EARS ARE GROSS! BeBird EarSight Cleaning Cameras Review!

BeBird Ear Cleaning cameras review! 

Ears are kinda funky. Weird shapes, lots of "stuff" like wax, hard to care for, and REALLY sensitive. Adding a small ear camera to your family's medicine toolbox is a REALLY good idea. BeBird is hoping to make endoscopic cameras as common in homes as thermometers and scales. 

Let's chat about some options for family health tech! Here's a look at the BeBird EarSIght Pro and Earsight Complete (and a look INSIDE my own ears)! 

H2O Audio Tri 2 Pro Bone Conduction Headphones: TOO Sporty for Me?

H2O Audio Review! 

I'm a BIG fan of bone conduction headphones, but even these might be a bit above my pay grade! You've got to build audio to a different level to cater to folks competing in triathlons. For someone how takes casual hikes out in the hills, I'm definitely not working this headset as hard as it can go. 

For the folks who NEED that kind of capability though, I think they're in for a treat... 

Interview: Monika McMahon chats Noiselace Necklaces - Fashionable Earplugs for Concert Fans!

I got to meet Monika during my recent adventure out at the Firefly 2014 Music Festival with the Microsoft Lumia and MixRadio crews. She's a concert and travel blogger who created the Noiselace Necklace, a MUCH more fashionable way to protect your hearing while out at shows than traditional gummy earplugs. She joined me for a quick chat about Noiselace, concerts, and going Paleo.



Noiselace Necklaces: http://www.noiselace.com/
Noiselace on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Noiselace
Monika on Twitter: https://twitter.com/monikarun

FFC VLOG - Firefly 2014 Music Festival!

Review: The Brita Water Filtering Bottle

So, I don't normally review "lifestyle" products, clothing, that kind of stuff, but if you read my last article about staying healthy, an important component of that is staying hydrated. I consume a tremendous amount of water during the day, mainly because of the amount of talking I have to do while directing.

From a political perspective, I'm also very much against any kind of single-use disposable plastic product. I try not to use or buy ziploc bags or bottled water, whenever I can help it. Just seems like a waste of perfectly good oil and energy to throw stuff away like that.

Combine those two needs, and I've tried out several solutions to try and stay hydrated. The biggest problem (admittedly a "First World" problem) is I often don't like the taste of water whenever I fill up my bottle from taps or sinks. L.A. water often has a slightly sour taste.

For the last week I've been using a Brita Water Filtering Bottle. I'm very pleased with it. The plastic is BPA free, dishwasher safe, and includes a mini filter which connects directly to the sport nozzle. This helps guarantee that all water leaving the bottle is filtered. It's one of those "why didn't I think of that first" kind of ideas...

I can't speak to the claims of filtering contaminants (I don't have a lab handy), but it does significantly reduce the sour taste from my kitchen faucet. The filter should also function for about two months under normal use, though I'll probably need to replace it sooner than that.

In the brief period I've used it, the Brita has already kept me from reaching for bottle water at two of the studios I work for. If you're in need of some kind of water solution I would recommend checking one out. At most retailers it can often be found for about the same price as a comparable (but filter-less) Nalgene bottle.

After Four Years, My Voice is Starting to Come Back

To be a successful working voice actor pretty much means at some point you'll need to become a complete germ-a-phobe.

At some point you'll have to get a little obsessed with your health. Depending on your market, you'll likely be forced to encounter MANY people in enclosed, poorly ventilated spaces, using equipment that's been biologically abused by other people.

Staying in shape, eating well, getting plenty of rest, these behaviors become important tools in the small business arsenal of the working voice actor. You have to count on your instrument, even when you're not at 100%. The human body can be surprisingly fragile, especially at those times we need to count on it most.

Almost four years ago, during the WGA strike, I had just left the talent agency I was working at. A genius piece of timing on my part, but I was getting some decent freelance work, and we were making ends meet. I can't say for certain if I picked it up from the agency, or if I acquired it from one of the studio gigs I did immediately after, but I somehow managed to come down with a case of whopping cough.

If you've never had whooping cough (Pertussis), I would highly recommend avoiding it if you can. For about five weeks I was racked by coughing fits that would so inflame my throat, that I would often be unable to respirate. Trying to breathe normally would often result in just swallowing air (being redirected to my stomache instead of my lungs), and getting air into my lungs often meant painfully slow, shallow breaths were neccessary. This creates the "Whoooofing" zombie-like sound associated with the name of the disease.

Recovering from the cough also had another consequence, it wrecked my voice.

