NOISE CAN KILL! please read.

[CharlieH]

I use Etymotic ER-20 ear plugs with good results.

Although slightly over budget, these seem to be the most popular brand and I believe it is worth spending a decent amount of money on items such as this, therefore after Christmas I will see what my financial state is :D

Thanks for the recommendations.

Charlie

[Sam Jelfs]

I would suggest that anyone in this industry gets regular hearing tests, at least once a year, so you can monitor your hearing loss (and we will all lose hearing as we age anyway). The thing though is to make sure that you are tested across the hearing range, a lot of places (such as Boots), only test up to 4 or 8kHz.

 

Noise Induced Hearing Loss is as bad, if not worse, for ones quality of life as Tinnitus and testing is free at hearing aid centres such as those in Boots etc.

 

Just don't tell them you are only doing it for the free hearing test, they will refuse to do it and want to charge you £50-70 for the test ;) Speak to your local university, they my have an audiology / medical program that will do the testing for free so long as you allow the test to be done by (supervised) students.

[BlueShift]

Earplugs are a must, and I never leave home without them.

 

However, responsible sound engineering is also a must. We need to deliver the result being asked of us while not exposing members of the audience too higher risks.

 

Of course this isn't an exact a science as we'd like - clearly, as in this case, susceptibility to hearing loss and tinnitus varies on an individual basis, but I have certainly been to events - typically amateur bands and the like - where sound levels were excessive (even by my standards as a professional sound engineer working on large scale events).

 

I've never seen Them Crooked Vultures live, so I am absolutely not making any comments about this particular gig or engineer, but I think we'd all agree that sometimes sound levels get out of hand and we should (as engineers) take responsibility for that.