Resident Advisor on Tinnitus - everybody should read this.

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Andre_Crom
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Resident Advisor on Tinnitus - everybody should read this.

Post by Andre_Crom »

Guys, read this: https://www.residentadvisor.net/features/2985

I personally have a light tinnitus since a year on my left ear, which feels like a white noise, which i only notice in complete silence.

Besides, my left ear is more sensible to changes in air pressure, cold wind, etc...

Not sure where it came from, it's hard to tell as there are many possible causes... but chances are the years of loud music played at least a big role in it.

Nowadays i am working with "as low as possible" studio volume and ALWAYS wear these earplugs when in clubs: http://amzn.to/2uvq6yv

In the beginning using earplugs sucked a bit, but now i feel even more comfortable with them, instead of going out without; knowing that i might irreparably damage my ears (even further).

If it stays like it is now, i can live and continue doing music with it; but the thought of it getting worse is VERY unsettling.

Most people (including me) never think about this topic, until it's too late... therefor i'd recommend every one of you to protect your ears.

As somebody said in that article - you don't know the value of silence until you miss it.

Please share your own experiences in this topic - i think the more people speak about this, the more we can protect others from getting the same problem.

Alume
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Re: Resident Advisor on Tinnitus - everybody should read thi

Post by Alume »

Tinnitus here, accepted it. And prettymuch same story as you. I will never go into a club without earplus. I have on me always and everywhere.

I preach to my friend though, but not all of them listen(pun intented)

td3l
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Re: Resident Advisor on Tinnitus - everybody should read thi

Post by td3l »

Good read. Glad to see ear health becoming a more talked about issue.

I used to use the Etymotic ER20s all the time until I bought myself a fitted pair of plugs. Best investment I ever made. I refuse to step foot on a dance floor without them... Labyrinth being the only exception, because that system is infused with black fucking magic and does not fatigue my ears at all. If you don't want to spend on fitted plugs, AT LEAST buy yourself some ER20s. Only $13 on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Etymotic-Researc ... B0044DEESS

Won't lie and say I don't get a little hot on the studio levels sometimes, but I stay conscious of when my ears start feeling tired.

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Re: Resident Advisor on Tinnitus - everybody should read thi

Post by dubdub »

I've had tinnitus since I was around 16, so it's not related to loud music in clubs, at least for me. I still wear plugs since most clubs are just too fucking loud to be comfortable.

Living with tinnitus is 99% psychological. Much more important than avoiding loud music and wearing plugs is looking after your mental state.

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kostas
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Re: Resident Advisor on Tinnitus - everybody should read thi

Post by kostas »

noise induced hearing loss (NIHL) can be caused by one time exposure and/or continuous exposure over an extended period of time. the damage is being caused to the small hair (I dont remember how they are named) that there are inside the cochlea, apparently the connection of the auditory nervous system with the world.. it is critical, specially for sound engaged activities (nice alternative name for a rave eh?) , to understand sound levels and the time that it is allowed for our ears to be exposed. 60 or so db is the normal conversation level with 0db being the leafs moving on dirt. that s the cliche of explaining sound levels. above that the sound starts to be dangerous on the 85-90 db area again depending on the the exposure time. a bad quality sound system can deliver levels above 110 db which can be disastrous even with a ten minutes exposure. it is of outmost importance to know when the sound that we are being exposed to, it s bad for our health. ears as most of our organs don t repair themselves.
I have been exposed to around 150 db gunshots and therefor I have some freaking deeps on my audiogram! maybe that explains why I m always having a bad time mixing hi hats!
Andre_Crom wrote:
Please share your own experiences in this topic - i think the more people speak about this, the more we can protect others from getting the same problem.
Andre this is a very important subject indeed, and that s why I m mentioning all of the above. We tend to lose our hearing as we grow, let s not press our ears unnecessarily. As all pleasures in life, you have to use protection to enjoy!!
''We all have the equal amount of now. Got it? ... now go and make some good techno.''

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Lost to the Void
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Re: Resident Advisor on Tinnitus - everybody should read thi

Post by Lost to the Void »

We have had many topics about this.

Protect your ears.
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kostas
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Re: Resident Advisor on Tinnitus - everybody should read thi

Post by kostas »

Lost to the Void wrote:We have had many topics about this.

Protect your ears.
well it is going to take some time to just run through all of the content on subsekt!
you guys have been posting since ages , so a bit of a repetition I think it s part of the process of membership expanding.
apart from that I hope I m being a contributor and not an alien. :roll:
''We all have the equal amount of now. Got it? ... now go and make some good techno.''

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Lost to the Void
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Re: Resident Advisor on Tinnitus - everybody should read thi

Post by Lost to the Void »

It's probably never a bad time to bring up ear protection.
I'm amazed at how many of my peers aren't looking after their ears.
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The_G
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Re: Resident Advisor on Tinnitus - everybody should read thi

Post by The_G »

None so far but it's almost certainly coming at some point.

