Ocarinas United

NOTE: I'm not professional ear specialist, or anything even close to that. But what I write here is based on information found from Internet.

Why should I care?

• Hearing can be damaged permanently - Permanent in this case means the rest of your life, which is probably several decades. Hearing damages won't heal over time, they can only get worse.
• Ocarina makes loud enough noise to permanently damage your hearing.

You may not notice anything being wrong with your hearing after having played ocarina for few days or after few weeks or even months. But it will build up and eventually you will notice it.


What kind of damage can noise cause to my hearing?

• Reduced ability to hear - You will start repeating the word "What?" a lot, more than you do now.
• Tinnitus (aka. ringing) - Continuous noise inside your ear/head. The noise can be buzzing, hissing, whoosing, ringing, clicking to name few.

Both of the above are obviously bad. If you can't hear what others are saying to you, that's bad alone. But as a musician, your hearing is one of you tools: The music you make is intended to be heard. How can you make music without being able to hear?

Tinnitus on the other hand is majorly annoying. A continuous noise. You can't do anything for it. It's just there - for the rest of your life. Always, everywhere.


What kind of noise can damage my hearing?

Any noise/sound can damage your hearing if it's loud enough and you are exposed for it too long. It doesn't matter wheter the noise is low or high frequency. It doesn't matter wheter the noise sounds pleasant or not. It doesn't matter wheter you are young or old. If the noise is loud enough and you are exposed for it too long, your hearing may be permanently damaged. Your hearing may even be damaged from one time loud noise. All it takes is one loud "BAM!" and your ears are ringing for the rest of your life. Do keep in mind that you are not a super human, your hearing too can be damaged just like everyone else's.


How loud is too loud, how long is too long?

That's difficult to answer. For one, everyone is unique. Other people have more sensitive hearing than others, their hearing may be more easily damaged. Also it's difficult to measure the sound pressure because you need special hardware for that. Even if you get used to certain noise level doesn't mean that it wouldn't be harmfull.

Sound pressure (the loudness of noise) is measured in decibels, dB or dB(a). Normal talking is around 40 to 60 dB(a) (depending if it's one-on-one or group). Over 125dB(a) noise will cause discomfort/pain in ears. Sound levels above 85dB(a) may damage hearing.

I do not know how loud sound ocarina makes, but other wind instruments (oboe, flute, clarinet..) makes sound between 85dB to 114dB. Wheter that's true for ocarina is unknown, but I know it's not far from truth.

Below is a list of sound levels and exposure time per day after which hearing loss may start occuring. Values from National Institute of Safety and Health (NIOSH, link) and Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA, link). These values changes from time to time as more research is done.

Code: Select all

NIOSH                    |   OSHA
Decibel      Time        |   Decibel      Time
85          8 hours      |   
88          4 hours      |
91          2 hours      |   90          8 hours
94          1 hours      |   92          6 hours
97          30 min       |   97          3 hours
100         15 min       |   100         2 hours
103         7.5 min      |   102         1.5 hours
106         < 4 min      |   105         1 hours
109         < 2 min      |   110         30 min
112         < 1 min      |   115         < 15 min

From that we can come to a conclusion that playing ocarina for only few minutes may already damage your hearing (based on NIOSH), depending how loud noise your ocarina makes.

It's better to be safe than sorry.


What can I do to prevent hearing loss/damage?

Avoid noise and noisy environment
Quite simple really. Stay away from noise when ever you can. When you are playing games, listening to music, watching movies - turn down the volume. Especially if you use earplug type headphones. For example Ipod can output up to 114dB - Just listening to one song with maximum volume will damage hearing!

Use hearing protectors
It's not always possible to avoid noise. Ocarina for one doesn't have volume knob. It either makes 85 to 114 dB noise or it doesn't make noise at all. Also rock concerts/festivals and other parties where there's lots of people and lots of music are bad for your hearing. In rock concerts there's usually over 100 dB sound pressure, even up to 130 dB (or more). When you can't avoid noise you have to use hearing protectors to prevent hearing loss/damage.

Remember: Hearing loss may not happen immediately, but it will build up over time. Once it happens, it's permanent.


What kind of hearing protectors are there?

There's several different kind of hearing protectors. Good hearing protectors are comfortable to wear and they don't distort the sound. It's said that using a good hearing protectors is like turning down the volume - they won't affect the sound any other way. Using good hearing protectors allows you to for example enjoy music without background noise. Just put on your protectors, turn up the volume a bit and background noise is gone and it's just you and the music. Also using good hearing protectors will still allow you to hear/understand other people speaking.

