How consistent are your ears?

  • Thread starter Thread starter gybe!
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I don’t think it changes too much day to day. What changes for me is about 20 minutes after playing/mixing my ears change. So I’ll be playing for hours dial in something that I think sounds sick on that day, then I come in with fresh ears days or an day later and I’m like damn… that sounds like shit. I’m trying to limit myself more, take breaks, etc… which is tough to do because I can only play mix so much as family life is real busy.

If I’m chasing whistley frequencies on guitar I literally limit myself to 10 minutes. Or all I hear is fuckin whistles in guitar tone and it ruins me for days lol.
 
RedPlated said:
😂😂😂😂

Man. You take yourself WAY too seriously. I agree with everyone else here. I’m not getting worked up over your tantrums.

I’m seriously laughing right now.
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RedPlated said:
😂😂😂😂

Man. You take yourself WAY too seriously. I agree with everyone else here. I’m not getting worked up over your tantrums.

I’m seriously laughing right now.
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I just look at the pictures.
 
I think my ears are actually better now in some ways than 30 years ago ... I use metal picks (0.03mm) with coins glued to them (for a bit of thickness) and I swear I can hear different sounds depending on the coin type and size.
And I can still learn songs by ear relatively easily in terms of picking out the notes/chords, but I now find in tough to concentrate long enough to actually sit there and learn songs that way
 
Tough to control everything that you're exposed to during gigs, but a quiet stage is a good start.

For mixing, monitor at 85dB SPL or less and you'll never have a problem with the consistency of your hearing's frequency response. IOW, you'll prevent fatigue and its attendant HF roll-off and whatnot.
 
easiest way to tell if voltage is affecting your sound, they sell the plug in wall monitors for under 10 bucks at Walmart. Just watch what it's doing, in relation to what you're hearing that day. You might be as surprised as I was.
 
Erock said:
easiest way to tell if voltage is affecting your sound, they sell the plug in wall monitors for under 10 bucks at Walmart. Just watch what it's doing, in relation to what you're hearing that day. You might be as surprised as I was.
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I recently did this and noticed that just like 2-3 volts made a big difference in tone. Am I crazy? I can't tell if its my amp or the voltage but I get variations in volume when playing at softer levels.

Seems like when the wall is at 120 it's the best and loudest but not as great up at like 122 or so
 
RaceU4her said:
barometric pressures in the atmosphere, humidity levels, jet streams ect can all have an impact on toan. high humidity and low mids dont work well cause the mids get stuck in the atmosphere and then sound tubby
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This is very vey true . Even more than that .
 
Pretty consistent, but I'll tell you something I've never figured out. I used to go for a run of a few miles. Every time I would finish, music always seemed slightly slower in tempo. As I've gotten older, things sometimes sound slightly faster than I remember.
 
tjnx said:
I recently did this and noticed that just like 2-3 volts made a big difference in tone. Am I crazy? I can't tell if its my amp or the voltage but I get variations in volume when playing at softer levels.

Seems like when the wall is at 120 it's the best and loudest but not as great up at like 122 or so
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Not crazy at all. Dr. Z has a long video about it, it's not in your head.

 
Erock said:
Not crazy at all. Dr. Z has a long video about it, it's not in your head.

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I looked into this a bit a while ago, the problem with the variacs is the voltage fluctuations. I can see on the wall it will go up +3 at a given moment.

I looked at some ups's and regulators but the resolution was +/- 5v. If there was something that was more locked I'd be all for it
 
tjnx said:
I looked into this a bit a while ago, the problem with the variacs is the voltage fluctuations. I can see on the wall it will go up +3 at a given moment.

I looked at some ups's and regulators but the resolution was +/- 5v. If there was something that was more locked I'd be all for it
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I had the same problem. My power grid is held together by duct tape and bailing twine. I got a black lion regulator, and it solved my issue.
 
BeZo said:
Gotta remember though, we don't just hear with our ears. We listen with our brain. Being tired can fatigue your hearing all the same. My tinnitus is always worse at night than it is in the morning.
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This. For me. I've always wondered about these tone fluctuations myself. It comes up every now and then on this board. I am of the impression it is a combination of brain, weather, voltage and simply having a bad tone day. It's crazy. I'm pretty sure my voltage is very consistent but didn't know a few volts in either direction was enough to affect this. I can usually tell within about 5 minutes if I'm going to have a good tone day or bad tone day. Its usually good, but hot damn.
:lol:

My tinnitus is worse at night before and after sleep. If I didn't have a fan in my bedroom - it would probably drive me nuts. When we travel, we take a small portable fan.
 


If you watch the light bar/meter on my Furman PL Plus which feeds into a Furman AR 1215 voltage regulater current is a living thing no set & forget.
Its always going to fluxuate 2 to 3 volts no matter what unless you're a touring Pro with 100,000's of dollars for that kind of rig.
 
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RedPlated said:
Better to who? You?

He didn’t ask about gigging. You brought that up.

A variac is better for a lot of guys because you can vary the voltage lower to brown out the sound, accommodate older amps that like to see lower voltages etc… on top of being able to control the voltage to a set point so that it’s more consistent in sound. Is your voltage regulator going to do all that? And I guarantee that voltage regulator is 5x the cost, at least.

You seem to be making a point just to have a difference of opinion and no other reason.
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Nope, just can’t resist on posting a pic on whatever he has whether it’s all that relevant or not.
 
Yes posting guitar pics on a guitar forum i was up to no good just as everyone suspected. The nerve.
Almost as bad and posting butchered meat in a "butcher" thread.
 
53pghXXl.jpg
 
I used to have a ton of problems with consistently hearing same thing. Everyone talks about wall voltage, working heat, aliens, etc.

All that is fine and well. The best trick i have found was given to me from @MGL AmpWorks
I wanted a single channel, but he gave me an extra volume in lieu of a clean channel. What i do is have one master that is practicing volume. The other is playing volume. THIS is what I EQ my amp to. This cannot be overstated.

Changes in your master are going to greatly affect what you hear in your tone stack. If you are not consistent with the volume, you will be grabbing the eq to hear what you think you need to. Then you change the volume and it is off.

The amp needs to be breathing fire for you to know how it sounds
 
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