Hearing Protection

  • Thread starter Thread starter Pughbert
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Pughbert

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What do you guys wear when playing drums to protect your ears, live and when practising?
I hear of a lot of people useing there closed back headphones when practising? but what do you guys do on stage?
 
I don't play live. When I record I use those putty plugs that swimmers use. I record with a click so I've got the headphones over the plugs too.
 
I practice at home with earplugs in. Didn't used to, but after 3 years I thought it would be nice to br able to hear later on down the track. I haven't played live since I started wearing the plugs, so yeah.
 
At home I have some practice foam overlay thingos so I don't use protection, and as for live, heh, we need some gigs first ;)
 
When practicing i'm normally playing to tracks so i use ipod headphones then wear ear defenders (workman things when using drills etc) over the top.
 
When I'm practicing, I use earmuffs. These are the ones my local hardware store had:

http://www.aosafety.com/aosafety.co...num=90540&con_family_id=52&con_platform_id=12

I have a larger-than-average head, and they fit well. When I'm playing to a record, I stick earbuds in my ears, put the earmuffs on, and go crazy.

For live playing, I use the ER-20s by Etymotic Research. They're rebranded in a whole bunch of different ways, but the plugs are pretty much the same.

http://www.etymotic.com/ephp/er20.aspx

I bought mine from Sensaphonics. They make custom earplugs, in-ear monitors, and whatnot, and they're also in Chicago where I live. They sell these earplugs for $10, plus shipping if you need it.

http://www.sensaphonics.com/

You can get similar earplugs at Guitar Center, and probably other music stores. I like these because the rubber is really soft, so they don't bug me wearing them through long gigs.

Protecting your ears is really, really important, and it's not hard to do. The foam earplugs will do the job, but as far as cheap earplugs go, I think these sound the best. If you can drop $150 on custom ones, that would be even better sound-wise, but the protection of your ears is about them same if you wear these correctly.
 
ez_willis said:
Those are $132 more than the ones I use. Worth every penny of it, I'm sure, but still pretty pricey.
Click to expand...
yeah, but to save you hearing is it really that much? I think I am going to check those out because the thing I hate about ear protection is the difference in sound. I am mostly a guitarist and when I was using some ear protection I couldn't even hear the effect of my wah pedel! Then again I was wearing shotgun headphone things so....

Thane, have you used those earplugs?
 
I'm no drummer, but . . .

I always use triple flange military ear plugs when rehearsing.

http://chppm-www.apgea.army.mil/hcp/tripleFlangePlugs.aspx

That's just something I found on google.

Here is a little search of products on froogle.

I imagine there may be a slight difference in sound quality if you buy plugs designed for musicians. I'm happy with my uncle sam freebies.
 
if you want real protection than you must invest a whole $150 in real ear plugs for musicians.

grab your phone book and call some audiologists and ask what the price is for custom molded earplugs and go do it!

they fit like a glove.

.....or use those crappy yellow spongy ones and go deaf slowly and develop tinnitus over a period of time like i did before i bot the earplugs i should have bought years ago.
 
I use ear plugs which were fitted by an audiologist. This allowed me to have some control over which frequencies are filtered.

The industrial foam tends to filter everything - leading to a very dull sound getting through. Good plugs allow a better sound quality, while filtering more of the frequencies that do damage.
 
I just use the foam squishy kind, and they work just fine.


Tim
 
I think im going to look into getting some made for me, ive been using the foam ones for ages now, and they drown out way to much.

- Idgeit
 
I thought the "expensive" ones didn't neccesarily protect better, but rather provided a more evenly reduced sound, across the freq. range. I have the ones from Etymotic or whatever - $12 and they are TONS better than the foam hardware store plugs, and provide a pretty realistic sound. I would think for you drummers (I'm not one), though, any old thing would do fine. for me, singing is what's tough with earplugs in.
 
andyhix said:
I thought the "expensive" ones didn't neccesarily protect better, but rather provided a more evenly reduced sound, across the freq. range. I have the ones from Etymotic or whatever - $12 and they are TONS better than the foam hardware store plugs, and provide a pretty realistic sound. I would think for you drummers (I'm not one), though, any old thing would do fine. for me, singing is what's tough with earplugs in.
Click to expand...
I have a pair of those as well, but for drumming I don't use them as they don't take the sound down enough when I play. ;) I think they're great for anything else though.

For drumming I use this kind:
http://www.firstaidandsafetyonline..../Howard Leight Laserlite t047_r05519_v-2.jpeg

I use them both live and in the studio.

-tkr
 
If you get really desperate, cigarette filters "work" enough to dull down M-16 fire, but I don't recommend using butts (used filters), I don't recommend them at all actually, pay the $150 and get the custom made ones, if not just pay 3-8 dollars for a pack of cigarettes and use the filters, same quality in the long run as the other crap out there.
 
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