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Health & Safety
We pride ourselves on our independence of spirit and the recording studio
is the environment in which we are usually expected to be most 'at home'.
Sometimes, however, we find ourselves in situations over which we do not
have as much control as we would like. We should probably have avoided hiring
anything less than a perfect studio but occasionally the irritating flaw
that you have decided to ignore and 'live-with' could result in you or other
people suffering physical or medical damage.
The imperative to do something about it has come into sharper focus for
many producers who have crossed over to become studio owning entrepreneurs.
Soon they discover that clients and staff could hold them responsible for
injuries received at the workplace and the extraordinary cost of acquiring
proper insurance to protect against claims from clients and even former
employees.
Shortcomings in studio wiring, monitoring, equipment placement and even
hospitality areas load a responsibility on studio owners which sometimes
even the most expensive insurance cannot defray.
Sound Levels
Increasingly, producers and engineers who are working regularly in studios
throughout the world have insisted that during most of their working time
they monitor sound at low levels.
This state of affairs came into existence after a number of working engineers
- some of whom were employed by studios as house engineers - noticed discrepancies
developing in their hearing In addition, such luminaries of our profession
such as Phil Ramone and Alan Parsons have recently been quoted as regretting
some of the excesses of their early careers (I think they were talking about
very high sound pressure levels 'required' when recording loud rock bands?).
In his address at the 1995 TEC Awards in New York (an annual event which
benefits hearing charities in the U.S.) Phil Ramone reminded the audience
that those of us who have been working in studios for some years should
feel it our duty to try to persuade those who are relatively new to the
studio to treasure their most valuable asset - hearing. Hence the slogan
Hearing is Precious - H.I.P. has become a familiar call in music and other
audio circles.
In a recent Re-Pro Forum, a leading hearing expert reported that
can be caused by very short exposures to high level sound
and that once the damage is done, good hearing is impossible to retrieve.
In the UK, Health and Safety regulations govern the length of time over
which various sound pressure levels are regarded as safe levels of sound
- most of these regulations were set up with factory noise in mind but,
as was pointed out at the Forum, sound level is sound level and is not dependent
upon the nature of the sound - a sweet acoustic guitar turned up too loud
is just as dangerous as an over-driven, distorted electric guitar sound.
Near-field monitoring has been popular since the 80's and most producers
and engineers now spend most of their working time monitoring through small,
low level systems, only reverting to the 'big' speakers to check specific
audio detail. This is a policy that all prudent studio producers and engineers
should follow if they have ambitions of a long studio career.
Electrical safety
It might seem to be an unnecessary reminder but sadly, there are all too
many amongst us who tend to take the integrity of electrical wiring for
granted. It is all very well to recognise a hum that is generated by an
'earth-loop' but what is an 'earth-loop' and does it have a safety implications?
Well, usually not - but anyone regularly using electrical equipment that
relies upon interconnection with other electrical equipment owes it to themselves
and their clients to ensure that all electrical installations are carried
out with appropriate consideration to the safety of the people who will
be using them
One of the potentially most dangerous results of poor wiring is the risk
of FIRE. Beware of hot plugs, browned sockets and crackly mains connections
- if you leave a dodgy connection to get worse you could arrive for a session
and find a pile of ashes! Heating and air-conditioning are also systems
which are particularly prone to accidental fires unless they are properly
maintained.
A careless connection can result in serious injury to individuals and bank-balances
alike.
Back injuries
Yes, it is true that most of stuff we all use nowadays is getting smaller
and smaller - and therefore lighter and lighter. Who would have thought
even 15 years ago that a multi track digital system could be portable or
that a grand piano could, in effect, be hidden in a tiny sound module box.
So the days of having to shift the piano into the 'live' area are rapidly
declining but there are many items that are surprisingly heavy and unwieldy
and which could easily contribute to aggravating existing back injuries
or triggering new ones. Think of the massive video monitors we use for digital
audio editing or sequence manipulation - these are very heavy and very awkward
and should always be treated with great respect.
Another contributory factor to studio workers' health is the fact that we
are usually sitting on office-style chairs for most of our long working
days and this encourages those of us who are not supremely disciplined about
our posture into lazy and stress-making sitting positions. One answer that
has proved a winner in many office situations is introducing those strange
looking chairs that don't have a back, where your legs tuck under your knees.
These have the effect of forcing the sitter into a comfortable, non-stressful
posture which enables hours of pain-free keyboard bashing and knob-twiddling!
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