Probably been asked before...but what is the safe level of decibels for an map to be played at before damge occurs?
Does duration and surroundings come into effect significantly?
Earplugs. Know I should've them, practice is reaching louder heights everyday now...but how do they effect playing if at all?
Can you hear notes as clearly -surely not ???...will they stunt my musical ear, if your ears are ringing 2 late?
"History", Stephen said, "is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake."
-James Joyce, Ulysses.
Ask 10 sound engineers and you will probably get 10 answers. Ask 10 health and safety inspectors and they will all tell you that it is too loud, whatever it is. Ask 10 rock guitarists and they will almost invariably say "Wot? Can you speak up?"
There are all sorts of factors that come into consideration. Stand next to someone firing a ported shotgun and that could be enough to damage your ear permanently. Stand in an auditorium for 8 hours and listen to relatively loud music and you MAY come a way without any permanent damage. Simple rule: if you stand the risk of ear damage - wear sound protection"
Try using ear plugs - a company called Norton has one with a baffle to cut out any noise that is too loud whilst allowing normal speech to get through. They are actually designed for shooters.
If you damage your ears, you damage your musical collateral.
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I can't recall the decibel levels, and they probably wouldn't mean anything without a decibel meter. Which few of us probably have.
From memory... the rule of thumb is something like exposure to sound levels high enough to hinder your ability to hear someone speaking in a normal voice for more than an hour is sufficient to cause permanent hearing damage.
The louder the noise the shorter the exposure required to cause damage. The longer the exposure the lower the volume required to cause equal exposure. Sort of like a sun burn.
Higher frequencies are generally more dangerous and that range of our hearing is more susceptible to damage. This is bad news for electric guitar players.
YOU SHOULD WEAR HEARING PROTECTION. Hearos sells ear plugs that block sound with a flat frequency response to avoid coloring the sound.
