Hi! My tinnitus is horrible . . . constant ringing and missing some frequencies. My headphone days and long mixing sessions are over. When I am exposed to too much sound, my ears swell up, ring off the hook, and hurt. I am trying to save my hearing for composing and recording. My genre could best be described as retro indie alternative rock-ish with about 16-tracks of mostly live recorded audio, a couple of loops, and a couple of MIDI VSTis converted to audio. I'm on a MacMini M2. My question is . . . should I . . .

1. Use A.I. assisted apps (iZotope, Sonible, Sound Theory Gullfoss, etc.), generate a few mixes and ask around, "which on sounds best?"
2. Use canned presets like those found in EZMix, generate a few mixes and ask around, "which on sounds best?"
3. Send stems out for mixing and mastering to someone with good ears?
4. Send stems out for partial mixing . . . EQ, compression, etc., then add FX myself to maintain some control over flavor (guitar amp, vocal sound, etc.). Then re-send out for final mix and master?
5. Other?

Sub Question . . . On a Mac, would Logic be the best way to go for what I am trying to do?

 

I'd find a mixer I'd trust, preferably someone I know personally. A.I. isn't there yet to provide fully automated mixes, but we'll get there. If you can get someone to mix your songs and deliver them in stems so you can give them your personal final touches, that'd be great.

As for your second question, it doesn't really matter which DAW you use as long as you render all of your tracks in files of the same length, the same format, and they all beginning at the same 0:0:0:0 point in time.

 

Would you personally send out the raw stems for a total mix/master or do a hybrid collaboration whereby you get back processed stems to add touches, then re-send out?

 

I agree with AI comment, of course; but you could use Neutron to get a preliminary mix idea of what the song will be like. Then you can decide if something is worth sending to someone, or if you can do more work first; because you are either spending money or asking for a favor of someone. You shouldn't waste either until you know the song is worth it. An "AI mix" could be a useful tool, even if you have no intention on actually calling one a "finished track".

I would definitely skip "EZ Mix" and "presets" or anything like that. Logic is probably 90% why I even use Macs, so you should ask that part of someone else.

 

Would Neutron be a simpler, more comprehensive way to go for a preliminary mix than Sonible and/or a combo of other AI/Maching Learning options? Side note . . . If I get a song tracked I probably think it's worth the time and money. ;-) Most of my songs have been in the works for 10+ years. ;-)

 

my sincere condolences, this is the situation I'd like to avoid in future if at all possible,

on more positive note, majority of successful audio engineers have crippled hearing at some sort,
human ears are able to quickly adopt, so you gotta figure out if what you hear translates well or not,

we live in days of technology marvels, so it's rather possible to make music while being almost deaf,
it's important to settle on reference point, either be it someone else, or visual representations of reference tracks,

ultimately you want enjoyable composition and arrangement, which can't be shadowed by tinnitus problems,
and once you get your music/audio work going on, steady, it's just a mindset not to trouble with,

"which sounds best" is kinda ill approach, because people are deaf af, most sane way is to compare with "successful" tracks, if such thing can be objectively measured at all...

 

tzzsmk, Thanks for the excellent post. May I ask, what would you do in my situation?

 

all jokes aside, I'd start with a visit to a doctor,
if you have no clue what your ears hear, it's like having two speakers one of which being fucked up in untreated room - no matter how much you try it'll be shit afterall, no matter what "compensations" you do,
even if it would cost you money/time, it would be worthy investment imo, seriously,

next step would be to simply listen and enjoy familiar music on your speaker (headphone) setup - home studios are very underrated in a way people actually get familiar with what they hear and get used to hear, human ears are able to compensate uneven frequency response, reverb, delay, it's a marvel if you really think about it,

if you're unsure about what I write, check for ex. Dan Worrall videos on YouTube, you need to understand what you're dealing with, what the principles are, without being fucked up by those wannabe-sellers on YouTube pushing all the latest fuckin game-changer plugins down your throat,

speaking of the mix process, don't confuse AI with machine learning - just because of plugin "learned" shitton of famous music frequency profiles, doesn't mean it won't make your songs sound any less shit,
stems are tricky to begin with, you can't go top-down mixing route, and also you'd leverage trust/creativity to someone else, which may (or many not) produce wanted results,

you should learn proper stem mixing/delivery habits, in case of things get fucked up really bad in future, or just loose that confidence of yours in the mixing process - that said let's not give up, composition, arrangement and songwriting are equally as important as mixing or mastering,

on a Mac, frankly Apple would push you into latest and greatest Macs and MacOS versions to keep up with latest fancy Logic Pro X features - it is a way, but imo not long-term, hard to tell what your future holds

 

I have already spent my time and money at doctor's offices. My ears are permanently damaged and will not be repaired unless new tech enables. Hence, I cannot spend hours mixing, regardless of proper technique. My ears are fried, and I need to save them for song creation. So, I need to send my stems out to either an AI, Machine Learned presets, or someone with healthy ears. My question is . . . which option is best?

