compromise with industry, and will need updating). Finally, he looked at what can be done to protect hearing, including the latest developments in "high-fidelity" ear plugs and concert in-ear monitoring systems. And again, Prof. Kanters made the point that seriously addressing the problem of hearing loss requires a cultural shift in our society regarding the importance of sound and hearing in our lives.
Throughout his presentation, Prof. Kanters encouraged the audience to ask questions, so the evening often took on the character of a running dialog, making the usual "question period" unnecessary.
- Report by Robert Auld
