Ocarinas United

I'm not too worried as I have played in band for many years and have noticed no decline in hearing but it couldnt hurt

OcarinaMan333 wrote:I'm not too worried as I have played in band for many years and have noticed no decline in hearing but it couldnt hurt

You got out luckier that I did. My right ear is a little damaged. Not bad, but enough that I can tell. Darn marching trumpet section and drumline!

OcarinaMan333 wrote:I'm not too worried as I have played in band for many years and have noticed no decline in hearing but it couldnt hurt

I red that one may not notice hearing damage even after years of exposure to high levels of noise, but it may surface suddenly after couple decades. Also:

National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders wrote:What are the symptoms of NIHL? [NIHL = Noise-Induced Hearing Loss]

When a person is exposed to loud noise over a long period of time, symptoms of NIHL will increase gradually. Over time, the sounds a person hears may become distorted or muffled, and it may be difficult for the person to understand speech. Someone with NIHL may not even be aware of the loss, but it can be detected with a hearing test.

That site has some good information about NIHL, though much of it is already on my article.


Also hearing protectors are relatively cheap way to protect your hearing. Just think it this way: By spending about 20 USD/EUR/GBP you can get good earplugs and by using them when ever you are exposed to high levels of noise will prevent you from hearing damage. If you on the other hand don't spend those 20 [currency] and your hearing gets damaged, there's no amount of money that can repair your hearing.

Myung wrote:Just heard that my plugs weren't covered by insurance
-snip-
Will post my experience with them when I've tested them for a couple of days.

Ouch! By the way, do you know the maker of your plugs?


EDIT: I edited the article. The hearing protector part is revamped. There's few recommended earplugs now.

Between playing in marching and concert band back in highschool and me being dumb enough to not have my earplugs in when I got on the CH-53 (miltary hilo) I'm not scared of my oc.

That is complete rubbish!!! that means playing the ocarina loudly for about 4 mins per day, you will become deaf!?

The problem with stuff like this is there will always be contradicting info. OSHA (Occupational Safety & Health Administration) Daily Permissible Noise Level Exposure

EDIT: took table out since it was added to orignal post

Zeodary wrote:That is complete rubbish!!! that means playing the ocarina loudly for about 4 mins per day, you will become deaf!?

You won't become deaf after having played ocarina once, and perhaps you won't ever get completely deaf, but it is likely your hearing will be damaged if you play ocarina alot. Just find yourself a time machine, go 30 years in the future and ask your future self how is your hearing then.

CursingLlama wrote:The problem with stuff like this is there will always be contradicting info. OSHA (Occupational Safety & Health Administration)

OSHA Daily Permissible Noise Level Exposure

I were thinking wether to add those OSHA's permissible exposure times or not. I'll edit them in to the article for fairness sake.


EDIT: Added OSHA values. I hope the table shows correctly. For some reason it's little off if I use only tabs, so I added few spaces to make it look good on my screen. If it's complete garbage on someone's screen, let me know and I'll figure another way to show the values.

I think the difference between NIOSH and OSHA tables is NIOSH shows how long before hearing loss CAN start to occur and OSHA shows how long before it very likely WILL happen. Granted not all hearing loss is impairing and some will occur naturally but reguardless I still think this is a good thread because a lot of musicians really don't think of needing hearing protection.

CursingLlama wrote:I think the difference between NIOSH and OSHA tables is NIOSH shows how long before hearing loss CAN start to occur and OSHA shows how long before it very likely WILL happen.

That might actually be true. Does anyone happen to know for sure?

But then there's so many health institutions with their different numbers, that who really knows which of them is true. It is quite difficult to measure something like noise-induced hearing loss anyways.

I'll let the information regarding those numbers be the way they are, for now.

CursingLlama wrote:Granted not all hearing loss is impairing and some will occur naturally

Yea, hearing will gradually decrease as you age, but if you expose yourself alot on high levels of noise the hearing loss will be even worse than it would be if you would take care of your hearing. The difference might be that when you are 80 years old you either are able hear without hearing aid or you may have trouble hearing even with hearing aid.

And of course when speaking about hearing loss, the tinnitus must not be forgotten. It's annoying. I've been testing/using these new hearing protectors I bought (Elacin ER 20) and they are otherwise good, but they make my tinnitus even more obvious when I use them. Must keep playing without pauses when I have them on.

I'm a paranoid now

Luckily I have earplugs although i have sensitive hearing and i don't really notice it. Although I blow pretty softly inot the Ocarin and it's a small Ocarina too (Songbird).