 

hmm I don't think anyone can answer that, maybe ask AI chat such question (not joking),

depends on genre, stems complexity and so on,
skilled engineer will get results better and faster than AI, but even so you may not be "happy" with the results,

perhaps sending your stems to multiple places (engineers, online services, AI services etc..) and choosing what you like most might be most reasonable choice - sure not cheap at first, but cheap in the long run once you figure out who/what will work best for your taste,

also let's not underestimate importance of hiring an actual (real) producer, they may be able to provide valuable feedback and guidance, a skilled "another set of ears" which might be what you're looking for, at an earlier stage than mixing or mastering

 

essentially what you are really after is diminishing your exposure to sound as much as possible.

In your shoes I would engage in song creation/arrangement and skip the complete recording and mixing stage.

 

+1
Even with 'ok' ears, I would find a mix engineer you can work with and concentrate on composing. Reasons being:

- every x years hearing degrades, no matter what
- a decent mix engineer probably invested or work in right sized, treated room /w good monitoring etc etc
- a decent mix engineer surely has more experience, even (and especially) when they're 'older' (and can't hear shit above 1X kHz)

That said, you can give AI or whatever a chance for a quick demo mixdown that you probably want to send to your mix eng. anyway. Just do what you do best.. theoretically you can write 9 pretty good symphonies with 60-100% hearing loss

 

It's a more "all-in-one" solution than anything else I have seen or used; but you can still use other plugins if you want to. Many users just use it to finish up a mix, and some use it for most,if not all; of their mixing for finished tracks. I do not think it is as good as an external producer/mixer, but it would put you in the ballpark with way many less listens to get there. How good it turns out is still up to you.

 

Beethoven could write all that incredible music after he was deaf but he handed over the mixing, mastering and posting to social media to his assistant, Ferdinand Ries.

 

I'm super grateful for any and all comments. It's really helping me find a way out of this dilemma

 

First off, I’m really sorry for your hearing damage. I really am. As for your question, I guess I’d try to relearn to mix with the resources at hand. It must be like learning a new set of monitors. I’d find someone to mix along with. Maybe you won’t be able to assess with accuracy what your music sounds like, but with the input of someone else who knows what they are doing, you can learn to focus on making the best of what you can actually hear. I’d send my tracks to someone with the same DAW as mine, ask for the mix project with mirror plugins and deconstruct it to see what they’ve done and how much of that you can hear yourself. That will show you the extent of mixing, sound design and quality recording you can do yourself. If not useful, at least it will be fun. You can use visual analyzers and tools like that to get a more complete picture of a mix.

 

Wise career choice. Mozart tried to handle all that shiite by himself and ended up OD'ing on fent laced bars at a young age.

Joke aside, OP, this may sound stupid, but what about mixing at low volume?
There's a nice Dan Worrall video about it, it doesn't really address serious hearing damage but if it can help even a little I'd give it a try :

 

Hey I'm on your very same spot for 4 years now. Tinnitus and noxoacusis (sound induced pain). Incurable but not intratable. Keep going to the doc or change to another one if you're not getting much help, this is the most important thing, find a doc who cares and who is on the look out for new treatments cause this is pretty much uncharted territory in medicine. Right now I'm on a betahistine that seems to have loweing the noxoacusis a bit, then 10mg of melatonin every nigth to help me rest, not more being awaking in the middle of the night unable to go to sleep again cause the ringing. I'll leave you here the study about melatonin and tinnitus.

Two thing that have really improved the illness A LOT is working out, more muscles, more blood flow, less ringing, less pain. And an anti infalmatory diet (meaning reducing carbs and sugar a lot). This changes takes like a year or so to really notice but I wish I started earlier, don't lose time. Also no alcohol (which is sugar on esteroids), really bad drug for the ears for obvious reasons. Psylocibin is fine although very few people reported that it has worsened their symtoms if you are not in that group it really helps maintaing mental stability cause this thing kicks you hard in that department.

As for the mixing, let's don't fool ourselves. The only healthy option is to mix really quiet to get a rough idead of what you want (and here you can use all the presets/methods you've mentioned) and then send it to a profesional if you want pro results. Another thing that had happened to me is that I was doing neurofunk loudness war thrench before this kick in and gradually started to add and desing a lot of new sounds that doesn't hurt my ears, lots of strings and such as you'll be easing transients a lot where isn't necessary cause of this don't be afraid to try other genres.

Hope it helps, cheers!

 

I took an 8 1/2 hour flight two weeks ago and my tinnitus was maybe 30% of what it was when I landed. I usually despise flying and avoid it at all costs, but tomorrow I'm looking forward to being crammed into a tiny chair with the person's seat in front of me far, far too close to the tip of my nose, the without love made terrible food and by the end of the day, a foul smelling toilet that's too gross to even cop a squat and take a dump.

Pressure and depressurization might deal an answer.

 

My ears ring even more when I go up or down in elevation. Maybe the pressure change?