Discussion on ear plugs at gigs

markbarlow wrote:

StitchesOnTheRadio wrote:

Also, here's another plus for wearing them. When I was near the speaker at the cambridge show (my method only cuts out some noise, not as much as it should. I lost my hearing for 24 hours in one ear. So when I got to meet the guys after the show, I could barely hear them talk. If they weren't facing me I couldn't make out what they were saying. Which is really frustrating.

Jesus, you lost your hearing for 24 hours?! You need a thicker ply, or maybe try quilted.

onbackstreetsinbackseats wrote:

I'm gonna roll the dice on this one, and put the ten bucks towards one of those cool el jefe posters.

I'm with ya! Gonna be deaf but I'll have a nice poster collection.

In all seriousness I do think they're a good idea. I have a friend with tinnitus who always wears earplugs and when I go to a show with her she whispers and I can't hear a thing she's saying. She probably thinks she's talking loudly. So just don't annoy your friends! No one wants to struggle to hear someone whispering through a rock show

SubconsciousRitual wrote:

onbackstreetsinbackseats wrote:

I'm gonna roll the dice on this one, and put the ten bucks towards one of those cool el jefe posters.

I'm with ya! Gonna be deaf but I'll have a nice poster collection.

In all seriousness I do think they're a good idea. I have a friend with tinnitus who always wears earplugs and when I go to a show with her she whispers and I can't hear a thing she's saying. She probably thinks she's talking loudly. So just don't annoy your friends! No one wants to struggle to hear someone whispering through a rock show

Well I don't go to rock shows to listen to my friends talking!

And as I mentioned above I think I may have mild tinnitus already so in terms of priorities, preventing myself getting further hearing damage is more important to me than being able to hear the maximum volume.

Plus I have a pretty great collection of el jefe posters already and am not so poor that a £12 purchase of ear plugs will prevent me from buying more

But if your ears feel fine after gigs then I would agree that plugs seem kind of pointless.

I think this thread has convinced me to get ear plugs.

One tip from me; put them in ATLEAST 30 minutes before the concert, that way your ears adapt to less sound and pick up sound better. While still leaving the bass outside!

Second tip; buy DECENT ear plugs. 2 dollar plugs leave all sound outside. You need to keep the sound but leave the bass outside.

Did someone say something? I can't hear over the ringing in my ears.

I received my ER20s earlier this week and have now had chance to give them a trial run at home.

Obviously my hi-fi can't recreate the aural onslaught of a gig but it can go uncomfortably loud with plenty of headroom to spare.

I was pretty impressed by the plugs. They were WAY better than the cheap foam ones. They cut out quite a lot of volume and when I took them out I was surprised at how loud I'd been playing the music. In terms of sound quality, they didn't sound muffled at all though obviously not as good as listening at normal volume without them. It is a bit odd that the bass feels louder than it sounds though you get used to it.

The only downside - I could see them getting uncomfortable if you have them in your ears for a couple of hours though maybe I have girly narrow ear canals.

The real test will be at a gig but for now I'm pleasantly surprised.

Tried mine out at a Social Distortion gig last night in Glasgow, and I was definitely surprised! The music definitely seemed clearer and the earplugs blocked out a lot of the background noise. I took them out towards the end to see the difference and I was really surprised as to how loud the music actually was.

DaleCooper wrote:

I think this thread has convinced me to get ear plugs.

I think this thread has convinced me to start using mine again! I haven't used them in a while..which is probably pretty stupid considering my hearing has declined from when I used to wear them at every gig I went to. I'm just lazy and get frustrated having to take them out every time someone tries to speak to me at a gig.

I'd rather not have to ask people to repeat themselves in everyday conversation so often though..

I sold good quality earplugs at concerts for some time and now I can't go without them!
There were so much information about why to use earplugs, and I couldn't deny that it was all right.

But stay away from the foam ones, they're made for constructionworkers and makes the music sound really bad.
Buy one of these instead, they're made for concerts, and the sound is equally as good as without them.

Long time lurker first time poster. This thread inspired to me register as it's affected me in the past 10 months. I've been a regular gig goer for the past 16/17 years, all genres of music & ranging from stadium shows to sweat-box punk gigs & never had any problems with tinnitus, my ears would ring post-show but a day or so later I'd be fine. This was until Dec 2012 when I went to 2 shows within a couple of days of one another (Twin Atlantic @ Manc Uni & Machine Head @ Manchester Central). After the Machine Head show my ears were ringing as normal & after a few days it faded a little but didn't stop. It hasn't stopped since & the doctors say it could go in a couple of weeks/months/years time or it might be permanent, they've no way of knowing.

I bought some decent ear plugs from Amazon & now use these for all inside gigs. They take a little getting used to but aside from the obvious benefit of them stopping my hearing getting any worse the fact that they remove practically all of the surrounding crowd disturbance (when that annoying couple insist on talking through a slow, acoustic song behind you!) & take away all distortion so you can only hear the band. I still love the small, loud metal/hardcore shows but it simply isn't worth the torture of full blown tinnitus.

I use these for band practises: http://www.instruments2go.co.uk/Aculife-Impact-Noise-Reducer-Earplugs-p-4345.html?gclid=COr92I-ihbMCFe_MtAodDVgAJg

They just lower the volume of everything so you don't lose any frequencies. I have yet to wear them for gigs though, I probably should do as I am around loud music a lot.

