Thoughts on hearing protection

I've reached a point where it doesn't even feel good to play drums without ear plugs. It's a matter of getting used to and of course having good custom made ear plugs, then you'll ask yourself why you're only getting ear plugs now.

When I had sessions of 8h playing I used to have headaches but after wearing ear plugs it became a real joy.
 
Morrisman said:
I can see both sides of this, and I wonder if the real damage on stage comes from amps and foldback speakers. All the data I've seen about noise induced hearing loss is based on long term expisure to continuous sounds, like machines in a factory for an eight hour shift.
I've tried playing with various types of earplugs lately, and I just can't play properly if I can't hear the others around me. I also need to judge how loud to sing backing vocals, etc. I've never had ringing in my ears, but since turning 50 I've noticed a slight tinnitus pink noise at night, and I find it hard to hear conversations in noisy environments. So:

I wear earplugs during breaks, so I don't have to listen to DJ's and loud crowds all the time.

I sometimes wear just one earplug on the side where my hihat and foldback speaker are.

I only have vocals in my monitor, not drums, and I keep it as soft as practical.

I've found some earplugs which don't cut upper mids so much, and I can sometimes get through a whole gig with these in my ears (earasers) without getting lost and making stupid mistakes all night.

I always wear ear muffs when I'm practicing at home. I quite like the warmer, muffled tone, and the sense of isolation helps me concentrate. The ear muffs also remind me how much I usually recoil and brace myself for loud hits. With the muffs on I can play fast, loud passages in a much more relaxed manner.

But most of the time I still perform without earplugs, because I need to listen and communicate with the rest of the band.
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I think this is part of the reason newer drummers get away with no hearing protection. Their cymbals don't have much sustain or sizzle, and they can't tune their drums so they sound all muffled and dead. So, basically they are being exposed to sounds that are short in duration with indefinite pitch that aren't loud enough to cause physical damage.

That is as long as they don't play with an annoying guitarist who has a stack of feedback.

It's when the drummers start to gear up, that things start to change. First you'll notice the cymbals having a shade too much of a ring to them, then you'll notice the bass drum and snare with fine threads tuned in to the resonant frequency of the shell just rattling your inner ear(with hearing protection on).
 
I wish I had a GIF that shows me throwing down a grenade into a room and running away ;)
 
Matt Bo Eder said:
I wish I had a GIF that shows me throwing down a grenade into a room and running away ;)
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Not really, Bo. 99% agree that hearing protection is crucial, and the only way to find out if you will be one of the lucky few that dont need it is to expose yourself to loud music....and keep you fingers crossed,for a number of years.
 
To me it's like not wearing a seat belt in a car, a dust mask and eyewear when wood working, eyewear and earmuffs when shooting, a shirt while frying bacon. Why in the world would you take a chance? Why tempt fate?
 
Wouldn't play without em. Even the foam ones are lifesavers. I use the ACR earplugs that take 20db off especially the damaging frequencies, they're just under £10 online, in the shops they charge a lot more for them. I always get a new pair every year as they can wear down.

I'm 32 now and have worn them since I was 17 which was roughly when I started gigging.

The way I look at it is the kit sounds better, singing is easier because you can hear yourself and you don't go deaf. Don't fancy playing Russian roulette with my hearing.

The good thing is most venues will give you earplugs now. Nothing like a venue where a crap sound guy tries to cure everything with volume. Saw a band called ISIS (bad name in hindsight) a few years back and was deaf in my right ear for an hour after the gig. Some places can go a bit OTT with subwoofers as well.
 
That's funny growing up my Dad was a physicians but he wanted all his sons to know what hard work was about so he also farmed and was an architect and had a crew to build homes of which my brothers and I worked-no mask for dust or chemicals in the field or painting . I pulped wood summers too no masks for flying pine debris, and how I didn't saw off some appendage or my head is a miracle with a chain saw (they also gave us this chemical to kill the hardwood trees that I think was agent Orange-we slopped that crap everywhere and it killed everything). Never used a seat belt till they made it law so that was 80s wasn't it (but no one wore them back then). Gosh it's ridiculous the risks we take-no one ever thought about it. Of course now any job like that has all kinds of safety regards.
 
