[Closed] Wearing ear plugs at gigs

Don't forget your tampons too.

Been taking earplugs to gigs for years and wear them most of the time. They're your ears so bullocks to anyone else.

Do it now. I waited too long and have constant tinnitus. I rarely see anyone else wearing them but at the same time no-one has every said anything to me about it. Made a big difference last weekend - I was the only one of the 3 who wasn't complaining the next morning (though i suppose my ears were ringing already(

I've got some [url= http://www.amazon.co.uk/Alpine-Music-Safe-Filter-Plugs/dp/B000VO8PR0 ]Alpine MusicSafe Pro[/url] at the moment. Case is useful.

It was TV on the Radio then LCD Soundsystem that finished me off.

If Pete Townshend recommends ear plugs at gigs then I reckon you'd be a fool not to..

[url= http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Townshend ]The legend,, deaf...[/url]

Go for it, I stuff bog roll in my ears if it's too loud at the pub, gig, cinema etc

No MTFU about it IMO

i dont know how anyone copes [b]without [/b]them at gigs.

Tinnitus can be an awful thing to live with.

Just ask them to "turn the music down" 😉

In the days before 'health and safety' existed, I had my head [i]inside[/i] Motorhead's speaker stack on more than one occassion.

Never did me any harm.

Case proven.

i think my hearing's fine, but a man in a white coat told me that it's not quite so fine.

nothing to worry about, but, y'know, my ears are a bit 'below spec' due to a combination of a few ear infections, and too many hours throwing shapes next to speaker stacks in the dark.

i use earplugs when i go to a gig now.

my ears don't ring for days afterwards, and the music sounds better*, and i can hear what people next to me are saying.

(*without them, if it's too loud** all i can hear is: 'FFFZZZZTTT-K-K-K-ssssSSSSS')

(**i've never been to a gig which wasn't loud enough)

Ended up with tinnitus from a single night clubbing when I was 20.

Took to wearing earplugs at gigs and clubs afterwards - I've only ever used the cheapo yellow industrial ones (or brown-ish from Boots for more discretion).

I always fear my music listening in the car is doing me more damage now. That and a toddler when she falls over/won't brush her teeth/needs a poo.

EDIT: I find earplugs at gigs/clubs get rid of that hideous top end screeching so it's better balanced overall. And it's true about being able to hear people speak.

I wish I had done. Now have hearing loss in my right ear from the monitors.

Some gigs I go to now offer ear plugs at the bar so I don't think it is a problem really

I reckon it's worth spending some money on some decent ones. I wore the ones from work at band practise for a while and everything sounded awful.

Is this almost like that...... consensus thing .... that i heard about once?

..brown-ish from Boots for more discretion...

what he said.

I do sometimes since I got tinnitus. Don't use the crappy foam ones though as they ruin the sound quality. Those music safe pro ones look ok.

You can get acoustically neutral ones, I know a couple of sound engineers who wear them when mixing bands. They have the ones that are moulded to your ears, expensive but very good as far as I recall they got them done at Specsavers. Details [url= http://www.specsavers.co.uk/hearing/hearing-aids/hearing-protection/ ]here[/url]

I already have mild hearing loss (I can't pick out conversation above the general noise of a pub / railway station / airport very well for example).

I have exactly the same hearing problem as you and wouldn't go to a gig now without earplugs. I really don't want my hearing to become any worse.

it'll have to be foam ones tonight, all i've got. Wedding Present - great band but sound quality won't be the key factor to my enjoyment.

usually

Me too.

Have hearing loss from all the gigs I went to as a kid.
Started using plugs in my 20's but too late.

Motorhead at the Apollo, next to the bass bin on the right was the decider.
Deaf for ages and never the same when it did come back.

Wear them all the time at gigs now.
No one has ever said a thing.

I use these for gigs. It means I can hear on the way home.
[url= http://www.amazon.co.uk/Elacin-ER20S-musicians-hearing-protection/dp/B0034ZI9AQ/ref=pd_bxgy_ce_img_y ]ER 20[/url]
(In front of the speaker stack at anthrax & Motorhead a couple of weeks ago :-))

Do it. Another hearing compromised tinnitus sufferer here.

Hang on, just seen

it'll have to be foam ones tonight, all i've got. Wedding Present - great band but sound quality won't be the key factor to my enjoyment.

Can you not leg it to Screwfix for some better ones, if you use those foam ones you might find all the songs sound the same.

😀 Clever!

Yeah those ER20s are good IMO.

