# My ears are okay, it's my eyes that suck...



## Bropecia (Jan 12, 2019)

So I'm 3 episodes into my first TV gig and yeah, my eyes are taking a beating already. I'm 48, so that's the first culprit, but maybe I need better screens? Mine are cheapy samsungs and the like. In addition I had to change the screen resolution in order to make the fonts and everything big enough to see, the tradeoff of course being... resolution. Now it's all soft and annoying. Kind of like my stomach. And lastly, i put a brightness slider on my main edit screen which is somewhat helpful, but I seem to be in a tug of war between wanting it bright enough to see and not too bright for my poor old eyes. Anyhoo... what are the rest of you old timers doing to solve this problem? I find myself dreaming of a matte type screen that's like a giant kindle. I would love that. Or growing new eyeballs on the back of a mouse with some stem cells or something. Cuz that's how you grow any new body part in the future right? On a mouse.

signed,

gramps


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## tmhuud (Jan 12, 2019)

Well....something I discovered at my eye doctors is rather than wear my progressives all day long and have to move my head incrementally to focus on the screens, keyboard, sheet music or etc, is to have very specific prescription glasses made for very specific tasks. So I have a pair that keeps sheet music and my hands in focus when I’m at the piano. I’m just mentioning this as a few folks I’ve told this to didn’t know you can have glasses made with ANY distance in mind. I did try progressive contacts and was quite impressed with how far they’ve come over the years.


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## tmhuud (Jan 12, 2019)

Oh- and I see your probably looking for more hardware related help but I have (yet another!) pair of glasses I had made that slightly enlarged my computer screen when I’m looking at it. (Sort of like a bit of a magnifying glass effect) which helps a lot.


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## Alex Fraser (Jan 13, 2019)

Hey gramps. First of all, congrats on the TV gig!
As a slightly less old gramp, (40) I found simply moving the screen nearer helps.
Perhaps some newer high resolution monitors on a moving arm might be the ticket?
Good luck.


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## Dietz (Jan 13, 2019)

Bropecia, I think all you need are proper glasses, really.  

I'm an even older geezer than you. Still I denied to need for glasses until three years ago, until the oculist I consulted convinced me that it was high time already. What can I say: Things even _sound_ better now.


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## ThomasL (Jan 13, 2019)

And, make sure the lighting in the room is ok, too dark or too light can be straining for the eyes. I've put up indirect lighting up on the wall behind my main screen, works great. Also, screen glare was a major issue for me. Got hold of an "old" Apple Cinema Display with a matte screen and it made i big difference.

But all that aside, it really sounds like you need glasses, sounds like me 10-15 years ago


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## OleJoergensen (Jan 13, 2019)

2.5 year ago, after waiting toooo long, I went to an optician. For 2 years I have been so tired in my eyes, a tiredness that made me feel like “oh I have become old to early” (Im 47 now) and to often headache in my forehead. I wanted some glasses to use when working with my music setup- 43” screen. After the eye test the optician told me I also need daily glasses. After 4 days of use with daily glasses the tiredness disappeared and the headache is seldom now. The screenglasses is made so I can use them sitting 110 cm from the screen. Using Kontakt I have to move closer to the screen....
This year I bought a 3rd pair of glasses for reading books/ iPad- distance 40 cm. 
Anyway, to have light both behind the screen and somewhere beside you is also very important. To much brightness on the screen is hard on the eye. 
Behind my screen I have 2x 3 watts LED lamps pointing upwards the wall, softly illumining the intire wall. The screen is 60 cm away from the wall.
I have seen at some offices, people working in front of a screen, has a big light panel app. 1oo cm above the screen.


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## DavidY (Jan 13, 2019)

I'm another vote for consulting an optician.
I also think that taking a break from near-focus work is helpful - I think it's good to go out for a walk to give your eyes a chance to focus on distant objects and a rest from the near stuff.
(Going out for a walk break is not so easy if you do lots of composing late at night, I'll admit!)


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## Bropecia (Jan 13, 2019)

Amazing guys, thanks! Yeah I've been hobbling along with CVS readers and leaning forward a lot. I'll consult an eye doc and I love the suggestions. I'm gonna do a combo platter of matte screen, glasses and moving arm. love it. out of curiosity, would anybody else enjoy working on a kindle reader type screen if it were available? assuming it had some pale version of colors to differentiate tracks etc?