Where I used to be able to play and shout with my actors all day, after the cough it only took a couple minutes of talking to completely wipe out my ability to speak. My character voices were gone. My chest resonance was gone. My nasal resonance was difficult to find. My voice lost most of its tone, and I was left with an airy facsimile of what I used to have.

I probably rushed my recovery, but I had just become a freelancer, and we needed the cash. It also doesn't help that I had MISERABLE health insurance during that transition. I'm still thankful that the infection was a mild one...

Returning to the present, over the last several days, I've been experiencing something of a return. Traces of my old voice are starting to come back, the vibration in my chest, the buzz in my face when I nail a good tone. I can push the volume a little harder. I can throw a little texture on it.

I really thought these features of my speaking voice were gone forever.

It's exciting, invigorating, and scary all at the same time. I don't want it to leave again. I want to protect it. It's like I got a little piece of my life back. Almost four years later...

So actors, stay healthy, eat well, get plenty of rest, and wash your damn hands.

Random Headphone Fact....

Wearing headphones for an hour will increase the bacteria in your ear by 700 times.

Thanks Mom!

Pic Courtesy of Headwize.

Stop Hearing Loss With Antioxidants?

I wonder if this really helps.
I was always under the assumption that once you lost hearing, it NEVER came back.

Is there anything I can do to prevent my mild deafness from worsening as I age?

ROBERT ANDERSON, M.D., REPLIES: Yes. Researchers believe that as we age, cumulative exposure to everyday noise and occasional incidents of excessively loud noise damage delicate hearing cells to cause mild deafness. Fortunately, the following measures can slow, stabilize, or even reverse this process. Here's what to do:
Wear Ear Protection. Wear headphones or ear plugs whenever you may be exposed to more than 85 decibels of noise, like when you use a lawn mower or a chain saw, or attend a rock concert.
Make (and Take) Antioxidants. Large amounts of superoxide dismutase, an antioxidant, helped prevent noise-related hearing damage in animal experiments. Your body makes superoxide dismutase; to ensure that you produce enough, take 15 to 30 mg of zinc and 15 mg of manganese daily. Taking antioxidant supplements can also reduce the risk of noise-induced deafness, according to studies. Take 25,000 IU of mixed carotenoids, 5,000 to 10,000 IU of vitamin A (do not take more than 5,000 IU if you're pregnant or planning to be), 1 to 2 g of vitamin C, and 400 IU of natural vitamin E (d-alpha tocopherol) daily. The vitamin A and C doses are high because your body needs more of them when exposed to stress (like loud noise). Ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba) may also help stabilize hearing loss. Take 80 to 120 mg of ginkgo daily.
Nix Nutrient Deficiencies. People with age-related hearing impairment have been shown to have 40 percent lower levels of vitamin [B.sub.12] and 30 percent lower levels of folic acid compared to those with normal hearing. To stabilize hearing, take a daily B complex that has at least 400 mcg of [B.sub.12] and 400 mcg of folic acid. Studies have also connected a vitamin D deficiency with chronic hearing loss, so take 400 IU daily.
Cut Out Cow's Milk. Occasionally, I have found that partially deaf patients who completely avoided dairy products and other foods containing whey, like luncheon meats and puddings, returned their hearing to normal. Researchers found high amounts of a protein molecule identical to one in cow's milk in the cochleae (hearing organs) of 89 percent of patients with age-related hearing loss, while people with normal hearing had none, according to a 1994 study in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Audio Guy Mailbag: A Question on Earbuds

This is a perfect follow up to my post about Dr. Kiki.

So earbuds are bad. Are headphones any better than earbuds?
-B.A.K.

I guess I should clarify. It's not that earbuds themsleves are bad for you, it's how we use them that's the problem.
In the past there has always been a limit to how much we can bombard our ears with directly. A tape would have to be flipped, a cd would be over in under an hour, double A batteries would run out, something would prevent you from being able to saturate your ears for too long. Now with mp3 players (with built in, all day lasting batteries) there's no reason not to soak your ears in sound all day and all night.

Earbuds (the cheap kind that normally come with mp3 players) SUCK for this kind use. They don't create ANY seal around the outside of the ear, so your music is competing with the noise in your environment. The only way to combat that is to turn the volume up higher. The louder the volume, the less time you have before you're doing subtle (but possibly permanent) damage to your hearing.