Ordered some ER20's for PWEI / Wonderstuff / Jesus Jones in december.

I wear two hearing aids at gigs ( and everywhere else for that matter) wear decent proper musicians ear plugs to reduce the volume but keep the sound, you really don't want anymore damage

Ordered some ER20's for PWEI / Wonderstuff / Jesus Jones in december.

Some of these would be better for that gig.

[img] [/img]

🙂

It was TV on the Radio then LCD Soundsystem that finished me off.

Was it the LCD gig in Cardiff by any chance was it? Great gig but Jesus H Christ it was loud and really really harsh sounding, my ears rang for days and now I have mild tinnitus 🙁

Had some of the ER20's but managed to lose them. Ok, but noticably worse audio than the ones i have now (but then less than half the price)

I have chronic tinnitus and hearing loss in one ear (sometimes in both)...i always struggle to hear in loud environments (pubs etc).

nothing wrong with wearing plugs.

Fair enough - I've tried a few and they seem fairly good to me. If you want to do it proper you should be the custom moulded ones, but they're not cheap. Probably worth it in the long run though, as long as you don't lose therm.

http://www.etymotic.com/hp/erme.html

I bought some Alpine jobbies while I was at uni (constant band practice, gigs, shit clubs, loud neighbors) and have sworn by them since. They come with different interchangeable filters to attenuate the sound to different levels, but retain clarity. Unlike foam ones they don't cut out high frequencies and seem to maintain a pretty constant volume over the whole range.

Nothing MTFU about it.

saw [b]SWANS[/b] in glasgow last week.
my buddy warned me to bring earplugs, but also said that the band usually have them on the door for their gigs as a matter of course.

was soooo happy i had some.

way louder than when i saw motorhead...and a friend woke up with a bleeding nose after that gig.

earplugs are the new black. 8)

I've been wearing them for years, first the cheap foam ones, 'cos work dished them out for free, and now I carry yellow silicon triple-flanged ones in aluminium containers on my key rings.
I have tinnitus from standing close to the speaker stack at a Grand Slam gig, one of Phil Lynott's last ever gigs. Christ it was loud! It's not big or clever to compromise your hearing at a loud gig, just because it seems to be a bit 'uncool': letting yourself go deaf is uncool.
And then your enjoyment of music is forever compromised.
Oh, and I'm going to see Dinosaur Jr at a small venue in Bristol next year, where I think they might possibly be essential! 😀

Recently went to see a favorite band in a small club. They were bitching that power problems meant they couldn't get as loud as they wanted. I was really pleased because it was perfect quality, but not so loud that my ears hurt and that you couldn't have a (shouted) conversation.

well if the band wear earplugs, why shouldn't the audience. stuff anyone that mocks you, you'll still be able to hear when you're old, they won't

I've used the silicone blob type ear plugs from Boots at gigs which do a pretty good job of cutting the volume down. They're about £4 for 3 pairs IIRC.

There's no way I'd go to a gig without them now... Years of gigs, band practices etc of nackered my hearing.

I got "Musician's Earplugs" for practising and playing gigs as they reduce volume but don't squish the sound. Work well as a spectator too.

Having stood at the back of a Motorhead gig at the Barrowlands feeling the bass punch me in the stomach and anything coming out of the speaker stack distorting terribly in my ears, then waiting for the ringing stop after 4 days, I never go to gigs without earplugs.
My neck still hurts for days though.

I've been involved wi clubs/dance music festivals for years and i've always used attenuating ear plugs such as [url= http://www.chemical-records.co.uk/sc/servlet/Info?exs_lnsrc=google&exs_lnty=products&Track=ALPLUGS ]this style[/url] without any probs or issues - they do work rather well but a few years ago i got offered the chance to get some custom moulds [url= http://www.ultimateear.com/products/musician-plug.php ]with these ultimate ears[/url] for free and they are fantastic, i often forget they are fitted and for backstage at festivals or clubs they are a godsend as so many of my friends have serious hearing loss due to club soundsystems, as an example a few years ago we had a £150K function one soundsystem at a local festival where we organise the dance music marquees and at one point in soundcheck we decided to see how far we could push it, we stopped buggering about at a DB reading of 130db 20ft equidistant from the monitor stack as that was the max on our meter, obviously we reigned it in to more suitable 105db for the event itself.

The cheap ones above are very good for the money and are tuneable for preferred attenuation by use of the filters, recommended for the price of of a couple of cd's.

