IDM Mailing Archive

R D Wigglesworth wrote:

quoted 7 lines One thing I read somewhere was that a lot of people who have tinnitus

> One thing I read somewhere was that a lot of people who have tinnitus > aren't > actually bothered by it- IE they don't actually notice it although it > is > there. This scares me, it suggests you can f*ck your ears without > even > realising it.

i've had ringing in my ears since i was very young, and i always thought it was perfectly normal, i mean, i assumed everyone heard ringing in their ears when there were no other sounds. i never considered wearing earplugs until i went to the ENIT fest in new jersey where they were giving them away by the boxfull. and now, after seeing aphex live, i'll be bringing earplugs with me to shows. i wonder though, does a certain amount of tinnitus naturally occur? can people be born with it? if so, to what degree? i know i've heard ringing since i can remember, but it's never been a problem. the only times it's ever annoyed me is after a show when i'm trying to go to sleep. but that's to be expected i guess. 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. :) -eric -- .- Doubtful Productions Evolving Media -. eric sherman http://www.doubtful.com szale@doubtful.com

At 2:09 PM -0400 9/15/97, yszalemandre <szale@doubtful.com>ou wrote:

quoted 3 lines and now, after seeing aphex live, i'll

>and now, after seeing aphex live, i'll >be bringing earplugs with me to shows. >

I concur. I recall fondly having an Aphex-triggered migraine. A Philadelphia show of Orbital + Moby + RDJ. The buglike Orbital had the crowd happy. RDJ decided to assault the audience with so much feedback that all but the diehards retreated to the balcony of the Trocadero... 3

On Monday, 15-Sep-97, Zenon M. Feszczak wrote [about Re: (idm) Aphex and tinnitus.]:

quoted 5 lines I recall fondly having an Aphex-triggered migraine.

>I recall fondly having an Aphex-triggered migraine. >A Philadelphia show of Orbital + Moby + RDJ. >The buglike Orbital had the crowd happy. >RDJ decided to assault the audience with so much feedback that all but the >diehards retreated to the balcony of the Trocadero...

jeeez.. I thought it was really great when he did that, though he didn't do it this time.. he did it when I saw him DJ. a girl covered her ears the whole time :D but shit... I must say that I saw Death in Vegas the same night and that damn guitar made my ears bleed worse than what Richard was doing. __ __\ \ / /_\ \ \_____/ www.freq-div.home.ml.org

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

quoted 3 lines i've had ringing in my ears since i was very young, and i always thought

> i've had ringing in my ears since i was very young, and i always thought > it was perfectly normal, i mean, i assumed everyone heard ringing in > their ears when there were no other sounds.

There is no such thing as silence. Your nerves and the circulation of blood creates sound you can hear in the absence of other sound which masks it. The silicone plugs you can get at any drugstore have a reasonably flat attenuation curve, and in most cases the shows sound better since my nerves aren't being overloaded into distortion (as the PA system frequently is). Anytime you experience a shift in threshhold (that is, the quietest sound you can hear is louder than before), some of the damage is permanent. The SPL (loudness) isn't the whole story. I can play my (kinda high-end) home system at much, much higher levels without any fatigue, versus my car stereo for instance. Like I say, the engineers frequently drive PAs past their comfort zone. Without earplugs, your ears will pay a permanent price. Wear earplugs and enjoy more music for a longer time. --Mark