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Re: Resident Advisor on Tinnitus - everybody should read thi

Post by Revaron »

I suffer, undoubtedly as a result of 17 years of djing and more still of loud music combined with a youthfully cavalier approach to ear protection. Anyway, generally speaking it doesn't bother me that much, but the last few months I've actually found it quite annoying. I am in the middle of what is turning out to be a very protracted and very annoying house sale/purchase/move that is proving to be quite stressful, and I wonder if this has been an influence on the tinnitus being more pronounced than usual. I dunno as I really don't know much at all about tinnitus, but I have been thinking that maybe I should actually see a specialist.

At any rate, I wish I had started wearing earplugs many years before I actually did!!! So if you don't, you should be! It is kind of silly, like in the other thread that was up recently about damaging volumes, why the fuck do we play music at volumes that are plainly going to damage everyone's hearing? But we do, so yeah, earplugs.

Anyways I've been thinking about getting some of the moulded earplugs, and would be interested to hear from people who use them. I've been using the ER-20s and they seem to do the trick for listening to clubs/bands, but they aren't much use when DJing. Anymore I only DJ on a proper rig about 4 or 5 times a year, but at the same time I know that blaring monitors and cranked headphones are no good at all (and yes I do set them as low as I can when playing), but apparently with the moulded ones you can actually DJ with them in? If so I'd probably get a pair, but the other question is how long do they last? For £200 I'd be hoping a good few years. Also, once you've had your ear moulded, is a replacement pair significantly cheaper as they've already measured up your ear?

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Re: Resident Advisor on Tinnitus - everybody should read thi

Post by TheBinaryMind »

Revaron wrote:Anyways I've been thinking about getting some of the moulded earplugs, and would be interested to hear from people who use them. I've been using the ER-20s and they seem to do the trick for listening to clubs/bands, but they aren't much use when DJing. Anymore I only DJ on a proper rig about 4 or 5 times a year, but at the same time I know that blaring monitors and cranked headphones are no good at all (and yes I do set them as low as I can when playing), but apparently with the moulded ones you can actually DJ with them in? If so I'd probably get a pair, but the other question is how long do they last? For £200 I'd be hoping a good few years. Also, once you've had your ear moulded, is a replacement pair significantly cheaper as they've already measured up your ear?
Last week I went to a hearing specialist to make a template of my ears for custom made earplugs, with replaceable filters. I'm going to give those a go to try when DJ-ing. Because your ears kind of keep growing your entire life, you should check every two years if the plugs still fit exactly without any surrounding room. If they do, you can still use them (and perhaps replace only the filters), otherwise you'll have to remake a template and pay the full price for new plugs I guess. But it's a fair price for keeping your hearing imo :)

Andre_Crom
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Re: Resident Advisor on Tinnitus - everybody should read thi

Post by Andre_Crom »

dubdub wrote:I've had tinnitus since I was around 16, so it's not related to loud music in clubs, at least for me. I still wear plugs since most clubs are just too fucking loud to be comfortable.

Living with tinnitus is 99% psychological. Much more important than avoiding loud music and wearing plugs is looking after your mental state.
I partially agree to this - still think it is essential to physically protect your ears to hopefully never even get the actual problem.

But once you have it, the mental side becomes extremely important.

As i said in the original post i only notice my tinnitus when in complete silence. That's maybe 3-5 % of my day, mostly before falling asleep. With the right attitude to it, that does not really bother me much. BUT, when i think about it all day, it drives me nuts!

Now, after living with it a few months, i start to accept & and mostly forget it. Just need to (and will) do what i can to prevent it from getting worse.

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Re: Resident Advisor on Tinnitus - everybody should read thi

Post by dubdub »

wayfinder wrote:I am lucky enough to not have tinnitus, but I'm curious:

If you do have one, does this technique work for you?
Doesn't work for me but I know it does for a lot of people.

My tinnitus freq changes if I move my neck in certain ways though. For a lot of people tinnitus is at least partially connected to spine and back issues.
Andre_Crom wrote:Now, after living with it a few months, i start to accept & and mostly forget it. Just need to (and will) do what i can to prevent it from getting worse.
Don't freak out if it gets a bit worse, having some fluctuation is normal, depending on your physical and mental state. I've had months that were pretty bad and months where it was almost nothing. Mine is generally pretty audible in very quiet situations but I've had it for years so it rarely really bothers me.
Andre_Crom wrote:I partially agree to this - still think it is essential to physically protect your ears to hopefully never even get the actual problem.
While noise induced hearing loss and tinnitus are correlated, they don't necessarily have to come together. Up to 10% of the population suffers in certain countries, most of these people aren't DJs or clubbers.

Andre_Crom
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Re: Resident Advisor on Tinnitus - everybody should read thi

Post by Andre_Crom »

dubdub wrote:
Don't freak out if it gets a bit worse, having some fluctuation is normal, depending on your physical and mental state. I've had months that were pretty bad and months where it was almost nothing. Mine is generally pretty audible in very quiet situations but I've had it for years so it rarely really bothers me.
Thanks for explaining this - it would be good for me to hear from some more people who've had the problem some years: do you feel your Tinnitus stays the same, gets worse (or less worse) over time?

As pointed out above, my biggest fear right now is "even when i do protect myself as well as i can, will it still get worse?".

Of course i know that everybody's different, but to hear of some more longtime experiences can at least give me a bit better idea.


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