The alternative is to use ANYTHING with some kind of noise reduction. I like inner-aural earbuds (the kind with rubber or foam that go INSIDE your ear canal), but some people think they're uncomfortable.
You could also check out headphones that have active noise removal (but that might mean keeping some batteries on hand). Regardless, if you can strip out the noise of your surrounding environment, then you can listen to your music at a lower volume, without sacrificing the quality of music (in fact, it'll probably sound better for it), which should give you more listening time before you exhaust your ears.
Right now I use Sennheiser CX300's for listening to music, and Sennheiser HD25-1 II's for recording. I guess I'm just a Sennheiser kinda guy...

At the turn of the millenium, white earbuds were a fashion statement.
Now?
Toss em. They're crap.

someaudioguy some audio guy music recording voice over production voice acting demo adr dubbing headphones earbuds science health hearing

PopSiren's Dr. Kiki explains how earbuds work

So, you should REALLY be watching PopSiren. I think it's one of Revision3's most ambitious shows yet (and Heather Frank is pretty bad ass). The show, hosted by Sarah Lane and Jessica Corbin, covers all manner of subjects from lifehacking to DIY, and Dr. Kiki covers a lot of "Mr. Wizard"- like topics (like making fire dance with sound waves).

In their most recent episode Dr. Kiki demonstrated how earbud headphones work. Being the A/V nerd that I am, how could I NOT be totally stoked. I've written about earbuds before, and was really happy to hear Dr. Kiki also warn her audience about the possible hearing damage associated with cheap earbuds.

Here's Episode 6 of PopSiren, but you should really subscribe to this show with something like Miro.
Enjoy!

someaudioguy some audio guy music voice over hearing headphones recording equipment voice acting demo production adr dubbing

Top Ten List NerdGasm! Lifehackers Top Twenty Top Ten Lists!

I'm a SUCKER for Top Ten lists, and Lifehackers Top Twenty Top Ten lists doesn't disappoint!

• Top 10 iPhone Applications
• Top 10 Free Windows Downloads
• Top 10 USB Thumb Drive Tricks
• Top 10 Free Computer System Recovery Tools
• Top 10 Wi-Fi Boosts, Tweaks and Apps
• Top 10 Free Video Rippers, Encoders, and Converters
• Top 10 Free Wallpaper, Fonts and Icon Sources
• Top 10 Body Hacks
• Top 10 Ways to Sleep Smarter and Better
• Top 10 Google Products You Forgot All About
• Top 10 Must-have Firefox Extensions
• Top 10 Ubuntu Applications
• Top 10 Ways to Clean Up Your PC
• Top 10 Mac OS X Tweaks
• Top 10 DIY Office Projects
• Top 10 Free Mac Downloads
• Top 10 Food and Drink Hacks
• Top 10 New and Improved Apps of 2007
• Top 10 Home Networking Tricks
• Top 10 PDF Tricks

Whew!
I think I need a cigarette...

Apple forcing us to turn down the volume?

So, this story isn't new, been floating around teh intarwebs since before Xmas (and I've written about this before), but I still think it's worth taking a quick look at.
The Telegraph reported on Dec 23rd, that Apple has filed a patent that would allow future iPods to calculate how long you've been listening to music, at what volume you've been listening, and would gradually turn down the volume on you. This is supposed to be a big magnanimous gesture on Apple's part, as people can plug into music all day long thanks to huge amounts of storage available. As hearing loss can be a gradual event, most people might not even know they're doing damage.
This idea sounds great in theory (like a rev limiter on car helps save fuel and forces you to not do something too stupid), but I see some huge flaws.

First off, will this be a feature we can turn off? It sounds like a silly question at first, but Apple has shown a tendency (as do a lot of tech companies) towards locking consumers into doing things their way because they "know better" (iPhone I'm looking at you). If Mommies and Daddies get concerned about little Timmy's Nano, Jobs & Co could make this a new locked in "feature" to assuage concerns, or make it painfully difficult to disable.
Why would I want to turn it off? Well the majority of the time I listen to my iPod it's usually plugged into speakers of some kind. Also I hate proprietary docks and connectors, so I plug my Nano in using the headphone jack. In my car I have a line in, and at home my stereo has an "MP3 port" (which is just a fancy way of saying "line in"). In both cases I'll jack the Nano to about 80% volume and then control the actual speaker output via the stereo. If this system is monitoring the ipods output it's going to think I'm blasting my ears for hours at a time. I don't want to be fighting my MP3 player while driving...

