Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1314367
24 PRODUCTION SOUND & VIDEO – Fall 2020 to develop a sixth sense with my acoustic guitar. It's a style and sound which I would have otherwise not discovered The ringing in my ears started in my late twenties and to say it caught me off guard would be an understatement. I had normal, healthy hearing until I was about twenty-nine years old, but that's when I first began to notice signs that something was very wrong. It started slowly in the beginning with sporadic ringing, sometimes accompanied by buzzing, clicking sounds, and even pulsating sensations, like crickets chirping that would sometimes have the ability to throw me off balance. I didn't think much of it at first as it was very irregular, happening only one to three times a week just for a few moments each time. As I reached my early thirties, these episodes became frequenter, more pronounced and almost constant to the point where they began interfering with my daily life and communications with others. As a musician and Sound Mixer, protecting my hearing has always been one of my highest priorities. I was confused as to what was happening to me, but I was very proactive in searching for answers to uncover the underlying cause. The path to my diagnoses was uncertain, fraught with dead ends, with many unanswered questions, and at times it was simply terrifying. I spent the next few years going to numerous doctors, ENT's and specialists, undergoing many forms of diagnostic testing, but not one doctor could give me a clear answer as to why my hearing was in such decline. The vast majority said I had severe tinnitus, with many misdiagnoses; one doctor even telling me I had lupus, which was later retracted. The entire experience was exhausting and unnerving. At the age of thirty-two feeling helpless, I begrudgingly got fit for a cheap pair of hearing aids; not an easy choice or reality to accept for any musician or Sound Mixer. To say the least, it was humbling. The hearing aids were helpful at first, amplifying external sounds above the volume of the ringing inside my head, and allowing me to adapt. It was short-lived as my hearing continued its rapid decline, so much so that within a year, these cheap hearing aids had no benefit in overcoming the ringing at all. Even if they were turned all the way up, they would just feedback in my ears and create more confusion in my head. After years of searching and still no definitive answers, I was in a dark place, isolated and ready to give up. I felt the only option left was to seek out a better and more powerful pair of hearing aids. With my wife Holly by my side, we found an Audiologist in Culver City, by the name of Dr. Sol Marghzar. During my initial screening, he discovered that I now suffered ninety-five percent hearing loss in both ears. To our surprise, he said he wasn't willing to sell me new hearing aids until I had specialized surgery on both of my ears. Holly and I were both stunned, but it was the exact bit of elusive information we'd been searching for. There were so many new questions: "Surgery?! What kind of surgery? What's it called? How? Where? When?" After all this time of being lost, perhaps there was a reasonable explanation to my dire situation. Honestly, this was the first moment I recall feeling some semblance of hope. Dr. Marghzar suspected I had a rare genetic hearing disorder called 'otosclerosis' which is inherited, and caused by an abnormal overgrowth (mineralization) of bone in the middle Clockwise from left: Bruce at The Viper Room, 2019. Photo by Darren Bunkley; booming rapper/recording artist Ludacris on YouTube show 'Best Cover Ever' in 2017; ENG bag mixing/booming on American Idol 3. Oct. 2019. Photo by Kako Oyarzun