Archive for January, 2007
Tinnitus
Jan.23.2007
I received a lot of calls and emails from folks concerned about my challenge with tinnitus. Questions about cause and treatment. Wikipedia provides a good summary of the affliction here.
In my research, I came across a website that offers products to tinnitus sufferers. And they had a page of Do’s and Don’ts here.
The first don’t is very important and I wish I could have applied this principle a couple of weeks ago when the symptoms first surfaced:
Don’t despair or panic. The condition can be overcome. You will need to be patient and realize there will be setbacks, trials and tribulations as you move forward to your goal of habituating or no longer perceiving the Tinnitus. It is comforting to note that the vast majority of people who have Tinnitus are eventually able to habituate it. If there is no fear, anxiety, worry or negative emotion associated with Tinnitus sound then the autonomic and limbic system in the brain won’t perceive the sound in a negative light and the sound either goes away or is habituated (the sound is there but not noticed, no longer perceived). If it is noticed it is no more annoying then your air conditioning fan or computer fan. In the beginning if there was no extreme physical or emotional stress the best course of action would be simply to ignore the sound and not to worry about it. For those that have had the condition for a longer period of time Auditory Habituation using sound therapy may be more appropriate.
I would say that going through the worst of it was one of the most stressful periods of my entire adult life. This fellow’s experience mirrored my own reaction to the onset of tinnitus. Although it was only a couple of weeks of stress, it seemed to last a long, long time.
I thought for a little while that all was lost: music and sound. I’m sad to admit that I thought for a little while that I might not be able to cope with the ringing in my head.
All I can say is that I am completely relieved that my own symptoms have receded to a point where it is not creating any stress. I sometimes perceive the tinnitus for a few minutes during my waking hours but I do not worry about it. I function as I have before.
And I am very optimistic that the symptoms that I do hear softly, every once in a while, will no longer be perceived in the weeks and months ahead.
If the sound is not perceived then it is not there.
I consider myself very, very fortunate.
Blue Rock Studios
Jan.23.2007
What a stunning facility. If you look at the Blue Rock Studios website, you will be able to take a walking tour of the studio grounds. A beautiful location.
Inside the studio looks good as well.
The studio offers about 4,000 square feet of production space. It is located on 20 acres overlooking the Blanco River in the Texas Hill Country. Rupert Neve is a neighbour and helped out on the studio. A Pro Tools HD studio featuring an ICON desk.
Email Traffic
Jan.22.2007
Over the past few years, I have noticed a significant increase in my email traffic. I spend at least 10 hours a week on email.
The Radicati Group reports that the average business user sends and receives about 170 emails a day. And that volume is expected to double over the next couple of years.
Spam is not included in that volume.
I wonder how many people carry multiple email addresses? I carry one for work, one for the Blackberry, one for the ISP, one for Gmail, one for Hotmail, two for the websites I own. Seven email targets for spammers. Seven inboxes to manage. And the expectation is immediate response time. If I am slow to respond to an email, I generally apologize for the delay. When I send an email, I usually expect a prompt response.
Am I close to the 170 emails a day? Yes. Most days I process well over 200 emails. Will that volume double by 2010? I sure hope not.
Lower Your Risk
Jan.20.2007
Funny how things just kinda happen. If you have been following this blog, you know that I have been working through some challenges with tinnitus over the past couple of weeks. Definitely not fun. The tinnitus seems to be at a manageable level now. I think. I can sleep and for most of the time it is not active in my conscious mind. When it does get in the conscious mind, it can do a pretty good job messing up my quality of life.
I will overcome it. Even if the ringing does not go away. I will learn to manage it.
When the doctor checked me out last week, he noticed that my blood pressure was running pretty high. About 150/92. He said that it was probably high due to the anxiety over the tinnitus. He asked me to check on it in a week or so.
I checked. Systolic was 143, Diastolic was 82. Resting heart rate was 64. And what does that mean? Stage 1 hypertension. Not good. Wake up call. Time for lifestyle changes.
The American Heart Association has a great site on high blood pressure. You can find it here. If you are like me, getting a bit older, it is a really good idea to make sure that you are keeping your blood pressure in a healthy range below 120/80. High blood pressure is a silent killer. And too many adults have little or no idea where they stand. I did not until last week.
I have to get to a lower BMI, maintain a daily program of aerobic exercise, improve my nutrition and get my sodium levels below 2,300 mg per day. Health Canada would like to see the sodium level down to about 1,500 mg.