For music listening/playing purposes you'll want so called flat-attenuation hearing protectors. That means that the hearing protectors attenuates (reduces/filters) all frequencies by same amount. Because of that sounds you hear won't be distorted/muffled. Normal, cheap, protectors attenuates high frequencies more than low frequencies muffling the sounds and also makes understanding speech more difficult (you may hear someone speaking but you just can't make any sense of it).

It's better to use atleast some kind of hearing protectors than to not use any.


Ear mufflers

I were debating wether to add this type protectors here or not. These are obviously very visible, but they can be very comfortable to wear, except in hot places. There are some flat-attenuation ear mufflers, but ear mufflers usually reduces the noise too much for ocarina playing.


Earplugs

There are two main type of earplugs: disposable and reusable. They might feel uncomfortable if they don't fit your ears properly.


Disposable earplugs probably aren't what you are looking for. I don't think there's any flat-attenuation plugs of that type (they will muffle the sound). You can buy these atleast from drug stores.

Reusable plugs on the other hand can be so called flat-attenuation plugs (like the one in image), which allows you to listen to music without the sound being distorted. You can probably find flat-attenuation plugs from shops which sells music instruments and/or audio equipments. Price is probably around 10 to 20 USD/EUR/GBP. Non-flat-attenuation reusable plugs can probably be found from drug stores.


Tailor-made/individual earplugs

These are the highest quality ear protectors you can find. The downside is that the price is very high too, around 200 USD/EUR/GBP for pair. And even though they cost alot, they break over time, usually they should last about 4 years. But then again, how much is your ability to hear worth? Is there a price tag for it? Once your hearing is damaged, there's no way to repair it. But for hobbyist cheaper "premolded" earplugs are probably enough, unless you can't find plugs that fits your ears.

Tailor-made earplugs are just that: specificaly made for your ears. A mold is taken of your ear canals and the earplugs are made based on those molds. This ensures a perfect fit, they are comfortable to wear and as the plugs are unique for both ear (different shape) you can't place them wrong which maximizes the effect. Different filters can be chosen for various uses which filter the sound differently. There's specific filters intended for musicians/music enthusiasts. These are also relatively invisible when they are in use.


Can you recommend any specific hearing protectors?

Below is a list of some good hearing protectors. If you can't find those from your area, or otherwise want other model of hearing protectors, look for the following words/letters in the name and/or description of the hearing protectors: ER, hifi, high fidelity, flat-attenuation. If one or more of those words can be found from the name/description of the hearing protector, they should not alter the sound other than reduce "volume" (flat-attenuation hearing protectors).

Also when choosing hearing protectors, you need to decide how much noise reduction you want. For example when playing ocarina you do want to hear the ocarina's sound, you just don't want it to damage your hearing. Over 20dB reduction is probably too much for ocarina playing.

(Given prices will vary from area to area, they are just to give an idea)
Pre-molded reusable earplugs (price is around 10 - 20 USD/EUR/GBP)

• Elacin ER 20
• Etymotic Research ER-20 and BabyBlues (BabyBlues are for small ear canals)

Tailor-made/individual earplugs (price is around 150 - 200 USD/EUR/GBP)

• Elacin ER FlexComfort (can be chosen with 9dB, 15dB or 25dB filters)

Anything I should know about using hearing protectors?

• NEVER remove hearing protectors in a very noisy environment (90dB+). Doing so may damage your hearing permanently and the damage may be worse than should you have not used any protectors at all. When you use hearing protectors your ears will become more sensitive as they try to pick up all the sounds around you. But if you suddenly take away those protectors your ears can't adjust quick enough to the change, leaving your ears more vulnerable. Remove hearing protectors only when the noise level is below dangerous levels!
• Low frequencies cannot be filtered. Even if you have the best possible hearing protectors there is, standing for example next to a loudspeaker that outputs low frequencies may damage your hearing.
• If noise is still too loud even when you wear hearing protectors, you either have installed them wrong, they are broken or they don't reduce the noise enough - Your hearing may be damaged!
• While certain hearing protectors may be good for musician, they may not be good enough for person using heavy duty machinery. Choose your protectors for the intended use.
• Hearing protectors are useless if you don't use them. If they are uncomfortable to wear, you may sometimes think "Should I put them on... naaah, they feel so bad." Find hearing protectors that fit your ears / are comfortable to wear so that you will use them when ever you should use them.
• Not everything that you can stick into your ear protect your hearing. Make sure that you are using hearing protectors instead of something else.

