Re: What's loud?

[Peter Groom] "don’t mix everything as if it were to be heard by a hearing impaired person"

Thank you. I find this stuff interesting and it’s good to know what approaches the pros are taking.

What follows is just some rambling thoughts:

"Impaired” is relative. As people age their hearing and eyesight usually weaken.

There are lessons to be learned from adjusting design to accommodate a weak link. Well-designed ramps are an improvement not only for wheelchairs but also for baby carriages and dollies (both production and hauling loads). Or for anyone with a sore back, ankle, knee, hang over, over the age of XXX, etc. Stadium seating improves the line of site for everyone not just short people. Teaching strategies that work for learning disabled kids play very well in the general population (using multi-modalities for example).

I do not test as being hearing impaired. However, I would consider audio discrimination/reproduction a weakness. I have a hard time learning pronunciations and very helpful to see it in print as I hear it. It annoys me when I can’t make out dialog at the movies. Often in such a moment when I turn to the person next to me and whisper, “What did he just say?” The answer is, “I don’t know?” To me, that’s poor audio mixing or perhaps recording.

Another example of considering the weak link would be playing back a rock song in the studio on cheap equipment to see how it would sound to those who own such crap, which represent a very large percentage of rock’s target audience.

All that said, hopefully technology and/or medical advancements will eliminate all these weaknesses and we will all be perfect receptacles for whatever bumps in the road or pop culture tracks is thrown at us.

MacPro4,1 2.66GHz 8 core 12gigs of ram. GPU: Nvidia Geoforce GT120 with Vram 512. OS X 10.6.x; Camcorders: Panasonic AG-HPX170, Sony Z7U, Canon HV30/40, Sony vx2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.