How to protect your ears?

Hi Wiper – I actually think you’ve raised a very valid serious point here with regards to one’s hearing and looking after it.

I do all my audio work using cans, I know I shouldn’t for two reasons – it’s not wise for the prolonged life expectancy/quality of your eardrums and I’m also not benefiting from other musical frequencies that I prob. just don’t get i.e lowerend bass – jsut CAN’t do too much work like that using cans..

Interesting though this Vitamin E – thought I’d already done plenty of that (laughs)..

As a quicky remedy for now thought – couldn’t you just lower the volume a bit – easier said than done I know “cus we likes it loud don’t we!!”

Wiper,

It is very smart that you are concerened about your hearing. Most muscians and Dj’s I’ve met don’t even think about it.

I do suffer from Tinitus. It’s permanet in my case. I can no longer sit in a quiet room and hear nothing. What I hear is a continous high pitched ringing. It never stops it’s 24/7. I am used to it now I rarely notice it anymore.

Most people tend to get a temporary case of Tinitus after concerts and long nights of clubbing. So hopefully in your case this is as as bad as it gets for you and most others as well.

Here are the percausions I take to keep from losing my hearing and increasing the Tintus I currently have.

1. Always use earplugs when at shows and even when out clubing. You might look silly( you can always get custom earplugs that match closely to your skin tone) but it’s your ears not the fools who is staring at you. Also even with the plugs you can still hear the muisc well enough to enjoy it.

2. Get your ears checked regularly. I usualy get my ears checked every two years. If I am playing in bands and doing recording sessions heavily I get them checked 1-2 times a year(better safe than sorry)

3. Try not to wear headphones all the time, if you do don’t crank them cuz they are already on your ears. Common sense prevails on that one.

4. If you play in a band and you are the drummer or are positioned near the drummer be mindful of the cymbols. The cyms are what have caused a lot of my problems. I play the bass( and drums a little) and when I first started playing did not wear earplugs.

5. If you work in a recording studio for longs hours it is best not to crank the monitors. Keep them at a moderate level cuz your gonna be there all day. Also when the musicians tell you to turn it up “cuz they gots to feel it” go ahead and turn it up for a couple of minutes then bring it back to the moderate level. If they complain take the time to explain why you turned it back down. Your the engineer you run the sessions what you say goes( more or less).

As far as vitamins etc it never hurts but I’m not sure if it can really make the difference.

Hearing loss is permanent. It occurs when tiny hairs in your ears die/fallout and do not regrow(the simple explanation). Until they come up with some medical treatment to fix hearing loss it is best to be careful and take the steps to protect your hearing. I’m sure if you do a google search on hearing loss and prevention you will be able to find all the info you need on this topic.

Sorry this was so long but I guess I had a lot to sat bout this.

The Cutter

if this is something you’re concerned with, I highly recommend watching the movie ‘It’s All Gone Pete Tong’ ( http://www.itsallgonepetetong.com/ ) – great freakin’ flick about a DJ who goes deaf. Awesome movie, super funny, some HUGE name DJ appearances, and some great directing.

Also, Shure has these new E-series earbuds which preserve hearing because they require less volume to hear by isolating background noise ( http://www.shurestore.com/earphones/ese … rison.html ). Also, you can get custom-fitted earplugs which allow some sound to pass through for the purpose of preserving your hearing. They can now custom-mould the headphones to fit your ear for comfort and hearing preservation.

[deuce-bigalow]

thats a huge sig

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@ Wiper the model I have is called ComfortFlex25, they lower the surround sound with 25db’s. The ones I have are specially for musicians.

I used to play in metalbands, rehearsals twice a week, visit a lot of concerts, now I make Hardcore (industrial/darkcore/terror) so i visit quit a few raves where the peaks are way above 110db… That music contains a lot of eardamaging harsch noises.

[url:rngsiafi]http://www.elacin.nl/elacin_en/index.html[/url:rngsiafi]

The English site of the company where I ordered them… you can find more info about the products there

[quote:3mu2kfjc]I do suffer from Tinitus. It’s permanet in my case. I can no longer sit in a quiet room and hear nothing. What I hear is a continous high pitched ringing. It never stops it’s 24/7. I am used to it now I rarely notice it anymore. [/quote:3mu2kfjc]

i got that too! i never thought it was a "condition" though. i remember whenever the power gets cut there is this huge silence and it actually sounds like alot of high pitched noizes. its really annoying.

also, sometimes i’m just sitting there, and one of my ears goes def. it sounds like the dj in my head shifts the X-fader to the left side and all i hear is a whistle in my right ear. now thats scarry.

shit i must have Tinitus then. but i dont ever blast my music…