Healthy tips/reminders for Audio Engineers

This blog post will rather be short and sweet. I will be discussing the side-effects of audio or sound engineering, and the various issues it can take on our bodies. After all, every profession needs to have a health-guide to ensure the mental and physical stability of the individual working is positive and strong.

(caveman, 2015)

There are three major parts of our body we need to take care of while we work in audio or anything in general.

For the most part, our ears are our money, our hands that help us to work with equipment and gear, and our mind. While these three are the main driving force behind our work ethic, our body, in general, is too.

We as audio engineers can tend to sit for hours behind a monitor screen with headphones and have no movement. This is very lethargic and damaging which can lead to obesity and weakness (Khazan, 2014), (Tarr, 2015).

(Khazan, 2014)

Listening to loud music or playback can harm our ears, giving us long-term damaging side-effects such as tinnitus or hearing loss. We need to take breaks, to avoid ear fatigue (Tarr, 2015), (ThatAdminGuy, 2010).

Our hands and mind need to work together. We shouldnʼt get stressed, as stress can cause us to forget things and make us short-tempered. We need to let the customers know about the progress and if one requires more time to ask for it (Black, n.d.).

We need to be careful with heavy equipment while carrying them and handling them, making sure the electricity is switched while plugging various types of equipment in and out (Crofts, 2005). There are many minor details we audio engineers can tend to forget that can lead to major side-effects, we are lucky that many are not fatal to our health.

Mediation is key! Meditating before any session for even five minutes or 10 minutes can rejuvenate our body and mind for a whole day. As we do many complex programming developments on our DAW, meditating is a very difficult process to rid our minds of any distractions and problems (Mixingwithyourmind, n.d.).

These are some various major tips I can offer any newcomer audio engineers and audio engineers who have been in the field.

It is also IMPORTANT to note that one must eat healthily, take walks or go to the gym (even if it's not every day of the week), and take a good night's rest for long hours of work. Buying audio and high-quality ear protectors for concerts is a MUST for any musician or engineer/producer (Tarr, 2015). We are humans and not machines, and as much as we work with machines and gear, we need to understand our capabilities, strengths, and weaknesses.

I have linked Adam Rhodes' website page for custom ear plugs that can protect your ears. Do check him out and his team.

REFERENCES:

Black, B. (n.d.). The Link Between Anger and Stress. Retrieved from https://www.mentalhelp.net/blogs/the-link-between-anger-and-stress/

caveman. (2015). Home Recording Studio Wallpaper [Image]. Retrieved from https://wallpapercave.com/home-recording-studio-wallpaper

Crofts, M. (2005). Power & Electrical Safety On Stage. Retrieved from https://www.soundonsound.com/sound-advice/power-electrical-safety-stage

Khazan, O. (2014). Obesity Prevalence % [Image]. Retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/03/the-jobs-with-the-highest-obesityrates/359849/

Khazan, O. (2014, March 31st). The Jobs With the Highest Obesity Rates. The Atlantic. Retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/03/thejobs-with-the-highest-obesity-rates/359849/

Mixingwithyourmind. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.mixingwithyourmind.com/

Tarr, E. (2015). Tips for Being an Audio Engineer for the Long Haul. Retrieved from https://theproaudiofiles.com/audio-engineer-for-the-long-haul/

ThatAdminGuy. (2010). 5 Hearing Protection Tips for Audio Pros. Retrieved from https://www.audiolinks.com/blog/hearing-protection-tips-for-audio-engineers/

APPENDIX:

Crawford, C. (n.d.). 6 Useful Tips to Be A Better Audio Engineer. Retrieved from https://www.lifehack.org/482814/6-useful-tips-to-be-a-better-audio-engineer

Dixon, D. (2019). How to Prevent Ear Fatigue When Mixing Audio. Retrieved from https://www.izotope.com/en/learn/how-to-prevent-ear-fatigue-when-mixing-audio.html

Mellor, D. (2006). Three ways sound engineering could literally kill you. Retrieved from https://www.audiomasterclass.com/newsletter/three-ways-sound-engineering-could-literally-kill-you

Rhodes, A. (n.d.). Custom Ears. Retrieved from https://ar-custom-ears.myshopify.com/

SEA. (n.d.). 20 Safety Tips for Live Sound Professionals. Retrieved from https://www.seaindia.in/safety-tips-for-live-sound-professionals/