On 15 Sep 97, szalemandre wrote: Re: (idm) Earplugs and tinnitus.:
quoted 3 lines i don't know how i feel about wearing plugs when i'm playing out,> i don't know how i feel about wearing plugs when i'm playing out,
> but i'll take them along next time just in case. usually the
> monitors are too low to hear normally anyway. :)
A few answers from Tully who is a sound engineer, former singer/
bass guitarist in a locally famous band and now runs a recording
studio: At age 30 he had his ears tested by an ENT and his responses
were from 30 Hz - 19,000 Hz, progressively dropping the tones to 1
dB, which was the lowest level at which the specialist had ever seen
anyone respond. The reason given was that through his years in the
music industry, he trained his hearing to pick up sounds which
usually people of that age would not hear.
He maintains that he never allowed physical pain to hurt his ears -
ie, by playing onstage, rather than listening in the audience, he was
exposed to a much lower level of sound. The audience gets damaged
far more than the actual musicians due to the db's going out of your
p.a.
Further : cannabis cannot harm your ears, unless in a stoned haze,
you are unaware of overexposure to high-levels of noise ;-)
Excessive pressure, diving, swimming and surfing all are potential
problem causers. Wearing earplugs while diving is also harmful,
since the water pressure can force these into your inner ear, unless
they are specially purpose-designed ones.
I swam long-distance for many years and have needed my ears syphoned
a few times. Also, following a severe 'flu, I had tinnitis for about
2 weeks - the most awful and scary thing. Thank goodness it
decongested and normal hearing returned.
Note : apparently the brain 'realigns' the aural balance and
randomly you might hear a +- 6kHz tone in either ear for a brief
duration. It's usually preceded by loss of hearing in that ear for
a short period. The tone fades by itself after a moment and is no
reason for panic.
Resist cleaning your ears with cotton buds, since you may block the
channel by pushing wax further down.
If your speakers sound a little dull and your tweeters are
definitely not blown.... get your ears syringed by a professional.
It's a somewhat unpleasant procedure, but everything sounds
sparkling afterwards!
Sorry this got to be so long.
I
*
"Incomplete without surface noise"
- Autechre