My daughter will know this to be true. I am a big fan of salt. And believe me, I get it now. I have dropped the table salt. I have been keeping a detailed calorie and exercise log over the past two weeks. And it is very tough to get the sodium under 3,000 mg. But, I suspect I was in the range of 6,000 or more before I started tracking.
A friend of mine died unexpectedly from a massive heart attack last week. It made me think about life generally.
Hypertension is making me think even more.
Ardent Recording Studios
Jan.19.2007
Ardent Studios in Memphis just celebrated 40 years of business. That is an impressive record in this industry. John Fry started the studio in 1966
Ardent has three studios equipped with Neve and SSL consoles and Pro Tools rigs. There is also a music label, Ardent Records, which covers contemporary Christian music.
Ultramobile PC
Jan.18.2007
Most of you know that I am a pretty strong member of the cult of Mac. However, there are some really slick ultramobile devices in the Wintel market.
Samsung offers the Q1P, a touchscreen tablet that runs Windows XP. The footprint is 9″ x 5″ and 1″ deep. It weighs 1.7 lbs. It offers 1GB of RAM and 60GB of storage. And wireless LAN and bluetooth connectivity.
Price point is about $1,500 or so. Lots of expansion accessories like a keyboard, mouse and the ability to drive larger video displays. There is another version that uses a 32GB solid-state flash memory-based hard drive. Price is about $500 more.
Sure makes more sense to me than lugging around 7lb portables.
Students
Jan.18.2007
I have agreed to take on a student. At least for a little while. And not a second engineer. I am helping a musician on bass guitar.
I remember when I first started working at a recording studio. I was an apprentice serving as a second engineer but in reality I was a gopher. I did all of the heavy lifting when it came to documenting console and outboard settings, running tape and a myriad of other activities. But I learned a lot from the recording engineer. He helped to accelerate my knowledge of recording. How to get the sweet spot of an instrument with a microphone. How to capture the best possible sound.
I was playing with a bassist last week and it was clear to me that he had a passion for the instrument and that he could really benefit from some teaching. The problem is that there are so few good bass teachers in our community. So, I asked him to come out to my recording studio this week-end and I will spend some time helping him to improve on his instrument.
To me, a strong intermediate bassist has achieved the following objectives:
- Tone: the ability to use their hands and their equipment to produce a musical sound
- Technique: the ability to leverage the fretboard
- Tempo: the ability to play in time and in the pocket
- Taste: the ability to enhance and create excitement in the music
- Team: the ability to be part of a unit and to pull a groove together
I’ll be starting with a passionate beginner and I will hopefully give him a roadmap to develop his talent in these five areas.
I have recorded some of the best bassists in Canada and I find that these advanced players are able to achieve a voice to their instrument. They have an amazing ability to bring an instrument to life.
Bass guitar is a wonderful instrument. And the Pedulla Thunderbass pictured below is also a wonderful instrument.
No Guts No Glory
Jan.17.2007
At rehearsal tonight we were without a drummer. I decided to bail on the guitar and help out the team on drums. It was a lot of fun. But I am so paranoid about my hearing since the onset of tinnitus. I found myself hoping that I did not cause any damage to my ears by playing the drums.
There is no doubt that the tinnitus that I have been experiencing has come down significantly. It flairs a little bit every once in a while. For a few minutes here and there during the evening and when I first wake up in the morning. Some people afflicted with this terrible condition call it the T-Monster. Whatever I am experiencing is quite mild compared to some of the horror stories out there on the web. I really do not even notice it for most of the day and evening.
Most of my battle is pyschological. I think I will be okay with the passage of time. But I have certainly gone through a lot of stress with it. And there are days where the presence of tinnitus still causes me a lot of anxiety. I’m not sure why. I guess I will have to ask my therapist.
Hit Me
Jan.16.2007
I miss the old Nigerian spam mails. They were always very polite. Asking me if I would like to help them transfer tens of millions of dollars in return for a really generous fee. Typically about thirty percent.
But lately, new spam has taken a bit of a turn for the worse.
I received a note from a professional hitman, hired to kill me. Apparently I have been stalked by this assassin for the past 10 days. The hitman is prepared to drop the contract if I pay him $80,000. Not a bad deal.
I have collected pictures of some of the most stunning recording studios in the world and you can travel through the set by clicking 
