The most important tools of a musician – ears!
While setting up my new music room (with new studio monitors APS Klasik 2020) I was reminded again, what I noticed for years, but somehow never was a problem. Everyone hears different! Different ears, room, setup, monitors, cables, mood, …
Yes, we all know. But let’s stay on ears. I noticed (againg): My left ear does hear different to my right ear.
O.k. google says, right ear dominance for better understanding speach in the left brain… and so on... And I thought because of my tinnitus on the left and maybe some hearing damage from playing to loud in my youth, I have some more imbalance than others.
But now the interesting part. With my new APS studio monitors the stereo stage is much wider and I noticed a few things and started to think. Studio monitors at ear height. O.k. but what if my ears are not symmetrically screwed on my head J And ear canal and form isn’t the same too? So I looked at pictures of famous mixing and mastering engineers. There are a few with enough „ear asymmetry“ that would lead to different left / right hearing. So of course the brain will get used to it and maybe compensate. But the ear form is definetly a factor of how we receive a sound.
For fun I asked friends, family members and work colleagues. And the results surprised me. Almost every one (right handed) has the right ear dominant. Meaning, they hold the phone to the right ear, trust the right ear, turn the right ear towards a conversation... But they also say, the right ear feels more comfortable for listening to very loud music (or noise). It is more "dulled" than the left ear and not so sensitive. But still it is the prefered ear to listening for details too. The left ear seems to be clearer, sometimes louder, but at the same time it’s not the favourite ear. Holding the phone to the left ear, all people (me included) said, it feels discomfortable, brighter, shrill.
Any (lefthanded) people out there, that have other experiences? Does someone hear completely the same left and right?
Considering ear form, ear placement on the head, left / right differences, different tasks of left and right brain, hearing impairment with musicians and engineers, room acoustic… listening impressions of people are more subjectiv than I thought! But still, the ears are our most important tools.