PROTECT YOUR EARS - ear plugs, hearing loss, deafness

Re: TINNITUS or HYPERACUSIS??? (Ear Problems???) ANYONE????

Hi Joel

Welcome To DrummerWorld. I am sorry to hear that you are having these ear problem. I got this extract from the below site.....

Tinnitus (ringing in the ears) is quite a common problem, affecting about 17% of the general population around the world (44 million people in the USA). It causes significant suffering in about 4% of the general population (10 million in the USA). Usually & typically patients are told "to learn to live with it." However...luckily based on a new clinical approach someone have created a totally new treatment for tinnitus that results in significant improvement for more that 80% of the patients treated at a center (Jastreboff, P.J., Gray, W.C., Gold, S.L. Neurophysiological approach to tinnitus patients. This method, Tinnitus Retraining Therapy (TRT), uses a combination of low level, broad-band noise and counseling to achieve the habituation of tinnitus, that is the patient is no longer aware of their tinnitus, except when they focus their attention on it, and even then tinnitus is not annoying or bothersome.

Tinnitus is accompanied by hyperacusis in about 40% of the cases. Hyperacusis is a decreased tolerance of sound and can be a serious problem. Some patients experience hyperacusis without tinnitus.

The Good News is .....Tinnitus Retraining Therapy can restore totally or if one is not so lucky - -- partially the normal level of sensitivity to sound.


See link....
http://www.tinnitus-pjj.com/
 
Re: TINNITUS or HYPERACUSIS??? (Ear Problems???) ANYONE????

That's a new theory I haven't heard before in the treatment of tinnitus but I can see how it would work on a (literally) Cereberal level. Your cerebellum automatically learns to ignore sound. You ever remember those times you've lived next to a busy road or a motorway? Well when you first get there you're driven insane by the noise, but after about half an hour or less you just don't notice it.

I suppose this treatment is theoretically justifiable. I suggest you look into it, it just sounds like a lot of white noise being played into your ear, much like tinnitus. I used to get it now and then but it's tolerable and not serious. I hope it clears up.
 
Re: PROTECT YOUR EARS.

I use these musicians earplugs and they work fantastic. They attenuate every frequency equally. It just like turning the volume down, with no wierd coloration of highs and lows.

http://www.etymotic.com/ephp/er20.aspx

When I am gigging I run Shure E1's with custom molds, you just have to make sure to have a room mic mixed into your in-ear mix so you can haer the crowd and the band talking and such.
 
Re: PROTECT YOUR EARS.

I use etymotic plugs with some beyerdynamic DT100 closed back headphones when I'm practising. This lets me protect my hearing but also play along to my band's recordings or whatever I fancy playing with. When I'm gigging, I use Shure E3C in ear monitors and I get the sound engineer to give me an individual monitor feed through a Samson C-Que 8 headphone amplifier. If the gig doesnt have a system that can do that I just take a feed from a link out of a monitor wedge through a DI box. This lets me do everything at a safe level. I am also a sound engineer so I take my hearing very very seriously. I think its well worth the several hundred pounds I've spent on my headphone monitor system.
 
Re: PROTECT YOUR EARS.

Not necessary to protect your ears unless your playing at a live concerts with amps blasting and speakers everywhere. I have been playing for like 7 or 8 years, i play extremly hard for someone my age and size, and my ears are fine.
 
Re: PROTECT YOUR EARS.

Class A Drummer said:
Not necessary to protect your ears unless your playing at a live concerts with amps blasting and speakers everywhere. I have been playing for like 7 or 8 years, i play extremly hard for someone my age and size, and my ears are fine.
yes it is, in about....10 years you will hear a ringing in your ears....it will never stop
 
Re: PROTECT YOUR EARS.

Class A Drummer said:
Not necessary to protect your ears unless your playing at a live concerts with amps blasting and speakers everywhere. I have been playing for like 7 or 8 years, i play extremly hard for someone my age and size, and my ears are fine.
Good luck man... I hope you don't have to regret it someday.
Sorry for double posting!
 
Re: PROTECT YOUR EARS.

Not necessary to protect your ears unless your playing at a live concerts with amps blasting and speakers everywhere. I have been playing for like 7 or 8 years, i play extremly hard for someone my age and size, and my ears are fine.

You're young!

I too thought my ears where made of steel....! in time your ears get tired of listening to high volumes.... the ear is not designed to hear anything louder than a clap of thunder or perhaps a volcano.... a rapid fire snare drum for two hours a day plus could be taking the *iss out of mother nature a little eh?

Speakers..... amps....etc... they're all quieter than your snare drum mate.....and you're sat with ears just a couple feet from it!

I work with sound every day.... I also work with young people / musicians every day too... and more and more of them are falling foul to tinitus...generally because the awareness is STILL not enough to influence young people... hey...don't do drink and drugs and listen to loud music!!!! try and tell that to the millions of life experience hungry young people!!!


Would you stare at the sun ALL DAY LONG????? no...you wear shades.....!



Think about it!

Kristian.


Ohh...and check out my band if you're interested.....

http://www.myspace.com/abandonhopeonline
 
Re: PROTECT YOUR EARS.

Let it be loud!!!!!! Your a musician its meant to be LOUD!!!!!! I cant stand it not being loud when i play!!!!!!!
 