Grolubao said:
I've reached a point where it doesn't even feel good to play drums without ear plugs. It's a matter of getting used to and of course having good custom made ear plugs, then you'll ask yourself why you're only getting ear plugs now.
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I have been using hearing protection for many years. I use in-ears for gigs where I do backing vocals and plain old ear plugs when I am not. I can hear everything perfectly well in either mode. I find playing drums without them unbearably painful now. The high frequencies of the cymbals in particular are an issue for me. I will always take my plugs to gigs where I am only watching too. I find that while my hearing is not impaired, my ears cannot recover quickly from sustained high level sound, hence the plugs.
 
larryace said:
Somebody shot a pistol from the back seat of a car while I was in the passenger seat. The pistol was like 3" from my ear. I know for sure that did major damage.
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Holy crap man! What, were you part of a drive-by or something??? A turf war in Buck's County???
 
I played in a loud band for several years when I was younger and never wore anything. I could tell my left hi-hat ear had taken a bit more abuse than my right though. I have not played in 18 years and just picked it back up, and there is no way I would want to play without earplugs now.

I work 12 hour shifts as a CNC machinist where we are required to wear hearing protection, my wife snores so there's another 5 hours of wearing plugs to sleep, and if I get in an hour of practice a day there's about 16 hours of wearing ear plugs through my day. It may be that my ears are just used to having them but it is hard to hit the drums like they should be without them, maybe I'm just too damned old too,haha.

We get a yearly hearing test at work that confirmed high frequency loss in the left ear,not too bad but loss either way. I also have a constant ringing but it's really only noticeable when I put in the earplugs in a silent room.

The plugs I use are Laserlites, 30db nrr and if you really jam them in there they kill off a bit more high frequencies than many would desire but you can pull them out slightly and change the way they work. Hate on foam plugs if you want but they seem more adjustable than anything else, barely put them in there and you may get only a 10db drop and more of your high freqs will come through. I jam them in there though,my cymbals sound terrible!
 
spleen said:
Holy crap man! What, were you part of a drive-by or something??? A turf war in Buck's County???
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I didn't know the guy. Friend of a friend. I was riding shotgun in my own car, my buddy was driving. Had no idea his friend was packing. I hung with some questionable people in my late teens. That's hindsight talking there.
 
This thread gives me anxiety. I've been wearing headphones (Samson SR950) when practicing, so that I can hear the music I'm playing along to, but is that enough protection?

I can easily buy something else, but I don't know what that something else would be.
 
Elle, this should keep out most of the loud drum sounds. Just don't turn the music volume up to block it out. See if you can find what the db blocking rate is for the phones.
 
Elle, those are good phones... Meant for isolation and recording I believe. They should do great as hearing protection, provided you don't turn the music up to unsafe levels!
 
Dr_Watso said:
Elle, those are good phones... Meant for isolation and recording I believe. They should do great as hearing protection, provided you don't turn the music up to unsafe levels!
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Oh! Good to hear. I bought them after I started drumming, as I rarely wore headphones before that, and never for music.

Got it, no turning up music to unsafe levels. But what about charm?
 
Not sure about charm, but I operate on unsafe levels of barm. No issues so far that can't be slept off.
 
Lots of good comments. All I can add is that as a youth I also played in a lot of loud metal settings, garage bands, etc. My hearing is fine but I do have some ringing, and my guitar player has it worse.

WIth the normal noise typical of a normal household I don't notice it. But if I go out into the woods or something, where it's quiet, it's very apparent, to the point if being a bit intrusive.

If I had to do it over again I would wear hearing protection for sure.
 
I think it's always good to wear earplugs while playing. Sometimes we behave as a careless, but it's not hopeless. We need to care about our hearing and earplugs is necessary, I think. Great topic, great input.
Thanks to everyone for creating such a beautiful idea.
 
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