Insanely loud practices?

C

Casey

Guest
So I joined a new band "Grenadiers of the Doomed" southern metal... Fun stuff... And my cat destroyed my ear plugs awhile back so I went for the bass tryout without any plugs... The room was only a foot or so bigger than my bathroom! 2 marshall full stacks, a good sized drum set and my ampeg combo cranked... 4 or 5 hours later I leave practice... This was last night... It's 8:00pm and my ears are still ringing! Man it was deafening!

So I have to go out and get some new ear plugs tomorrow before practice... Wondering if you guys have had any situtations such as this?

The ringing is going away very slowly... I think my ears just need time to recover and re-adapt to sound... Although it hasnt altered my hearing really... I can still hear a needling dropping on the floor... Just this annoying ringing still going on... Hopefully it's gone by tomorrow morning...

Earplugs from here on out for me!
 
The damage is done mate,but you can lessen the damage next time.Just remember,music can be loud. :wink:
 
Your lucky, dont do that again. I am deaf. :cry:

I can only hear things I focus on, otherwise it sounds like jabber. On the up side I have 20/20 vision and I can see really good in the dark (I am just trying to make myself feel better about my hearing).
 
H8ER 321 said:
Your lucky, dont do that again. I am deaf. :cry:

I can only hear things I focus on, otherwise it sounds like jabber. On the up side I have 20/20 vision and I can see really good in the dark (I am just trying to make myself feel better about my hearing).
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Your lucky on the eye sight... Sadly one of my eyes are near sighted the other is far sighted...

I was a bit worried this morning about my hearing... When I woke up and the ringing was pretty loud... Over the day it has gone down and I barely notice it now... Although when everything is quite its quite annoying... Although it did that a bit before do to all the loud music I used to listen to.

So earplugs from here on out for me... I've been to some loud practice before... but MAN! this was insane... It was to the point where I just about collapsed when they hit certain notes.
 
I've done some bad damage to my hearing over the years also - I now even wear headphone style ear plugs when mowing the lawn
 
Also out of boredome I thought I would post our myspace page...
 
Ah... And forgot to add... The recordings were clearly done before I joined... Once we get some stuff up with me on there... Expect to hear some insane Warwick growl and a bit of slapping :)
 
If our drummer didn't hit so freakin' hard I wouldn't have to wear earplugs. We practice in a 1 car garage converted into a 85% soundproof room, and it's LOUD. We bought a giant jug of disposable earplugs (I reuse them though) for practices.
 
naetog said:
If our drummer didn't hit so freakin' hard I wouldn't have to wear earplugs. We practice in a 1 car garage converted into a 85% soundproof room, and it's LOUD. We bought a giant jug of disposable earplugs (I reuse them though) for practices.
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Yeah, it's always the drums that kill me...

So I looked up info on the ear ringing and it's called Tinittus..

I've had it since a little kid... But never ringed straight like this... It's almost gone thought... For years though its almost impossible for me to sleep without a background noise to keep the ringing from keeping me up...

Luckily up here in oregon when you open a window at night all the animals and bugs make a awesome concert :)
 
Ive been using Inears for gigs which basically block out at least 20-30db plus hearing whats going through them at a low volume. It was a shock to take them out the first time when I had them in perfect to hear how loud the gig normally is, especially when the DJ is on and its going at full bore. Ive had a few gigs where the foldback was so ridiculously loud you could dry your hair from 30feet.
Ive already done a bit of damage and Im not even 21 but the Inears are perfect for slowing that effect down. I used to hate the idea of plugs because they cut out all the frequencies I love but now Im realising the almost necessity of a good pair.
 
One step up from the normal sponge or foam plugs are units like these. I have both types and they are attenuated so you still hear the majority of frequencies but just less of them! For my gigs I tend to keep these in my gigbag...



Thomann an online store do a similar product that I also store at home for use when I go out on my motorbike or to concerts and other band's gigs.
 
I think I'm kind of lucky to have experienced such stuff pretty early.
I started going to concerts with about 13-14 years and playing in bands with 16. It didn't take too long before I had first tinitus-similar disorders.
But then suddenly, like one and a half year ago (im 20 now) a friend of mine really got a Tinitus. A real one. He shortly became really... well... fucked up. He was a really sporty guy but it happened quite often that he was not able to solve tasks in school sport (he had sport intensive course) he laughed at only few weeks early. His whole circuit has gone down. He had to take a lot of medication and had to went a few times into a pressure chamber.
This was a point I thought: "Men, he didn't even go to concerts"
Tinitus can appear out of stress also, but really no idea what was the reason with him. It's now a lot better - but since them i bought "Alpine Hearsafe" - in-ear plugs wich don't change the sound of things, only makes them lot more quiet. For about 20€ every 2 years ... great stuff.
 
I wear earplugs when I rehears these days. I wish did when I started playing loud music 20 years ago. Now I'm half deaf.

The guitarist in one of my bands just left because of tinnitus. Remember: always wear protection!!!

The drummer in one of my bands is playing e-drums during rehearsals. That helps to keep the noise level down.
 
I`ve had tinitus since 1998, after to much gigs and rehearsals without protection. Luckily, it isn`t annoying or loud anymore, so I don`t think I can actually get the high degrees of it. I went to a ear-specialist three years ago, and I had "a cats hearing" he told me. So far, so good.

Just keep your ears protected. You don`t feel that exhausted after rehearsal either.
 
Pro-plugs mentioned above work well - I've got two pairs... a stronger pair for rehearsals where the sound seems to build up more, at gigs most of the sound is FoH and in front of me. Wouldn't go to any gig without them now (including other band's gigs)!

Had a similar experience to you, Casey, a few years ago now... took days for the ringing to stop... unfortunately a sign of permanent damage in my case.. the hearing in my left ear is shot and I get tinittus all the time (but I only notice it when I think about it... so got off lightly I reckon)
 
my drummer has been using propluugs for years. im going to get a pair soon. i like my hearing :wink:
 
I use these. I even take them to gigs I'm going to watch in case the sound is too too loud and distorted.



I always avoided using earplugs as the sponge ones just remove all the top end which ruins the music for me, but these just attenuate the sound rather than changing it too much.

When I started practicing again last year I found that my ringing ears stopped me from getting to sleep after a practice!
 
Fortunately after years of playing 3-4 times a week with no plugs my ears didn't suffer much damage. After a dodgy scuba experience I went to an ear specialist and had a full set of tests and I'd only lost a fraction of top end in one ear.....so consider myself lucky.

I tried foam plugs but just couldn't get on with them, if I start gigging again I'll invest in some decent ones.

I think it tends to be the snare that gets people - especially if the drummer rimshots a lot.
 
Foam plugs aren't very good really, just make everything sound muffled. The Pro-plugs are about the cheapest half-decent ones you can get, but the custom-made expensive ones are probably the best.
 
saxonbass said:
Foam plugs aren't very good really, just make everything sound muffled. The Pro-plugs are about the cheapest half-decent ones you can get, but the custom-made expensive ones are probably the best.
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I use the custom-made expensive ones. Shaped for my ears :) They lower by 15 db with the filter I use. If you play more metal one might consider filters that lower 20-30 db. But I mainly play jazz/funk/fusion/latin stuff soooo... Anyhow they're really good since they don't cut off the top or remove the bottom. U can hear everything as well as without earplugs, but it's all less noisy :wink:
 
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