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OK, time to get serious, and weirdly no-one wants to hear the truth but...listening to music can potentially harm your hearing... forever. Going to gigs, producing music in recording studios, playing on your guitar too loudly and, the biggest culprit of modern times, the Ipod and other generic MP3 players with their listeners having their headphones up WAY too loud. Ever walked past someone on the street and you can hear their music? Those people are undoubtedly, slowly but surely, damaging their hearing and, all of the aforementioned moments in time will eventually degrade your hearing over years of exposure. Of course there are many more moments that can mess with your hearing if you are not fully protected, like standing next to a plane as it takes off and using a jack hammer with no ear protection. So what's the difference? Well musicians and music listeners don't protect themselves whereas people in other professions, that experience sound at dangerous levels usually do.
Altsounds can cover an article like this in a different fashion to most places because our concerns range from the listener, to the band member to the music producer. Have you ever been to a concert and left unable to hear properly? Usually after a nights rest your hearing will return to normal however there have been cases where people have left a concert and lost portions of their hearing forever. The situation is actually worse of all for the people performing on the stage, as they suffer from more serious and prolonged exposure to dangerous levels of sound. It is also more devastating for a performer to lose their hearing as their livelihood then comes under jeopardy.
100db is the threshold recognized at which short term exposure can actually cause hearing loss. Your run of the mill concert can be well within the 120 - 140db level. The actual hearing loss is caused by damage to fragile tissue within the cochlea. This fragile tissue is called hair cells and they move with the fluid in the cochlea to stimulate the electrical impulses in the auditory nerve. These hair cells have the potential of becoming damaged in the presence of loud noise. Imagine it if you will that these hair cells are like a lawn of grass. This grass is fine 98% of the time however, if you were to consistently walk up and down the same patch of grass rigorously then it would start to suffer. The louder and longer the exposure, the more damage you could be causing yourself. Luckily we have indications which help us realize when there are problems. Temporary hearing loss or ringing in the ears is a sure fire sign of temporary hearing issues which, if not addressed might result in permanent hearing loss.
"We need to get to a stage where remembering to take your ear plugs out with you on a big night out is as common-place as remembering safe sex protection. If we don't, we are roller coasting towards an epidemic of premature hearing loss in middle age," comments Brian Dow, Joint Head of Campaigns, RNID.
Examples of artists that have experienced hearing loss from their years of working in the industry include rock superstar Roger Daltrey who has revealed that years of rock music has taken its toll on his ears. The 62-year-old The Who frontman's hearing has been worn away by years of performing on stage. Daltrey said: "If I'm playing anything at home, it's probably classical music, mainly because I haven't got much hearing left. What I have got left, I want to keep."
Phil Collins also discussed his hearing loss who, according to media reports in 2006, stated that 55-year-old singer Phil Collins was gradually losing his hearing. The problems are said to have begun in 2000 when Collins first became aware of a loss of hearing in his right ear and took this as a sign that he needed to change his attitude towards music and the way he listens to it.
Eric Clapton has also brought up his hearing issues where he stated that he suffers from mild tinnitus (ringing in the ears) and is convinced his excessively loud performances with Cream back in the 60s are to blame. He told Britain's Daily Express newspaper: "My hearing isn't ruined, but if I stop and listen I've got whistling all the time which I suppose is a mild tinnitus. I probably had two 100-watt stacks at the height of things and I would turn one on for guitar solos. It was just mad!"
In fact, in 2006 this was released as the Rock and Roll Hard of Hearing Hall Of Fame, describing and showcasing the people and artists that have likely suffered most in terms of hearing damage.
