Hi all,

I've recently listened to a 6-hours set of really loud music in a club, and then after I woke up this morning I noticed my left ear had a constant ringing noise and it feels ''low-pass filtered'' (sounds are lower in volume and feel duller than usual).
I've decided to make this topic after I noticed that every time I come back from a club, it's even worse and lasts more and more (my first nights in clubs resulted in less hear loss than now, and also when I woke up it was all gone).
Now to the question: why does this ''hear-loss'' get worse every time and am I the only one actually getting those symptoms? I mean, I see so many people in the club and some of them even stay for 8-9 hours (including the DJ himself) but none of them actually seems to care...

Hope someone has some experience(s) to share and possibly some solution to this!

Cheers!!

 

look after your ears, when they don't work anymore you will be very sad not to be able to hear music again

 

The same thing could be said about RSI, I know of many a musician who was forced to quit the game prematurely.

 

Hi, I've got a Tinnitus since many years now.
I suppose I've got it from an intense treatment by a dentist!
However in the past i used to visit loud (Punk) concerts.
One time I fell asleep next to a loudspeaker then the day after i had
ringing sounds in my ears but they vanished quickly.

Do avoid loud surroundings if you're particularly sensible.
Listen to sounds of flowing water to recover.

 

If you are having tinnitus regularly.. it only means one thing .. hearing damage/loss

The people you mention may not "care" about the volume they are subjecting their ears to,
and they may be ignoring the damage also. Drinking alcohol can increase the volume you
tolerate, and also increase the damage.

The volume in the club is so far over what anyone needs to hear properly.
Foam ear plugs are relatively cheap and may be the most convenient solution when
spending many hours in the club.

"I'll look like a dork !" you say ? Won't you "FEEL" like a dork for ruining your hearing
many years later.. with a constant ringing in the ears? It's a small price to pay to
protect something irreplaceable.

I have used earplugs in clubs since I can remember
coz I don't like ridiculously loud music anyway... no one ever said a word to me..
I didn't give a f*@k what they thought anyway... *yes*


save your ears for your music making, and everything else.


Go watch It's All Gone Pete Tong

 

tinnitus is the worst thing ever...

protect your ears...

i wish i had when i was in a band for 10 years...

 

If I would open a club I wouldn't and couldn't call it anything anything but this one word; Tinnitus. Honesty is the best policy.

 

Hi,

Things may be a little worse in this case than the usual ringing symptoms, however hopefully the low pass filtered hearing loss is just temporary.

If it hasn't gone by tomorrow, I suggest you go see your doctor as you may need a short, high dose of prednisolone, which may revert your hearing to how it was before the club.

The important thing is to remember that the steroid is usually only effective within a few days of hearing loss.

I, unfortunately, waited too long and now have significant hearing loss in my left ear so please don't put it off like I did. I learned to live with the 'usual' tinnitus, but now I've lost low-mid frequencies, it's terrible and made me realise how important it is to be careful.

 

I think I damaged my ears from a fast decent landing into Iceland. They hurt like heck for weeks after that. Then again, falling asleep while mixing with headphones on didn't help, not to mention my dance-club days. My ears sound like when you listed to a seashell with a super high pitch bell on top. It's maddening.

 

I Also have tinitus, I have it since i was at a U2 Concert. I simple don't used the earplugs, and next day i wake up and welcome tinnitus.

My personal tip after some years experience with tinnitus:

- Don't try to think about, otherwise you only activate those nerves that are related and it goes worst.
- Distraction is the most important thing in this. So if you like to make some music or anything else, do it but in comfortable ways. (no loud music etc..)
- Stress is also a significant and a big factor in this. Try to relax as lot as possible.
- A walk in a Forest where only Natural sounds exist is highly recommended. Watch some animals and listen to them, don't try to hear what they do, just enjoy the Natural Sounds.