Zaraze wrote:I'm a paranoid now

Luckily I have earplugs although i have sensitive hearing and i don't really notice it. Although I blow pretty softly inot the Ocarin and it's a small Ocarina too (Songbird).

No need to be paranoid. I've been in band for ten years and if anything my right ear is the only thing that somewhat bothers me. I've had a history of fluid getting to the inside of my ear and that's what I think is is. Not damaged hearing.

teidon wrote:

Myung wrote:Just heard that my plugs weren't covered by insurance
-snip-
Will post my experience with them when I've tested them for a couple of days.

Ouch! By the way, do you know the maker of your plugs?

My plugs are from Exinore, www.exinore.nl
It's a dutch company though...



I tried playing with my 15 dB plugs in, I must say that it is highly annoying to hear your own breathing so loudly when playing.
So I tried with only one plug, and that was alot better. I think I'll probably switch ears everytime I play.
And if I play together with my sister I think I will wear both, because of the heavy resonance.

EDIT: @Teidon: Your Elacin plugs are from the same company as my Exinores(that's probably the dutch brandname for Elacin).
I have the ELACIN/EXINORE ER FlexComfort plugs btw. It says on the product page that these are especially good for musicians. Sweet
Oh and the tinnitus does unfortunately get worse with plugs in, I have a little in my left ear. But thank god it's not super bad like with some people.
Mhhh just noticed they also have 9 dB filters, maybe I can get filters only and switch them with my 25's since I don't use them that much anymore...

EDIT 1.000.001 : uh yeah I apparently can't even name my own hearing condition right.
it's Hyperacusis not acoustics durrr http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperacusis
It's not as bad as it used to be thankfully. When it's bad it kinda feels like you have superman hearing -__-
Kinda like when you eat something crunchy, you hear it really loud from within, that's what Hyperacusis is like.

Very good information.

I am thinking of running out and buying a pair of reusable ear plugs tomorrow afternoon.

More than once I have worn ear plugs while loud music was going on, and I have taken them out while still in the midst of it all. Good way to make you pass out from shock. The pain is insane.

This topic is very controversial.

I think its good information, but not one that should be stickied.

What exactly do you propose?

A) We should restrict our ocarina playing?
B) Play ocarina with our ears plugged?

C'mon think about it. This applies to every instrument out there, and a lot of them are louder than ocarinas ever will be. Maybe all musical instruments should come with a big label "WARNING THIS INSTRUMENT WILL DAMAGE YOUR HEARING".

Well that doesn't seem very realistic does it?
Well then perhaps this topic being stickied isn't either

Many many factors other than ocarinas will eventually and inevitably diminish our hearing as we age and time goes on. I think this topic has the potential to spread unnecessary paranoia in the ocarina community.

Just my thoughts.

kissing wrote:What exactly do you propose?

A) We should restrict our ocarina playing?
B) Play ocarina with our ears plugged?

A) Nope.
B) Is that such a bad thing? I find it being more comfortable to play with earplugs because it won't be so loud to my ear then. Though it's also nice to play without them because you can kind of feel the music more. So I randomly wear and don't wear them, usually I wear.

kissing wrote:Maybe all musical instruments should come with a big label "WARNING THIS INSTRUMENT WILL DAMAGE YOUR HEARING".

Maybe they really should? Loud noise is a health hazard and many of the consumer products out there warns you about this and that health hazard. Why not about noise too?

kissing wrote:Many many factors other than ocarinas will eventually and inevitably diminish our hearing as we age and time goes on.

And many of those are something you can either avoid or "fight" against (= hearing protection, turn down volume, etc). It is of course everyone's own decision wheter they A) avoid noise by not doing noisy things / going in to noisy place, B) use hearing protection or C) not care about it.

kissing wrote:I think this topic has the potential to spread unnecessary paranoia in the ocarina community.

While I kind of agree with that, I think it's difficult to define "unnecessary" in this case. Is it "unnecessary" to warn people about -possible- health hazard? But wheter this topic needs to be sticky is another question. Initially I thought it would be something everyone needs to read and thus I thought it be a good idea to sticky this so that it wouldn't sunk to page 3 immediately. But I guess it has done it's job, atleast for now, so I'm don't know if it has to be stickied anymore. But I'll be lazy and let it be sticky for now. Mods be free to comment/unsticky as they see fit, and perhaps I'll unsticky this by myself later on.

kissing wrote:Just my thoughts.

Your thoughts are greatly appreciated. It's nice to know that some people have found the word "no" and it's synonyms from his dictionary.