How To Protect Your Hearing While Partying
Arguably the most important item you have as a DJ and party-goer is your hearing. Think about how awful it would be to wake up one day and never be able to listen to music again.
This is why protecting your hearing is very important to any DJ or raver. Years of abuse from pounding bass and high volumes will eventually turn you deaf.
Ear Plugs
Although ear plugs look rather goofy when partying, they are the single best items you can buy to prevent hearing loss.
For a few bucks you can buy a pair that will easily cap the loudness of the music while allowing you to listen at manageable levels.
Just pop them in while you spin or stand next to the speakers to ensure your hearing isn’t lost forever.
Keep Your Distance
Standing right next to the speakers is amazing. The pounding bass collapses your chest, the synthlines rip through your head and vocals echo all around you.
Unfortunately, standing in front of speakers is the quickest ways to loose your hearing.
The human ear can only take 85 decibels before they begin to take major hearing damage.
Many parties crank the sound all the way up, pushing that threshold. This is why you walk away with ringing ears. It means your ears have been damaged.
Standing a little further back can still be a very enjoyable experience, you don’t always have to be right on the speaker. The further you are away, the better your ears will stay.
Give ‘Em A Rest
Every time you hear ringing in your ears, you are slowly going deaf – no longer being able to hear certain frequencies.
Naturally we loose our hearing over time from all the sounds around us during our every day life.
Your ears do not recover from hearing loss but you can extend the coming silence by avoiding a party.
Basically partying every night is a sure fire way to go deaf at an early age.
Turn Down Those Monitors
Specifically for the DJ’s, blasting your monitors will equally do major damage to your ears.
Listening to your mix beyond the damage point will wear your ears down very fast.
The whole point of monitors is to listen to your mix but not to be on top of the speakers, thus preventing hearing loss.
Likewise, you shouldn’t crank your headphones to full volume while mixing either. It’s better to invest in a pair of headphones which isolate sound than attempt to drown it out with louder music.
Just Use Common Sense
When you love music, you never want to stop listening. If you’re deaf, the game is over, you may as well pack your bags and retire.
Keeping the music at manageable levels while considering the damage you do to your ears while partying will allow you to continue in the many years to come.
A deaf DJ is a dead DJ.
Be smart about how you treat your ears.