I wish you a lot of power for all the challenges in your live.

cheers

 

My girlfried and I are musicians, though i spend more time as a producer, mixer, and live sound engineer exposed to dangerous levels. She recently did a study on hearing loss for university and from what I remember there are two danger zones to avoid:

1. LONG TERM EXPOSURE TO HIGH DB LEVELS OF SOUND

- This is perhaps the most pervasive and sneaky hearing loss in that you may not be listening at what seems like a loud level, but the length of time exposed can be damaging - something you'll notice the next day or which will build up over time until it "breaks"

2. SUDDEN LOUD IMPACTS

- This occurs when there is a sudden short, but extremely loud noise that completely f-cks your ears. Think "gun shot" or "cymbal crash" right next to your ear. A guitarist I knew was standing too close to a cymbal on stage and when the drummer hit it way too loudly the guitarists ears started bleeding out.

(On a related note, does anyone else HATE when movies use that high pitched sine wave to emulate hearing loss after an explosion in a war scene or something? I have to turn down the sound and its another reason to stay home from the movie theaters and download instead!)


Overall, even with earplugs, limit long term exposure to sound levels above 90 db and definitely keep your ears away from any drummers or speakers. I've had to yell at "pro drummers" who start to play right when my ear is near their kit as I'm micing up. If you want a long career or life enjoying music, don't be an idiot and get some good ear plugs or filters.

 

Ahoy ahoy,

techno clubs have been an integral part of my life for quite some time. Some weeks ago, I had my hearing tested and it was it was excellent (which was a great relief).
I have to say that I almost always used ear plugs, really nothing fancy, mostly those cheap ones:



so, play it safe next time you go to a club

 

I can really recommend the Alpine ear protection series, especially the "PartyPlug and MusicSafe" models.
I'm using them since many years and for around $10, I have not yet found anything better.

They have two major advantages over the conventional plugs like fraifik has shown above:
- They last longer and can easily be cleaned after use
- The subjective frequency response is so much better than with the simple foam plugs, there's really no comparison. Music still sounds fairly enjoyable after getting a bit used to their sound. I use them at every non-Jazz concert

Here are some curves to make clear what I'm talking about:


And for comparison, the response curve of the well-known foam plugs:

As you can see, audio level is reduced substantially and there are practically no more audible trebles.

Don't even think about *not* wearing ear protection in clubs!!!
And don't worry, the bass waves massaging your belly will remain unaltered

BTW, if you cannot find them in your country, the 3M "Tracers" are probably the second best option.

 

being a live sound engineer i can't express how much you should wear ear plugs at clubs/gigs.

it's not "cool" but you should use them.

DJ's at club nights have a tendency of pushing it as far as it will go, and if it's in a club and not a venue you can bet they don't have a limiter set in place and if they do they're not using it properly



also don't stand in front of the speakers ;)

 

I remember going to a David Lee Roth concert back in the early 90's, I was deaf for 3 days after

that was WAY TOOOOOOO LOUD

saw UB40 at the weekend, it was loud but my ears were ok the following morning, however the sound quality was rubbish

 

I remember when I was about 17 I played guitar in a band and the drummer who was much older had already damaged his hearing and was suffering from tinnitus. He warned me early on not to risk damaging my hearing and I've always remembered what he said. I even cover my ears when an ambulance passes by in the street!

Once you've got tinnitus there's not alot you can do...so wear those plugs man!

 

Yes, ambulance going through, train screeching, bus honking - I always cover my ears, while all other people on the station takes up the noise, they may think covering ears looks childish, but I don't care, it's their perspective. I love my hearing.
Back in early 2000s I remember a club school venue (which was compulsory) - the music there was SOOO loud it cracked my glasses.
The musicians were a strange trio BTW, I couldn't understand a word they were singing.

Anyway till then I always match up volume in headphones to be peaking at 90dB and average volume at 65-70dB. With Classical and Film music that's not that much of a issue.
Sometimes there's ringing in my ears (dunno why), but it always goes away within 5-10 seconds. Then there's weird 30kHz wide-band white noise - probably caused by blood pressure, but it's always there at 1-2dB.

Few years back when I experimented with 1200V CCFL inverter. When I turned it on, I was able to hear a sine tone very very high, not audible but perceptible. I got curious what was that, so I took my recorder and ran the recording through spectrum analyzer. It was 38kHz sine tone with varying frequency 35-40kHz. Staying in the presence of this particular inverter for more than 2 minutes caused me headaches, so I turned it off and got rid of it.