A question regarding hearing..

[commanderdan84]

I recently went to a dnb gig in Perth and it was very loud (as gigs generally are). As a patron enjoying loud music that is too often over-driven through harsh or poorly EQ'd club sound systems, I always bring my etymotics for protection. At this gig however, it struck me that the DJ's had a rather large monitor (12-15" 2-way) facing them about 2m from the booth, which would have had to have been cranked pretty loud to cut through the club system..

My question is to all you regular (or even irregular) venue DJ's, how on earth do you protect your ears in such a high decibel environment? Do you simply accept that it's part and parcel of DJ-ing or are there ways around it?

[Mitch]

I wear hearing protection every time i go out. I have etymotics and one other pair that are very similar. Considering going custom sometime this year though.

When you're in the booth, if they are too loud just turn them down. Most people are idiots and have them cranked all the time which is no good for your own ears.

[LabRat]

If this was at shape I know the feeling all too well. My ears were cooked for 4 days.

I wear plugs now and it's so much better. I have what Mitch has and I picked then up from store DJ for about $15. I use to wear the foam plugs the tradies wear and they're fine. Usually ask over the bar for them and they have them at the back

[Mitch]

  Spitfire said:

If this was at shape I know the feeling all too well. My ears were cooked for 4 days.

I wear plugs now and it's so much better. I have what Mitch has and I picked then up from store DJ for about $15. I use to wear the foam plugs the tradies wear and they're fine. Usually ask over the bar for them and they have them at the back

Unless you're at brown alley and they have none

[LabRat]

Oh yeah that's right. Bloody melbournians and your disrespect for health and safety

[Mitch]

It's all BYO plugs up in this town

[djbater]

I have been conscious of my ears since day 1 of DJing. A couple of little things I do are:

-Wear my headphones most of the time, even with no sound coming out.

-Never go past quarter volume for the cue, sometimes when I hop on after another DJ it is set at ¾ or full, they must be doing damage.

-When cueing up a track, I always have the bass turned down.

-If possible, (only when working with a particular entertainment company) I will get a reverse sub for cancellation.

-I don’t particularly use a booth monitor, even when I have one.

In a few properly designed venues the DJ booth is one of the quietest places in the club, which is good.

I feel that any damage done is either from when I am drunk, as all my rules go out the window or when I am in a venue waiting to DJ or not DJing.

[AlexJ]

  djbater said:

I have been conscious of my ears since day 1 of DJing. A couple of little things I do are:

-Wear my headphones most of the time, even with no sound coming out.

-Never go past quarter volume for the cue, sometimes when I hop on after another DJ it is set at ¾ or full, they must be doing damage.

-When cueing up a track, I always have the bass turned down.

-If possible, (only when working with a particular entertainment company) I will get a reverse sub for cancellation.

-I don’t particularly use a booth monitor, even when I have one.

In a few properly designed venues the DJ booth is one of the quietest places in the club, which is good.

I feel that any damage done is either from when I am drunk, as all my rules go out the window or when I am in a venue waiting to DJ or not DJing.

yea ive only ever been to one venue where they had a legit quiet booth (was own room). the only other decent one ive seen just incorperated some clever design so none of the main outs faced towards dj and there were few direct reflective surfaces (most were either soundproofed or had some heavy furniture in the way) i went into the booth and it was relatively quiet-enough that a conversation could be held with relative ease.

[commanderdan84]

Thanks for the replies! It's good to get different opinions up as it raises awareness. After all, our ears are our number 1 asset. I've never DJ'd in a club environment before so I was just curious as to how the pro's look after their ears. The ideal setup would be a booth setup behind the line of fire of the mains as many of you have said. When I was out last weekend I didn't actually get a chance to get behind the DJ but it was a pretty small room. Guess if you're out of the direct line of the mains things would be alot quieter, then it just depends how loud the monitors are. How many of you mix in your cans only, ie no monitor/s?

  djbater said:

-When cueing up a track, I always have the bass turned down.

-If possible, (only when working with a particular entertainment company) I will get a reverse sub for cancellation.

Do you cut the bass when mixing for mixing purposes or for saving hearing purposes? I only ask because it's usually the higher frequencies that do the damage to hearing at high Db..

[djbater]

  Quote

Do you cut the bass when mixing for mixing purposes or for saving hearing purposes? I only ask because it's usually the higher frequencies that do the damage to hearing at high Db..

Bit of both really.

but i did think it was the bass that did the damage.

[AlexJ]

other thing to consider is you will spend alot of time in clubs not actually djing. so ear protection for those periods is a must

im getting some custom ones done in a couple of weeks and feel its probably 12 months overdue

[Mitch]

Id say it's even more important when you're not DJing, as you're out on the dance floor right in front of the speakers, where it's even louder than the booth.