* Pete Townshend - Guitar (The Who)
* Jeff Beck - Guitar (Yardbirds)
* Eric Clapton - Guitar (Yardbirds)
* John Entwhistle - Bass Guitar (The Who)
* Mick Fleetwood - Drums (Fleetwood Mac)
* James Destri - Keyboards (Blondie)
* Bono - Vocals (U2)
* Phil Collins - Vocals (Genesis)
So what can we do? Well, if you are a performing musician AltSounds recommends that you get some personal fitting earplugs with varying filters so that you can comfortably protect yourself without people even realizing that you are, particularly if you get a clear set of earplugs. So as part of our quest to protect ourselves we stumbled across a local Cardiff company called Minerva Laboratories who traditionally had focused on hearing aids and working closely with the NHS. We contacted Minerva, discussed what we were trying to do and they came to our studio and took moulds of my ears. It turned out that Minerva were actually branching into hearing protection for musicians and music listeners along with other products like In-Ear monitors which we will also be covering here in a future issue. Having a custom mould made of your ear was a very odd experience that consisted of placing a cotton bud with a piece of string on it within my ear, injecting this coald, blue substance within the ear canal which, over a few minute hardened. I was the required to move my jaw to crack the seal before pulling the string to get it all out. Minerva were VERY professional and it was all over quickly. I then waited a few days before I was presented with my custom ear plugs. They even custom etched the AltSounds logo on them for me!
The custom fit plugs actually fit perfectly although, to begin with, it was kind of weird fitting them yourself and it gave me an idea of what it must feel like to have to implement a hearing aid every single day. Minerva delivered the plugs with a few different filter levels that I could interchange depending on my situation, allowing me to use them in varying situations of different noise exposure levels. The most interesting of all was how amazing these earplugs actually were during use. My experience in the past had been that earplugs changed and degraded the quality of the sound I was hearing by dimming the trebles, resulting in everything sounding much more bass heavy. The first thing I noticed about the Minerva plugs was that they had obviously realized and focused on this fact because with the -9db filter in my earplugs I was experiencing minimal sound quality degradation, it was literally as if someone had simply turned the volume down. I even just sat by the door for a minute experiencing life with these plugs in. Traffic sounds were quietened but at the same time I could still clearly hear the birds. These -9db filters would be great for general, every day studio use and would definitely protect you during the prolonged listening that studio sessions tend to produce. The other filters would be perfect for loud concerts, particularly live gigs which I found safely lowered the levels of the sound without drastically altering the sound itself.
All in all I found the custom fit Minerva earplugs to be both comfortable and well fitting but,, most notably, great from a sound perspective. Unlike the regular earplugs you can buy, the Minerva plugs alter the sound minimally allowing you to protect yourself at the same time as still experiencing, and enjoying as much of the sonic spectrum as possible.
AltSounds recommends that anyone making or listening to music considers investing in a set of custom earplugs to protect themselves because if you don't protect yourself now, much like many of the fore-fathers of Rock and Roll, you run the risk of losing portions of your hearing in later life.
Additional Info:
Tel: 0845 345 3912
Web: In Ear Monitors | Musicians Earplugs | Minerva Hearing Protection
Useful Resources:
Altsounds can cover an article like this in a different fashion to most places because our concerns range from the listener, to the band member to the music producer. Have you ever been to a concert and left unable to hear properly? Usually after a nights rest your hearing will return to normal however there have been cases where people have left a concert and lost portions of their hearing forever. The situation is actually worse of all for the people performing on the stage, as they suffer from more serious and prolonged exposure to dangerous levels of sound. It is also more devastating for a performer to lose their hearing as their livelihood then comes under jeopardy.
100db is the threshold recognized at which short term exposure can actually cause hearing loss. Your run of the mill concert can be well within the 120 - 140db level. The actual hearing loss is caused by damage to fragile tissue within the cochlea. This fragile tissue is called hair cells and they move with the fluid in the cochlea to stimulate the electrical impulses in the auditory nerve. These hair cells have the potential of becoming damaged in the presence of loud noise. Imagine it if you will that these hair cells are like a lawn of grass. This grass is fine 98% of the time however, if you were to consistently walk up and down the same patch of grass rigorously then it would start to suffer. The louder and longer the exposure, the more damage you could be causing yourself. Luckily we have indications which help us realize when there are problems. Temporary hearing loss or ringing in the ears is a sure fire sign of temporary hearing issues which, if not addressed might result in permanent hearing loss.
"Social noise exposure has tripled since the early 1980s in the UK meaning that it is now even more important for people to take steps to look after their hearing. Prevention is always better than cure, especially in this case as there is no remedy for hearing damage."
Examples of artists that have experienced hearing loss from their years of working in the industry include rock superstar Roger Daltrey who has revealed that years of rock music has taken its toll on his ears. The 62-year-old The Who frontman's hearing has been worn away by years of performing on stage. Daltrey said: "If I'm playing anything at home, it's probably classical music, mainly because I haven't got much hearing left. What I have got left, I want to keep."
