In recognition of the recent National Tinnitus Week, we're going to get a little health and safety on you in this column. We know - it's not the most glamourous subject, especially when compared to a flashy new synth. But hey, what's the most important piece of gear in your studio? That's right, it's your ears, and you do rather need to take care of them. Because nobody wants to get to 30 and be forced to quit production because they can't hear well enough anymore. So read on for some tips on how and when to protect your ears. This stuff is important!We'll start with probably the most damaging environment for any DJ or producer - the live arena. Clubs and gigs are hugely loud, and it goes without saying that these kinds of volumes can really damage the ears. It's worse if you're DJing, as you need to crank up the cans and booth monitors to drown out the rest of the club, too. So; earplugs. The most essential part of your going-out gear; I literally don't leave the house without mine. The difference they can make to your night is remarkable; contrary to popular perception you can actually hear the music better with earplugs in. You can hear more detail, the harshness is reduced, you can actually have a conversation on the dancefloor, and it doesn't affect the 'vibe' at all - when the bass is punching you in the chest, putting something in your ear won't change that at all.
No, they don't look cool, although in the years that I've been clubbing they've become increasingly common; back in the day bouncers would laugh at you as they searched your pockets, while now loads of clubbers rock some plugs. The bottom end of the scale are those brightly coloured foam jobbies. They're ok in a pinch, but they look garish and cut out a lot of the top end of the frequency spectrum, affecting the music. The next best option is to go down to your local music equipment shop and pick up some plugs from there. They'll normally be about £15, come in a range of sizes and colours (including transparent) and sound good in the club. They won't be perfectly fitted obviously, which can mean they're not comfortable to wear for 8 hours at a time, but they're a good and cheap solution.The best option is, of course, proper moulded plugs. You make an appointment, a doctor pours liquid goo into your ears (a very odd sensation) and a couple of weeks later your own earplugs arrive. They're a revelation - comfortable, almost invisibly small, and make clubs sound just plain better. At prices of £165 and upwards they're not cheap - but if you consider how bad it would be to lose your hearing (and, by extension, your production career) and how much you'd pay to get your hearing back if it was possible (a lot more than £165, I'll wager) - it suddenly puts a different perspective on things.
So that's gigs (and bars, all too often) - but you can damage your ears without going anywhere near a sound system. The prime culprits are headphones; whether writing or just on the bus. Earbuds are especially bad; they don't block out much sound so you need to crank them up to drown out any background noise, they don't put out much in the way of bass so you crank them up even further to get the impact, and their output is concentrated in the higher frequencies - where your ears are the most sensitive. So start by getting a pair of good, closed back headphones with decent bass response. You can then have them at much more moderate levels when you're out and about.
When you're in the studio, writing on headphones is a real risk - the desire to turn up the cans to really get into the vibe is a strong temptation and you can end up battering your ears for hours at a time. A good tip to make sure you're working at a sustainable level is to get hold of a cheap decibel meter from an electronics shop. Then tape some CD's to your earphone, and put the decibel meter by the hole (this simulates, crudely, sound going into your ear canal). 90dB is the level you should be aiming for; that's what current health and safety guidelines suggest you can listen to for eight hours without damaging your ears. After that it halves for every doubling in SPL; 93dB for four hours, 96dB for two hours and so on. Mark your headphone amplifier or soundcard output with a permanent pen to make sure you know where this level is in future.Music production provides plenty of excellent opportunities to damage yourself, in fact, and the more extreme you go, the more you need to be careful. Always, always, turn your speakers right down if you're plugging and unplugging things, experimenting with feedback or harsh EQ sweeps, and so on. Jungle legend Optical famously had to take an extended sabbatical from production and DJing after he blew a speaker while working on a trademark gritty bass sound.
Tinnitus affects most DJs and producers, and hearing loss affects a significant few too. The effects can be devastating, so make sure you avoid the worst of it by protecting your ears! It's an investment that you'll never regret.
