[RevMen]

Last Week I attended a workshop to become a certified Dangerous Decibels instructor.  It's a program designed to get the idea of hearing protection into the minds of kids before high school cynicism sets in.  It's a worthwhile goal, as we are in the beginning stages of a hearing loss epidemic, with something like 20% of kids ages 12 to 19 showing significant hearing loss.
 
Anyway, one of the things they showed us was the invention of a student named Genna Martin.  The invention is called Jolene.  The short of it is she modified a mannequin head to allow for a pretty accurate measurement of in-ear SPL produced by earbuds and headphones using inexpensive parts.
 
http://www.dangerousdecibels.org/jolene/
 

 
 
The purpose of Jolene is to alert young people to the fact that they're listening at literally dangerous levels.  They set it up in a busy place, like an outdoor mall, and wait for people to come up.  The unusual sight of a strangely dressed mannequin torso gets peoples attention easily enough.  The person running the display asks the passerby to turn on their iPod (or whatever) to their normal listening level, then they put the earbud/earphone on Jolene to see what the actual level is.  Dozens of Jolenes have been created all over the world (they're not all named Jolene).
 
And this is a great thing.  But it could also be useful for people here who are interested in a repeatable and fairly inexpensive way of measuring in-ear SPL.  The Jolene Cookbook is free to download and spells out the creation of your own Jolene in great detail.  It uses a cheap Radio Shack SLM, which is plenty accurate enough for these purposes.  Of course you don't need an entire mannequin, just a "head" of some kind would be sufficient.

 

[Steve Eddy]

Ooooh mama! Is she single?

 
Great educational project! Really need to get through to kids that if they love music, then it's sheer idiocy to damage the one thing that allows them to experience it.
 
Just had an idea. Perhaps another project could be "tinnitus hearing aids." You know how some schools give teenagers "virtual" babies that they have to keep and "care for" 24/7 to give them a taste of what it's like to have a real child? The tinnitus hearing aid would be something that would fit in their ear and produce a sound similar to that experienced by those suffering from tinnitus. They'd have to use it 24/7 for a period of time to give them a taste of just how maddening tinnitus can be.
 
Just a thought.
 
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[RevMen]

Part of the Dangerous Decibels program is playing a tinnitus recreation.  I will do everything I can to prevent that from happening to me.

 

[Steve Eddy]

Good!
 
Though playing it is one thing. Having to experience it over a long period of time (particularly while trying to sleep at night) I think could help drive the point home even better.
 
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[jaddie]

Part of the Dangerous Decibels program is playing a tinnitus recreation.  I will do everything I can to prevent that from happening to me.

Sometimes you can do everything right and it still happens. I've never been exposed to damage-level audio, never been in a noisy work environment, never worked a sound job without hearing protection, never been to rock concert, I don't shoot guns or blow stuff up, and have used hearing protection with all power tools for nearly all of my life.

Got tinnitus anyway.

I've had success by using some of the more recent conditioning principles though, and it's now quite livable, mostly not noticed during the day, sometimes not at night, which is a big improvement.

I applaud your efforts, though. Applauding quietly, with hearing protection.

 

[bigshot]

I know it's silly, but I used to be the recording supervisor for the Chipmunks. We recorded with a VSO (Variable Speed Oscillator) at about half speed. When the voices were sped up and played back, my ears would ache. I had to keep cotton in my ears. I think high frequencies are more damaging to hearing than any other. Maybe because people can't hear them as much.

 

[Steve Eddy]

Quote:

I know it's silly, but I used to be the recording supervisor for the Chipmunks. We recorded with a VSO (Variable Speed Oscillator) at about half speed. When the voices were sped up and played back, my ears would ache. I had to keep cotton in my ears. I think high frequencies are more damaging to hearing than any other. Maybe because people can't hear them as much.

 
I remember reading some years back right after they did the first Chipmonks movie, that they first tried just having the actors speak at normal speed and then shifting the pitch up digitally. But they didn't like the result and ended up doing as it was done originally with the actors speaking slowly and then speeding up the recording.
 
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[bigshot]

We always did it analogue on tape. The only time they did digital was realtime in the walkaround suits. I think they do it digital for the new movies, because the voice actors aren't able to control their half speed enunciation. It's a lot harder than you think. I had to pinch hit for chipmunk voices in one show.

 

[jaddie]

Great stuff, bigshot!  I'm awed, and I'm not being sarcastic.  That stuff was/is iconic.

 

[uchihaitachi]

Quote:

We always did it analogue on tape. The only time they did digital was realtime in the walkaround suits. I think they do it digital for the new movies, because the voice actors aren't able to control their half speed enunciation. It's a lot harder than you think. I had to pinch hit for chipmunk voices in one show.

What other cool stuff have you done? Please do tell!

 

[bigshot]

I didn't work on the good old Chipmunks, Jaddie. I worked on the crappy 80s ones. But it was a good learning experience. Uchi, you might have seen a cartoon video I produced for Bjork called "I Miss You". I also did a prime time special for Cartoon Network starring Yogi Bear called "Boo Boo Runs Wild". (I did Yogi's voice.) I worked for John K of Ren & Stimpy for ten years... commercials, tv series, comics, etc. But the thing I'm most proud of was producting the very first animated cartoons made for the internet. We had to design them so they would stream on a 14.4 dialup connection!

 

[Steve Eddy]

Quote:

But the thing I'm most proud of was producting the very first animated cartoons made for the internet. We had to design them so they would stream on a 14.4 dialup connection!

 
Didn't the Japanese beat you to that back in the 60's?

 
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[jaddie]

Quote:

I didn't work on the good old Chipmunks, Jaddie. I worked on the crappy 80s ones. But it was a good learning experience. Uchi, you might have seen a cartoon video I produced for Bjork called "I Miss You". I also did a prime time special for Cartoon Network starring Yogi Bear called "Boo Boo Runs Wild". (I did Yogi's voice.) I worked for John K of Ren & Stimpy for ten years... commercials, tv series, comics, etc. But the thing I'm most proud of was producting the very first animated cartoons made for the internet. We had to design them so they would stream on a 14.4 dialup connection!

Youtube is a wonderful thing there Yogi!