V8
Was at a punk gig on Saturday and the PA was diabolical. Cheap, poorly setup, gain staging terrible and very badly managed (soundchecks...that's not very punk is it?).
The major issue was digital distortion (clipping) on the vocals when people started screaming (screaming to be expected...it was a punk night). A slightly more minor issue was the mids being cranked (I guess for the vocals), but caused the bass to be rather boomy.
What I couldn't believe was that, I was the only person in the crowd who used earplugs and out the six bands that played only one guy used plugs during his set and then took them out.
Peeps, I maybe getting old - but #$%^&*(ing &*^%$*&^%, - don't mess with your hearing - doesn't matter if you are watching or playing!
No excuses...A set of thunderplugs are cheap! Even a custom set of plugs from Protect-a-ear are verrrryyy reasonably priced.
Shibbibilybob
I spent R700 on my custom fitted Protec-Ears around 10 years ago.
I still use them frequently. Probably got more use out of that R700 than I have out of almost any other money I have spent.
V8
The scary part of the evening was chatting with a few mates, one can't hear the tone on a multimeter's continuity tester - his ability to hear tones around 1k is just...gone.
A rocker in his 60's, I can kinda understand....but in your 20's? The mind boggles ???
Wizard
I've just ordered some custom ear plugs from the Ear Institute for 750 ronts.
An interesting & not unpleasant experience getting fitted for them.
They syringe liquid silicon into your ears to get a mold.
?
Will give feedback after I've given them a test drive.
IceCreamMan
lesson learnt in my case. Years of high music volumes, long distance motorcycle rides without ear plugs have affected my hearing. More so in noisy backgrounds...
I wear plugs these days, when jamming with a band I will wear em and definitely on the bike. I even wear ear plugs and some gigs these days for some of the time to protect my ears.....cept at maiden.... that was worth the risk ?
nazarene
They are very important!
Ive destroyed my hearing by not wearing them and im only 27 with permanent hearing damage. It only takes one incident to cause permanent damage, one can never go back and change that, having constant buzzing in your ears and pain on a daily basis in not fun at all!