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## Bropecia (Jan 13, 2019)

If you gotta an extra few grand maybe this:

https://www.visionect.com/products/place-and-play/


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## Dewdman42 (Jan 13, 2019)

I am 53 and have for most of my life had Steve Austin bionic vision until a few years ago it dropped off a cliff. I say dropped off a cliff but my optomistrist says my prescription is so small compared to many people but after years of laser vision even a small vision problem started giving me headaches and more. In my case it turns out I have one eye near sighted and the other eye not which makes it confusing for my brain, and then of course as we age we can’t change our focus easily to read.

Well anyway so I finally got glasses, progressives, and I was like holy crap I can’t believe how nice my iPhone retina screen looks! 

Same as you I find it difficult at the computer screen to use the progressives. I end up having to tilt my head back to bring the screen into focus, which strains the neck. Then there is the fact you have to turn your head more from side to side because progressives are blurry on the sides.

You can lower your monitor as much as possible and move it further away if the fonts are big enough, but really the right solution is the right glasses. I plan to get a pair for playing piano at fixed distance and another pair for working at the computer at the distance I want the monitor to be, haven’t decided that yet. I just got a new monitor and like my iPhone retina it’s gorgeous but without glasses or the wrong glasses it actually irritates me even more then my older relatively blurrier one. But with the right glasses I love it. The problem with working at a daw station is that you will have to set things up so that your midi keyboard and computer screen are about the same distance from your eyes and get used to the idea of taking them off or switching them out if you need to read your iPhone or a book up close.

Getting old ain’t for sissies


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## Dewdman42 (Jan 13, 2019)

And I have to say that I have found when everything is in focus I don’t need big fonts.

Use big fonts if you want to move the screen further away


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## Dietz (Jan 13, 2019)

Dewdman42 said:


> Getting old ain’t for sissies


This!!!!


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## Bill the Lesser (Jan 13, 2019)

I do a lot of Photoshop and video editing work. I use a high quality monitor that has been calibrated as to color balance, and most importantly to a contrast and brightness that makes the image on the screen fit well within the lighting of the room it occupies. The image on the screen appears almost as if printed on paper illuminated by the ambient room light. The screen image fits harmoniously within the physical environment of the room and doesn't make the eyes shift gears between viewing the screen and the things around it.

Some may feel that calibration is overkill for DAW work, but I disagree. I occasionally work on a DAW system with a too-bright, too-contrasty screen and I find it fatiguing after just a few minutes. Out of deference to the normal user I don't change anything. It's always a relief to come back to my personal system.

Even a cheap monitor can be roughly calibrated using software-only tools in Windows and Mac OS, and there are some online services that can help. I use a hardware sensor, there are several well regarded models that can be purchased for around $100. You really only need a hardware calibrator if you wan't to nail the color down, contrast and brightness can be done visually with only software assist. But the main thing is, don't let your monitor appear significantly brighter or darker, or more or less contrasty than its surroundings. You don't need perfectly accurate shades of color, but your eyes will thank you if the contrast and brightness are right. FWIW almost everybody runs their monitor too bright, too color saturated, and too contrasty.

Some additional thoughts:

1. Set the background color to a neutral, featureless grey field. Helps a lot. Background textures are high CPU for the visual cortex.

2. If your screen has a blue tint (like most cheap office monitors) either adjust the color temperature to something warmer in the screen setup menus, or ditch it. It's much better to err on the side of a warm feeling screen than a cold (bluish) one.

3. If you are getting screen glare from a window or light behind you, close the curtains, shut the blinds, or put up a 40x60 inch piece of foamcore sheet to block it out. Glare is high fatigue.

4. Make sure the monitor height gives you a looking-straight-ahead neck angle.

5. If I hold up both hands with a ninth chord stretch, thumb tips together, out at arms maximum reach, that should just barely contain the width of the screen. That's a personal thing, but it works for me and I've experimented with that quite a bit. There's give and take between how much you flick your eyes back and forth and how much you move your head.

6. I personally like Cubase with a much lighter color motif than the default Cubase realm-of-evil scheme. After some testing I settled on something only a little darker than Ableton.


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