Friday, February 04, 2005
Huh? What did you say?
So, a while ago I decided I needed some earplugs. Eventually... and it took a while... I got some. Ok, so I've been thinking about it for about 3 years and they only arrived this week.
I got some ER-20s from Green Leopard. They mainly specialise in made to measure plugs but I couldn't really afford that. These basically are designed to reduce noise by 20 decibels with a really flat reduction over all frequencies. Some plugs apparently tend to mainly attenuate the higher music/speech frequencies. That's the theory anyway.
Anyway, we all know (or should know) that going to loads of gigs and playing in bands is bad for your hearing. I'm sure we've all woken up with someone ringing loud bells in our hears and had it continue for days. So I was interested to see what difference they'd make. Yesterday was the first time I'd had cause to use them in anger. First at a rehearsal with Müf at Impact, then at Bar Oz - Ok, ok Colorz Bar it is now - I hate that name.
Rehearsal:
Oh my god... I can hear everything! Ok, it's all a hell of a lot quieter so it 'rocks' less but I can actually hear all the notes all the instruments are playing rather than it all kind of mushing into a dirty blurry mush of sound where you can just about pick out various bits. For any of you familiar with Impact we were in room 1. I'm not a huge fan of room 1, it might be big but I find it difficult to get great sound in there. This was fine though. Even if it wasn't beneficial for my hearing I'll be wearing them in future just because it's so much easier to play when you can hear what everyone else is doing so well.
Colorz:
Similar thing here really. Can actually hear all the instruments and things better, ears don't feel pained through it being a bit too loud. Plus, you can actually hear people talking to you a lot better than without them in. Which is bizarre but a great benefit.
Only downside is that I feel a bit like my deaf Nan must always feel - she's always asking if she's shouting. Everything's so much less noisy that I really can't tell how loud I'm talking. And as I tend to mumble a bit anyway I probably overcompensate.
So far, so good. I should really have been less lazy and got off my arse and got some decent earplugs years ago.
I got some ER-20s from Green Leopard. They mainly specialise in made to measure plugs but I couldn't really afford that. These basically are designed to reduce noise by 20 decibels with a really flat reduction over all frequencies. Some plugs apparently tend to mainly attenuate the higher music/speech frequencies. That's the theory anyway.
Anyway, we all know (or should know) that going to loads of gigs and playing in bands is bad for your hearing. I'm sure we've all woken up with someone ringing loud bells in our hears and had it continue for days. So I was interested to see what difference they'd make. Yesterday was the first time I'd had cause to use them in anger. First at a rehearsal with Müf at Impact, then at Bar Oz - Ok, ok Colorz Bar it is now - I hate that name.
Rehearsal:
Oh my god... I can hear everything! Ok, it's all a hell of a lot quieter so it 'rocks' less but I can actually hear all the notes all the instruments are playing rather than it all kind of mushing into a dirty blurry mush of sound where you can just about pick out various bits. For any of you familiar with Impact we were in room 1. I'm not a huge fan of room 1, it might be big but I find it difficult to get great sound in there. This was fine though. Even if it wasn't beneficial for my hearing I'll be wearing them in future just because it's so much easier to play when you can hear what everyone else is doing so well.
Colorz:
Similar thing here really. Can actually hear all the instruments and things better, ears don't feel pained through it being a bit too loud. Plus, you can actually hear people talking to you a lot better than without them in. Which is bizarre but a great benefit.
Only downside is that I feel a bit like my deaf Nan must always feel - she's always asking if she's shouting. Everything's so much less noisy that I really can't tell how loud I'm talking. And as I tend to mumble a bit anyway I probably overcompensate.
So far, so good. I should really have been less lazy and got off my arse and got some decent earplugs years ago.
# posted by Mike @ 13:37 
Comments:
<< Home
Ha! I feel I must Say "I told you so...." and everyone laughed at me when I used to wear them! Who's laughing now eh?
Post a Comment
<< Home