Holland wrote:

I use these for band practises: http://www.instruments2go.co.uk/Aculife-Impact-Noise-Reducer-Earplugs-p-4345.html?gclid=COr92I-ihbMCFe_MtAodDVgAJg

They just lower the volume of everything so you don't lose any frequencies. I have yet to wear them for gigs though, I probably should do as I am around loud music a lot.

Thanks for this suggestion. I'm 43 now and have been going to gigs fairly regularly since I was 16 - including plenty of exceptionally loud Motorhead, AC/DC gigs in my youth. I've never been one for earplugs given the muffled sound they produce plus the feeling that I'm somehow distanced from what's going on (in an outer body experience kind of way). I love loud music and plenty of feedback etc., but I'm beginning to think that I should be more careful. And if these plugs add some clarity then that's an added bonus. I was at Brixton last night, standing just in front of the balcony overhang, stage left and honestly the sound was so boomy I was at times forced to put a finger in my ear just to hear what Brian was saying/singing (though I know the words obviously) - and that's not a good look! With the gig in Birmingham on Saturday coming up I've ordered a pair of these. Hopefully they'll make a difference. So cheers...

pauldt1969 wrote:

Holland wrote:

I use these for band practises: http://www.instruments2go.co.uk/Aculife-Impact-Noise-Reducer-Earplugs-p-4345.html?gclid=COr92I-ihbMCFe_MtAodDVgAJg

They just lower the volume of everything so you don't lose any frequencies. I have yet to wear them for gigs though, I probably should do as I am around loud music a lot.

Thanks for this suggestion. I'm 43 now and have been going to gigs fairly regularly since I was 16 - including plenty of exceptionally loud Motorhead, AC/DC gigs in my youth. I've never been one for earplugs given the muffled sound they produce plus the feeling that I'm somehow distanced from what's going on (in an outer body experience kind of way). I love loud music and plenty of feedback etc., but I'm beginning to think that I should be more careful. And if these plugs add some clarity then that's an added bonus. I was at Brixton last night, standing just in front of the balcony overhang, stage left and honestly the sound was so boomy I was at times forced to put a finger in my ear just to hear what Brian was saying/singing (though I know the words obviously) - and that's not a good look! With the gig in Birmingham on Saturday coming up I've ordered a pair of these. Hopefully they'll make a difference. So cheers...

No worries, I had been using the cheaper ones but they make everything too muffled. These ones do stick out your ears a bit though so they do look a bit weird.

No worries, I had been using the cheaper ones but they make everything too muffled. These ones do stick out your ears a bit though so they do look a bit weird. [/quote]

Ha! Time to start growing my hair again then...or paint myself green to complete the Shrek look!

Glad this thread continues to provoke discussion.

I wore my plugs (ER20s) for the first time at Brixton last night. They were a little uncomfortable at first but I got used to it reasonably quickly.

I left them out for Dave Hause as I figured he wouldn't be too loud on his own (he wasn't) but put them in before Blood Red Shoes and left them in for the rest of the night. During Blood Red Shoes I wished I'd brought industrial ear defenders!

Anyway, they did the job quite nicely. I wouldn't say they added any clarity but by reducing the overall volume, it was much less overpowering and easier to pick out individual instruments/vocals. I did also notice more flaws in the performance that would otherwise be covered up by the loud volume - occasional wrong notes etc.

The other thing to mention - I felt a bit out of it at times. They cut down so much crowd noise which can be both great (when idiots around you are talking) and bad (when you want to hear the crowd singing along). Also, when you sing along yourself, you can only hear you voice inside your head which makes it difficult to know how loud you're singing and whether you're in tune!

I'll be wearing them again tomorrow.

Most people at gigs dont sing in tune when shouting along so i wouldnt worry there haha

DianaAntonia wrote:

I sold good quality earplugs at concerts for some time and now I can't go without them!
There were so much information about why to use earplugs, and I couldn't deny that it was all right.

But stay away from the foam ones, they're made for constructionworkers and makes the music sound really bad.
Buy one of these instead, they're made for concerts, and the sound is equally as good as without them.

i just bought a pair of ear plugs similar to this, and I absolutely love them. went to a pair of Silversun Pickups shows this weekend and used them for the first time. the sound was amazing, and i didnt leave with ringing in my ears. maybe SSPU are just great live, but to me it was one of the better concerts ive heard, and everything was very clear. totally plan on using some form of earplug like this and not the foam ones anymore.

Sorry for the bump, but I was wondering if anyone else was having a similar issue.

I recently bought these ear plugs

http://www.amazon.com/Etymotic-Research-ETY-Plugs-Protection-Earplugs/dp/B0044DEESS/ref=sr_1_1?s=hpc&ie=UTF8&qid=1353901416&sr=1-1&keywords=ear+plugs+concert

and they were great the first couple times i used them as i mentioned.

However, after using them a couple times i feel like they have become less effective for whatever reason. cant say i know for sure why. could the concerts ive gone to since been louder? maybe. not sure.
was wondering if anyone else had this problem after wearing these non foam ear plugs after awhile?