Finding the Rhythm

Clear back in October 2007, I wrote a blog entry with the title, Are you people deaf? It was basically a rant about how to ruin a perfectly good dance song.

I mentioned it only briefly in that entry, but not only are some producers deaf (apparently), but I’m also guessing most DJs are as well. Before I dig into what I’m talking about, let me rant a bit about hearing.

When I was a lot younger, I did spend more than one night in clubs where I left the place with my ears ringing to the point I couldn’t hear normally until well into the next day. While most clubbers experience this every time they leave a club, let’s be clear: This is not a good thing. If you’re ears are ringing, you have done damage that’s going to subtly add-up over time. Even after your hearing has “recovered,” the damage is done, and it will be additive each time you do more of it.

People like a thundering bass you can feel, and nice loud music to drown-out all the drunk babbling I guess, but I’d prefer to keep my hearing, which is why I use Etymotic’s high fidelity ear plugs at clubs and concerts. They reduce sound levels by about 20 db, and do so pretty much evenly across audible frequencies, meaning that using them is basically like turning the volume down without giving it a muffled quality.

As for DJs, based on the ones I’ve worked with, it’s apparent that most have been doing this so long without any regard for their own hearing that their hearing is already shot. I don’t use booth monitors—that’s why I have headphones—but those DJs I’ve worked with who do, usually turn them up well past my comfort zone, obviously because otherwise, they can’t hear the music. This is why I also end-up using the Etymotic ear plugs while DJ’ing in many cases; it’s just too loud otherwise.

Point #1: DJs and Clubbers—Protect your hearing now, or you will regret it later, and there is no way to fix it once you destroy it. (This goes for DJs, and for the people who listen to them.)

This past Saturday, at my benefit gig, I was paid a high compliment by Mika from Fastlane Productions, who provided the event’s electrical, lighting and audio. (These guys were fantastic to work with, and I hope to do so again in the future.) He told me I’m the first DJ he’s ever worked with who understood anything about signal levels and the need to not overdrive the audio. I was, in a word, nonplussed.

Unfortunately, this says way less about me than it does my fellow DJs. Every DJ mixer I’ve seen has VU meters that show you visually the signal levels. Most have them for the main mix, and many (including mine) have them on a channel-by-channel basis, too. And I would not have thought it was rocket science to understand that the target level for audio is always roughly 0 db on average. If you go past 0 db, the audio will overdrive and distort—on the peaks, if not on the entire signal.

But based on what I hear when I go to most clubs, Mika’s right; DJs just don’t get it. Most clubs I go to, the sound is overdriven into distortion. It starts out the night in good enough shape, but as the evening progresses, it’s pushed higher and higher (probably in proportion to the DJ’s increasing hearing loss) until it’s distorted and unenjoyable to listen to (with or without my Etymotic ear plugs).

Point #2: DJs—If you want it louder, turn-up the amps; don’t just ram the mixer sliders to the stop and crank the main mix level up all the way. VU meters are there for a reason. (And oh yeah, yellow and red? Those colors generally mean “danger.”)

I touched on this in my original post, but there are surprising number of dance tracks that are pushed into distortion, and actually released that way. Proper mastering by a professional audio engineer would never have allowed that to get through to a DJ in the first place; my guess is that these tracks are amateur jobs done by people who just have this idea that “louder = better.”

Yes, to a certain degree, louder = better, because most people expect modern electronic music to be driven pretty hard signal-wise. However, distorted ≠ better. Distorted = amateur. Distorted = crap. Distorted = I won’t play the track.

Point #3: DJs—As computer scientists say, “Garbage in, garbage out.” If you have a track that sounds like crap, don’t play it. In the end, it makes you sound like crap. (Oh, and crap? Crap isn’t good.)

The bottom line is that it really doesn’t take that much effort to sound good. But to be able to discern what “sounds good,” you need to have good hearing. So protect your hearing, for a start. But then use it to take pride in what you’re doing. Learn the very basics about audio, apply them, and the world will be a little better place.