I won't go near a drum kit without my ER15s in - have had them for almost 15 years and worn them for every gig I've played in that time and most that I've been to. Didn't take them to the IoW festival last year and my ears rang for weeks afterwards (making me massively stressed because my ears are critical to me job) but thankfully went back to normal...

I already have mild hearing loss (I can't pick out conversation above the general noise of a pub / railway station / airport very well for example). And the last one I went to my ears rang for days afterwards.

Will i be a pariah for putting earplugs in? Is this the most MTFU thread ever?

Have you ever had your ears syringed? My mate had the same symptoms as you, went to the doctor, had his ears syringed, and could hear the world again. He even said the world was a bit deafening at first.

I do agree that earplugs are a good idea, though. I'm considering some for the beginning of next month as I have Converge and Neurosis on consecutive days.

I've got news for you.... most people get tinnitus in their 40s and 50s anyway....

I am probably biased due to being a hearing aid audiologist but I cannot emphasis enough on the importance of wearing hearing protection when being exposed to loud noise. This means Loud Music such as GIGs,Concerts, Fesitvals night clubs etc etc also anyone exposed to levels above 85dBA should be taking measures to protect their hearing by using Generic or were possible custom hearing protection such as Elacin ER 15/20/25.

There is nothing macho about withstanding loud music as you can be exposed to such extremes once and be left with Tinnitus and hearing loss.

Look after your ears folks, please email me (in profile) if you would like further advice.

Ady

I work for Classic Rock Blues.. i wear acoustic research ear plugs. I'm also an old git who has been going to gigs since the early 70's so i do have a bit of tinitus already.. better safe than sorry

well, that was a different experience. The foam types weren't great; obviously they blocked too much higher frequency sound so it all sounded a bit bassy, but the gig wasn't any the worse really for it, I know the songs so well (Wedding Present doing Seamonsters) that I was able to fill in the missing bits anyway.

I've got a bit of tinnitus now (i had them out for a teeny bit too, just to see how much they were affecting the sound) but nowhere near as bad as I've had before.

I couldn't stop going to gigs and feeling the sound as well as listening to it, so I've ordered a pair of those ER20's someone linked above.

Flippinheckler; interested in your opinion on mikey74's comment. Worth doing? Will my GP do that for me or do I need a specialist?

Cheers all!

There are a lot of adverts and claims for noise Induced Hearing Losss (NIHL) through work related damage to your hearing, so why put yourself at risk otherwise. I see clients with debilitating Tinnitus who also have hearing loss but its the Tinnitus that bothers them more than the loss of hearing, fortunatley hearing aids in 60-7O% of cases will alleviate the Tinnitus at well as enhance ones hearing.

Otherwise [url= http://www.hearingprotection.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=164&Itemid=310 ]THESE[/url] guys have a cheap solution if you don't want to spend much. I have some custom ER 15s for loud noise such as lawn mowers, concerts etc with some insert headphones that plug into the ear pieces when you remove the inter changeable filters.

Just had a shufti at those ER20's; they're very similar to the ones I wear, except mine are solid except for a very small hole running through, with a plastic cord pushed in to hang them round your neck. The clear E.A.R. ones are probably like mine, but I think I'll get a couple of pairs of the ER20's, they look good.
I'd love custom ones, but if I was spending £112, they'd be for fitting onto my Shure SE215's, I can't afford them to be just for protection.
I struggle with conversations in noisy environments too, but that's through loss of sensitivity at certain frequencies; I get my hearing checked annually at work because I sometimes work in a noisy environment, somewhere about 85dB, so I know my ears are clear, the audiologist actually said that for my age, my hearing is equivalent to someone 20 years younger, which was a relief.
[edit] Had a look at those Placato plugs; apart from the filter bit, they're exactly the same as the eartips I use on my Shure and Ultimate Ear canalphones. In fact, I tend to use them for protection at work, because IV got the option of having music playing when faced with a boring noisy job for several hours, where I won't have people talking to me.
Oh, btw, flippinheckler, is £112 what I'd generally expect to pay for custom eartips now? I had some made up for a pair of Etymotics, several years ago, but the price I've seen online has gone up a fair bit.

Just had a shufti at those ER20's;

You can change the level of filters depending on the noise levels you encounter, scroll down the page on the following link! [url= http://www.puretonemusic.net/er_earplugs.html ]ER's[/url]

Thanks, you've just answered my question above. The ones I was originally looking at were the £5-ish triple-flange plugs, not the whizzy custom ones. I can't justify the cost of those, unless its to customise my Shure 'phones for a more comfortable fit.