crows to burnaby

I try to be reasonably conscientious about wearing earplugs at shows, both as an audience member and as a musician. On stage I'm pretty close to a drumset and even though it's not like we're a heavy band, that kit can sure make a racket. And attending shows, you never quite know what you're going to get - some venues and sound guys appreciate that excessive volume can make people miserable, and others like to crank 'er up until your teeth hurt. I remember seeing a show, I think at the Railway, where I found my eyes forced to blink in reflex every time the drummer hit the kick drum.

Plus, I've got a bit of tinnitus already, which happened at some point during a loud summer spent in Philadelphia - I suspect the July 4th fireworks display, which I remember finding painfully loud. It's not all that bad - I only notice it in a really quiet room, and it isn't distracting at any other time.

But a few months ago my left ear, over the course of a few hours, suddenly felt clogged and uncomfortable and my tinnitus in that ear became very loud. I had it checked out immediately, and was told it was probably a viral ear infection that would have to go away on its own. It improved dramatically over the next few days, but there's still a residual hissing/ringing in my left ear that wasn't there before that day. I'm told it may get better in time - but that can take quite a while.

The upshot of all of this is that I'd been tossing around the idea of getting custom earplugs for quite a while, but that experience with my left ear gave me a scare. Having had a taste of how much worse my tinnitus COULD be, through factors out of my control, I decided I needed to make the changes that ARE in my control.

As I've said, I've worn store-bought earplugs faithfully, but they are very unsatisfying - they strip off so much of the high-end that you lose all the subtleties of the sound. Sometimes I found myself putting them in loosely, or leaving out the plug that isn't facing the drumkit, which defeats the purpose but was often the only way I could get enough clarity to perform well. I've tried a number of different types, but nothing was optimal. Custom-made earplugs are expensive - but tinnitus and deafness are forever.

So Marcus and I both made appointments at the Western Institute for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing to get fitted for custom musicians' earplugs. They cost $140, which is cheaper because WIDHH is a non-profit - other places charge about $160-170. They're available with 15db or 25db filters; some places offer a 9db version. We decided 15db would be about right. You can also buy additional filters if you want to swap them out in different circumstances; they're an extra $80 or so.

Now the freaky part. They have to make a mold of your ears and send them out to the lab. So the first thing is to stick a little piece of foam, attached to a string, as deep into your ear as it can safely go. The fellow who did our ears poked the foam so far in that your brain is sending you alarm signals - your body KNOWS you're not supposed to have something that far down your ear canal, and it's a bit disturbing and not very comfortable, either. I had to have one of mine adjusted because it was starting to ache, and Marcus had to start over as the first piece of foam was too big a fit.

Then the fun part. The guy mixes up a sort of epoxy-like goop, some pink and white substances, that end up looking like bubble gum. This goes into something that looks like a icing tube. This then goes into your ear. And that's why it's a good thing you've got a piece of foam buried deep in your ear canal, because who knows how far the goop would go without it?

Having pink goop squirted into your ear makes a disturbing squelching FHHHSSHHPPPSHHPPP sound... and then nothing. Once both your ears have been filled, you can't reasonably hear much of anything. Conversations are difficult and you quickly switch to gestures. It's quite still and strangely peaceful - when you know it's going to end in ten minutes. I wouldn't want to make it a habit.

Then the molds get worked awkwardly out of your ear and you feel like your brain's going to get pulled out as well, and then you get to see what the insides of your ears are shaped like. They're much more crooked and bendy than you'd think. Everything sounds so much clearer after you've been deaf for ten minutes.

It took exactly two weeks for the plugs to arrive, so last night's show was the first opportunity I had to use them.

I should've done it years ago.

It really is just like having the volume turned down. It's an even attentuation. Foam plugs cut out more of the high-frequency sounds (which are more harmful, so that's usually a good thing) but that's what makes the sound so muffled. I could still hear things quite clearly with the earplugs in, and I had no trouble distinguishing anything - it just took the edge off. They're fantastic. Singing with them was a little strange, not because I couldn't hear myself as I feared, but because I could hear myself so clearly that I wondered if I was too loud.

So if you have a need for good earplugs and you've been waffling about whether or not it's worth the money, I say do it. These really are a cut above standard earplugs - and $140 won't buy your hearing back if it starts to go.