Phil Collins also discussed his hearing loss who, according to media reports in 2006, stated that 55-year-old singer Phil Collins was gradually losing his hearing. The problems are said to have begun in 2000 when Collins first became aware of a loss of hearing in his right ear and took this as a sign that he needed to change his attitude towards music and the way he listens to it.
Eric Clapton has also brought up his hearing issues where he stated that he suffers from mild tinnitus (ringing in the ears) and is convinced his excessively loud performances with Cream back in the 60s are to blame. He told Britain's Daily Express newspaper: "My hearing isn't ruined, but if I stop and listen I've got whistling all the time which I suppose is a mild tinnitus. I probably had two 100-watt stacks at the height of things and I would turn one on for guitar solos. It was just mad!"
In fact, in 2006 this was released as the Rock and Roll Hard of Hearing Hall Of Fame, describing and showcasing the people and artists that have likely suffered most in terms of hearing damage.
* Pete Townshend - Guitar (The Who)
* Jeff Beck - Guitar (Yardbirds)
* Eric Clapton - Guitar (Yardbirds)
* John Entwhistle - Bass Guitar (The Who)
* Mick Fleetwood - Drums (Fleetwood Mac)
* James Destri - Keyboards (Blondie)
* Bono - Vocals (U2)
* Phil Collins - Vocals (Genesis)
So what can we do? Well, if you are a performing musician AltSounds recommends that you get some personal fitting earplugs with varying filters so that you can comfortably protect yourself without people even realizing that you are, particularly if you get a clear set of earplugs. So as part of our quest to protect ourselves we stumbled across a local Cardiff company called Minerva Laboratories who traditionally had focused on hearing aids and working closely with the NHS. We contacted Minerva, discussed what we were trying to do and they came to our studio and took moulds of my ears. It turned out that Minerva were actually branching into hearing protection for musicians and music listeners along with other products like In-Ear monitors which we will also be covering here in a future issue. Having a custom mould made of your ear was a very odd experience that consisted of placing a cotton bud with a piece of string on it within my ear, injecting this coald, blue substance within the ear canal which, over a few minute hardened. I was the required to move my jaw to crack the seal before pulling the string to get it all out. Minerva were VERY professional and it was all over quickly. I then waited a few days before I was presented with my custom ear plugs. They even custom etched the AltSounds logo on them for me!
The custom fit plugs actually fit perfectly although, to begin with, it was kind of weird fitting them yourself and it gave me an idea of what it must feel like to have to implement a hearing aid every single day. Minerva delivered the plugs with a few different filter levels that I could interchange depending on my situation, allowing me to use them in varying situations of different noise exposure levels. The most interesting of all was how amazing these earplugs actually were during use. My experience in the past had been that earplugs changed and degraded the quality of the sound I was hearing by dimming the trebles, resulting in everything sounding much more bass heavy. The first thing I noticed about the Minerva plugs was that they had obviously realized and focused on this fact because with the -9db filter in my earplugs I was experiencing minimal sound quality degradation, it was literally as if someone had simply turned the volume down. I even just sat by the door for a minute experiencing life with these plugs in. Traffic sounds were quietened but at the same time I could still clearly hear the birds. These -9db filters would be great for general, every day studio use and would definitely protect you during the prolonged listening that studio sessions tend to produce. The other filters would be perfect for loud concerts, particularly live gigs which I found safely lowered the levels of the sound without drastically altering the sound itself.
All in all I found the custom fit Minerva earplugs to be both comfortable and well fitting but,, most notably, great from a sound perspective. Unlike the regular earplugs you can buy, the Minerva plugs alter the sound minimally allowing you to protect yourself at the same time as still experiencing, and enjoying as much of the sonic spectrum as possible.
AltSounds recommends that anyone making or listening to music considers investing in a set of custom earplugs to protect themselves because if you don't protect yourself now, much like many of the fore-fathers of Rock and Roll, you run the risk of losing portions of your hearing in later life.
Additional Info:
Tel: 0845 345 3912
Web: In Ear Monitors | Musicians Earplugs | Minerva Hearing Protection
Useful Resources:
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