Secondly, this issue with people listening to music too loud for too long is mostly Apple's fault at this point. A lot of people credit the success of the ipod with the distinctive design of the white earbuds. Well guess what? Those are HORRIBLE for your ears! They don't create any seal around the ear's opening, so your music is constantly having to compete with the sounds around you. The louder the noise, the louder you'll have to turn up your music. The ipod is a fantastic DAP. The headphones included are the worst dime store crap you could put in your ears.
If Apple really cared about protecting people's hearing, they would drop these headphones immediately, or would include an accessory like the Griffin Ear Jams to help with the problem. Even the Zune includes "premium" headphones which help with noise cancellation, and should allow people to enjoy music at lower volume.

When I do listen to Nano with headphones, it's either on Sony EX51's (pictured) or Sennheiser cx300's. Even when working out, I have a hard time listening above 50% volume, which according to the Telegraph (sidebar), is about as noisy as a loud restaurant or office building, and shouldn't damage the ears for about 24 hours of listening. That's a lot of music...



Check out the article @ The Telegraph. It is an interesting read, though I really think Apple might be missing the point.

Ask Engadget - Best Earbuds?

I really like the "Ask Engadget" posts. They open the comments to the community to try and get advice on a particular topic. This one is all about music earbuds, and is right up my alley.

First off if you're still rocking the white buds that came with your ipod, STOP IT! The headphones that come with most MP3 players are REALLY BAD FOR YOU!

I'm talking about the really-cheapy-hard-plastic-rest-just-on-the-outside-of-your-ear-phones. The problem with these earbuds is they don't create a very good seal around your ear. That means a LOT of sound from the outside world can leak in. The more outside sound that leaks in, the louder you have to play music to rise above the extra noise. The louder you have to play music, the faster your ears get tired.
Some experts even believe that hearing loss starts after an hour of listening on buds, so the problem will compound as you have to keep jacking the volume as your ears tire and wear out.

So how do we fix this issue? We reduce the noise around you!

Recently there have been huge advances in consumer noise reduction technologies, and you can pick between Active and Passive reduction.


Active reduction headphones have a microphone built into them that "listens" to the world around you, and then "removes" the noises you don't want to hear.

Passive reduction is just that, passive. It works by creating a better seal around your ear to physically stop sounds from entering your ear. Either way, there's less competition for your ears, less crap for your ears to filter, and you can turn down the volume while having a better listening experience.

Both active and passive have their pros and cons. Active needs power, and that means a battery bulge somewhere. Active also wont block single noises, just constant noises (airplane engines, traffic noise). This can actually be good as you should be able to carry a conversation with little effort, or you should be able to hear an alert if your walking around (like a horn honk from a car about to run you over).
Passive on the other hand blocks EVERYTHING. It's a hard adjustment for some, as the world around you will sound like you're underwater.

Personally I actually prefer Passive, just because of the battery issue, and I like the thicker bass that usually comes with having your ear closed up, though some people find it muddy. Right now I'm rocking a pair of Sennheiser CX300's, which were a great buy at $45.

Using the following links, shop for Music or Headphones on Amazon, and you'll be supporting this site at no cost to you!

Protecting Your Ears!

Hear that ringing in your ears? That's a frequency of sound you'll never hear ever again, a piece of your ear dying.



Ok I don't know if that's completely true, but it does mean you are doing irreparable harm to one of your most valuable instruments. Whether you're in front of the mic, or behind it, consistent monitoring of what you hear is vital. My top bookers do everything they can to not only protect their voices, but also their hearing (no loud concerts, etc).

It's very frustrating sitting in front of my monitors, and recording newbies that cough and clear their throats into the mic, suddenly spike volume after we've checked levels, or try to adjust their copy stand and end up bashing the mic. These things might not seem like such a big deal to the actor in the booth, BUT THEY ARE ALL AMPLIFIED FOR ME! Working at the agency for almost two years now, I've lost almost a full kHz (high frequency hearing) in each ear, and most likely will never get that back.

Trying to explain that to other people is almost equally frustrating. This is how I plan to make my living, and I'm faced with people that probably crank the volume on the earbuds that came with their ipods. The responses range from ultra-cavalier to a genuine "that sucks", but get them in front of the mic again, and it's the same behavior.

*sigh*

Anywho, this article from Gigacrate is written from a DJ perspective, but is good reading for
anyone that depends on vocals or hearing for their work.

How many times have you left a gig with your ears ringing? Or woke up
the next day worried you may have caused some permanent damage to your
ears? My guess is quite often. It’s no secret that as DJs we are
constantly exposing ourselves to super loud noises for extended periods
of time.
With a little care and precautionary measure, you can lower your risk
of serious hearing loss. After all it’s about the music right? Make
sure when you’re 60 you can still hear it.

READ THE REST HERE!