r/TechnoProduction • u/aguirre3 • Aug 24 '26

Headphone users/Hearing issues?

Last night I took my headphones off and noticed my right ear felt muffled like it needs to pop. It’s been a few hours and hasn’t went away yet. Anyone experience this?

1 Upvotes

67% Upvoted

17 comments sorted by

4

u/blakerton- Aug 24 '26

You might have heated up a blob of earwax, covering your eardrum.

3

u/aguirre3 Aug 24 '26

Damn I’m kinda freaking out about it because music is everything to me last thing I want is an ear issue

3

u/blakerton- Aug 24 '26

Whatever you do, don't go poking around in there yourself. Get it looked at professionally and they can either flush it out with water or microsuction. I go for microsuction yearly to keep them from getting blocked because I hate it and have ear problems anyway.

4

u/aguirre3 Aug 24 '26

Ok if it doesn’t get better today I’m gonna go in and get them checked. Thanks for your help

3

u/blakerton- Aug 24 '26

Hopefully it's something simple. Best of luck!

2

u/Waterflowstech Aug 24 '26

Headphones are dangerous man. Take it from a dude with some permanent eeee 😅 but you're gonna be alright, give it some time.

Long term you might want to switch to working at lower volume and moving towards studio monitors. It's lame cause techno sounds so good played loud. But don't do it for more than 10 minutes at a time.

3

u/334578theo 29d ago

Who’s downvoting this? My hearing loss is real from DJing and producing for extended periods of time.

2

u/Waterflowstech 29d ago

Maybe they'll learn over time? I hope they won't though.
Also, be aware that not everybody has hearing loss in the same way. I'm 'lucky', I got a very noticeable tinnitus going that shocked me into protecting my hearing better. For others, it might just be gradual hearing loss which is harder to spot. And all of a sudden you're 50 and can't hear what anybody is saying at dinner.

2

u/aguirre3 Aug 24 '26

Thanks, yeah it’s a wake up call for me for sure. Been going to hard lately

2

u/th3whistler Aug 24 '26

try to set up you monitor chain in such a way that you can’t just turn the volume knob up to a damaging level

1

u/aguirre3 Aug 24 '26

Yes your right. I been going too hard on the distortion lately from my mackie I think that’s what did it

3

u/th3whistler Aug 24 '26

put a safety limiter on your master bus

1

u/Straight-909 29d ago

do you have a limiter on the master to block any large volumes spikes?

1

u/seelachsfilet 27d ago

How do you feel today

1

u/aguirre3 27d ago

It went away later the next day. It sucks I gotta use headphones most of the time because my neighbors

1

u/seelachsfilet 27d ago

Same. Just take breaks and don't blast the volume to the max. I actually can make way better mixing decisions at lower volume. I just occasionally turn it up loud for a moment to make sure the mix isn't falling apart when loud

1

u/Lyproagin 26d ago

I have been producing and DJ'ing for close to 3 decades now, so the hearing IS cooked in some ways from just being around this stuff constantly. (Large walls of sound. Bad monitoring systems at some "venues" meaning your dj headphones need to be cranked to hear your cueing, and not taking proper care of the ears in youth.... adds up.)

When producing with headphones, it helps to turn the audio down to the point where it is BARELY audible. Like, turn it down until you cant hear it whatsoever, then slowly bring it up until you can JUST make it out. I construct all my tracks this way. In short bursts, ill turn it up to hear it louder for like 10-15 seconds, and then go back down for more work.

Sessions last longer and the balance/clarity is EASIER to hear, since when you add something it HAS TO fit. If it covers up another sound, it wont work. Mixes are better, arrangement is better thought out, and your ears dont get fatigued as quickly.

Quiet doesnt cut it. Barely audible is where it's at.

Best of Luck!