Re: PROTECT YOUR EARS.

bonham990 said:
Let it be loud!!!!!! Your a musician its meant to be LOUD!!!!!! I cant stand it not being loud when i play!!!!!!!
Yeah do it... Until you realize that it's not high volume that makes good music. Maybe when you have no other chance because your ears are so wasted that it just hurts.
 
Re: PROTECT YOUR EARS.

I bought some earplugs today fater reading this. I have silencers on my drums, but I didn't think cymbals do more damage than drums. I suck at putting them in though. My local shooting range sells ear muffs that bring the dB down 39 for 40 bucks. Are those good?
 
Re: PROTECT YOUR EARS.

I don't get why people don't pay attention. It will affect you later, not now(well, maybe now for some us). If you play reasonably loud, your drums will always be louder. People can play over 1000 watt amps on full volume and still be clearly heard. For that split second, drums are louder than everything in the mix. I use Hear-o's and industrial earmuffs.
 
Re: PROTECT YOUR EARS.

osamasgoat5467 said:
I bought some earplugs today fater reading this. I have silencers on my drums, but I didn't think cymbals do more damage than drums. I suck at putting them in though.
Well... high frequences in the cymbals are quite dangerous. I'd dare to say that they are the most dangerous in the whole kit.
 
Re: PROTECT YOUR EARS.

Class A Drummer said:
Not necessary to protect your ears unless your playing at a live concerts with amps blasting and speakers everywhere. I have been playing for like 7 or 8 years, i play extremly hard for someone my age and size, and my ears are fine.
See what I mean Class A, another dumb post. Are you serious? It doesn't matter if theres amps and speakers blasting everywhere. Your drums produce a large amount of sound and yes you'll notice eventually from it. I've been playing for 7 years and I haven't used ear protection and I can definitly tell that I can't hear as good as I have. (if you ever talk to me I say alot of "Huhs?" and "whats?".
 
Re: PROTECT YOUR EARS.

KLittle123 said:
Your drums produce a large amount of sound and yes you'll notice eventually from it. I've been playing for 7 years and I haven't used ear protection and I can definitly tell that I can't hear as good as I have. (if you ever talk to me I say alot of "Huhs?" and "whats?".

i am the same way. i have been playing for about 5 years, ive been voted the loudest drummer in my area and i already am noticing a faint ringing in my ears all the time
 
Re: PROTECT YOUR EARS.

Here's to all you loud drummers that think loud is the only way and that your quite happy to sacrifice the joy of listening to music and the world around you to acute deafness and the rest of your life listening to a high pitched tone in your head. Think about it. Its loud! Don't you ever wonder why road workers use ear defenders? Or why you see this sign everywhere?
fl05.jpg

Heres some of the info that come on a pack of earplugs i bought (Which are very good by the way.) Etimotic ear plugs i think their called.

Relative Sound Levels
20 dB Ticking watch
30 dB Quiet whisper
40 dB Refrigerator hum
50 dB Rainfall
60 dB Sewing machine
70 sB Washing machine
80 dB Alarm clock at two feet
85 dB Average traffic
95 dB MRI
100 dB Blow dryer, subway train
105 dB Power mower, chainsaw
110 dB Screaming child
120 dB Rock Concert, thunderclap
130 dB Jackhammer, jet engine plane (100 ft. away)
140 dB Shotgun blast, airbag deployment, firecracker

Recommended Exposure Time
Hours Per Day Sound Level
8 90 dB
6 92 dB
3 90 d7
2 100 dB
1.5 102 dB
1 105 dB
.5 110 dB
.25 or less 115 dB

I looked up some info and I found that an average open snare drum at about 2 feet reads roughly 117dB. What does that tell you about unprotected drumming? Get some plugs and stop trying to say ur ears are fine after a metal gig. Loud is immature and unnecessary. Save your hearing. U'l be glad to have it in a few years. Thats all it's going to take.
 
Re: PROTECT YOUR EARS.

I used to use those spongy yellow foam earplugs but I got fed up with those, then I used the blue Vic Firth earphones (-22db), got fed up with those too.

After that I looked for a solution which would allow me to protect my ears and be able to hear music/monitor (when on stage) at the same time. So I got the black Vic Firth iso-phones (-24db) - but having head phones tight like that on my head gave me headaches, the low frequency restitution of those phone is crap and you still have to push the volume a bit to compete with the "outside" drums. In short, that's not so good for your ears, nor for a compfortable playing situation.

Right now, I use In-Ear Shure E2Cs with custom moulds (-35db reduction whilst alowing speach audible) when I practice to play along to music or a click, and when I perform for monitoring. Actually whenever I play drums.

I think this is the way to go since you can have a very low volume level in your ears and clearly hear your drums from the "oustside world" if not monitoring. Some might say it's expensive (it cost me 99 euros just for the E2C plus 135 euros for the moulds) but health does not have a price. That being said, I'm paranoid with all this stuff and even with very low volume settings I still get scared for my ears.


To conclude; it doesn't matter what solution you choose but ALWAYS protect your ears.

So just to make is clear to anyone saying things like "I wear my iso-phones when I'm on stage but not when I practice, is this bad?" the answer is yes. You will damage your ears and if it doesn't occur now, it will later on.
 
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Re: PROTECT YOUR EARS.

I always protect my ears when i play at home. i wear huge red ear defenders that are used by people in industry and they block the sound out very well
 
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