[quote author=0B353E232E232E4C0 link=1310006201/30#38 date=1310127593]
MagickNinja wrote on 07/08/11 at 00:14:39:Trippah wrote on 07/07/11 at 19:30:20:......My hearing is fine. I've been jamming in bands since I was around 19, always metal and always loud. I've been getting yelled at by my mother since I was a kid that I was going to mess up my hearing but so far, that's never happened. You can say time will tell...well I've been doing this for like 10 years straight...think I would've noticed something by now........I do have a recurring ringing in my left ear that appears once every few weeks and lasts about 30 seconds but this was due to a gun accident, not amps......
This is a sad sad situation. Your hearing is NOT fine. You are doing permanent, incremental damage to your hearing and you have conned yourself into thinking otherwise.
"Doing it for ten years straight and not noticing any damage" doesn't prove anything. All that means is the damage is gradual enough you don't notice it. If you would have been tested every year since your teens, you would be seeing a gradual drop in the decibel levels, especially at higher frequencies.
"Recurrent ringing" is tinnitus. This is a symptom and, while the gun accident certainly didn't help any, is proof of damage to your hearing and a symptom of associated hearing loss. This tinnitus will become more and more prevalent over the next decade. It will drive you crazy because you can not shut it off. Some folks can't sleep with advanced tinnitus unless they do something to mask the sound, like having a loud fan, or radio tuned to no station, or white-noise generators made just for tinnitus masking, right near the pillow.
This gradual drop happens anyway, due to aging, but if you wouldn't have been abusing your inner ears like this, the larger amounts of hearing loss wouldn't be showing up until your 70's or 80's. If you keep this up, you will be experiencing some drastic hearing loss soon,.. sometime over the next decade or so. To add to the sadness, by the time you are fortyish-fiftyish, you will be missing a lot of the consonants in normal conversation,.. saying "what?" or "huh?" or as they say down here, "do what now?"
Maybe by then they will have invented really good hearing aids that inject sounds directly into your aural nerves,... the other parts of your heaing "system" will be beyond repair.
I have two recommendations. Always wear good earplugs (the foam kind that expands after you insert it) inserted all the way in, so you can just barely see it. These will reduce the sound about 30db. Have your ears tested every six months. It's cheap, or even free in some areas.P.s. -- I just noticed stratman's comment. It's valid. "Hearing loss sneaks up on you and the only way to prevent it is to avoid loud noise. If i'm in a loud restaurant or bar, I can't hear any conversation. People get tired of repeating themselves. The ringing in my ears is constant now. Don't let it happen to you, you can't get it back"
Sad but true. I know what your saying but I absolutely love music, I play everything from Beethoven to Norwegian Black Metal. Do you play? Do you have any idea how hard it is to practice in a 5 piece band wearing ear plugs? Everything is muffled, the guitars sound like bass, the bass sounds like a constant hum and the drums well, all you hear is the snare.
My singer's name is Alex Vota, he's from Denver, CO and use to sing in a band around there called Angelic Rage. He's 41 years old, been a singer in metal bands longer than I've been playing and is still at it since we picked him up. He doesn't wear ear plugs, he's 12 years older than me, been in loud bands longer than I have and he doesn't have any hearing issues either.
I honestly think it has more to do with the "sound" than the volume. Did you know that dissonant sounds at medium volumes can do more damage than pleasing tones at higher volumes?
For example, if I'm playing a mid octave G and the other guitarist plays a mid octave B, you will have a harmony. 2 notes working together that make a beautiful sound. If we did the same thing with 2 notes that aren't harmonius, it sounds bad, not only is it unpleasing to the ear, it can also do damage.
So say jamming in a loud band who isn't very good and has a lot of mistakes and sour notes will damage your ears more than a band who is louder but tight and precise.
I want to get an in-ear monitor so I can be loud but not damage my hearing but these things cost about the same as a decent 4x12 cab. And also someday if I tour I'll have to wear ear plugs because that's just too much.
I know what you guys mean, I should because it will do some damage in the end. But I write all our songs, I'm the driving force in the band, I have to hear everything to make sure nobody is playing the wrong notes, staying in time and I can't do that with ear plugs.
Your talking about a profession that requires focus, attention to audible detail, and listening to pitch, none of which works very well when you put a giant 30db muffler on your ears. Imagine a sound engineer trying to mix and master in his studio, all the tiny attention to detail and pitch correction....now put ear plugs in his head...that album won't be selling too many copies.
I love music, its a risk I'm willing to take. Same with riding, it may kill me someday but I love it so it's a risk I'm willing to take.
I'm not stupid and I appreciate you guys being concerned, I really do. But unless someone is going to buy me a $600 in ear monitor, there isn't much I can do.