Anything else I should know?

I think that's about the most important things. Search Internet should you want more information. You may wish to look at Don't Lose The Music, it has alot of good information about hearing and how to protect it.


It's not uncool to wear hearing protectors, but it's stupid to not take care of your hearing.
[hr]
If you found any mistakes from this article or have something to add to it, please let me know. Also if someone can somehow measure the sound pressure ocarina makes or knows it already, it'd be great if he would post the result here.

Excellent article! Very informative.

I myself own custom made earplugs, very similar to the ones in the last picture.
The insurance paid for them since I needed them for my HyperAcoustics.

Even though they were made from a mold of my ears, if you have to wear them for very long periods of time, they will eventually start to hurt.
But most people won't need to wear them for extended periods anyway.

EDIT1: I noticed when playing simultaneously with my sister, I receive the sound very differently. Though my sister does not.
It's like there is super resonance created because of the two ocs playing at the same time O_o
It is probably also because of my HyperAcoustics/Asperger/CFS...I think I'll start wearing the plugs when playing together.

EDIT2: I'm going to get new molds made very soon, because the previous molds may not have been made correctly.
Thank god for the 4 year warranty . I'll test how it plays with the ones I've got for now, this afternoon.
I have 2 pairs, one reduces 15 dB and the other 25 dB. So I think the 15's are probably better for ocarina playing.

Sound Levels of Music

Code: Select all

Normal piano practice                      60 -70dB
Fortissimo Singer, 3'                      70dB
Chamber music, small auditorium            75 - 85dB
Piano Fortissimo                           84 - 103dB
Violin                                     82 - 92dB
Cello                                      85 -111dB
Oboe                                       95-112dB
Flute                                      92 -103dB
Piccolo                                    90 -106dB
Clarinet                                   85 - 114dB
French horn                                90 - 106dB
Trombone                                   85 - 114dB
Tympani & bass drum                        106dB
Walkman on 5/10                            94dB
Symphonic music peak                       120 - 137dB
Amplifier rock, 4-6'                       120dB
Rock music peak                            150dB


NOTES:
One-third of the total power of a 75-piece orchestra comes from the bass drum.
High frequency sounds of 2-4,000 Hz are the most damaging. The uppermost octave of the piccolo is 2,048-4,096 Hz.
Aging causes gradual hearing loss, mostly in the high frequencies.
Speech reception is not seriously impaired until there is about 30 dB loss; by that time severe damage may have occurred.
Hypertension and various psychological difficulties can be related to noise exposure.
The incidence of hearing loss in classical musicians has been estimated at 4-43%, in rock musicians 13-30%.

Source: http://www.gcaudio.com/resources/howtos/loudness.html

That's a great article. I've done marching band since I was a freshman in high school and I wore earplugs for every performance we did. They were a lot more helpful in my college band though because now there are 285 of us. I wear headphones that muffle outside noise so I can keep my iPod at a lower volume and it still seems kind of loud.

I know that my Ocarina can make both the loudest noise possible from and Ocarina and at the same time can make the lowest. Like I have said in earlier comment posts, it can be played both loudly and softly.

teidon wrote:But as a musician, your hearing is one of you tools: The music you make is intended to be heard. How can you make music without being able to hear?

Didn't Bach or one of them make and play music, but was deaf?

But yeah, I don't want to lose my hearing Thanks

Didn't Bach or one of them make and play music, but was deaf?

Beethoven.

Aryah wrote:

teidon wrote:But as a musician, your hearing is one of you tools: The music you make is intended to be heard. How can you make music without being able to hear?

Didn't Bach or one of them make and play music, but was deaf?

But yeah, I don't want to lose my hearing Thanks

Beethoven

Oh yeah i meant to say about Beethoven was that I think he felt the music. meaning that each note has a certain vibration to it. This is how I play Ocarina when I have the volume turned up to where I cant hear my Ocarina.

I don't know if this is true or not. But i have heard that people recover from hearing damage...

tuneofwind wrote:I don't know if this is true or not. But i have heard that people recover from hearing damage...

From what I heard in one of my high school science classes is that some of the hearing loss in your ear is caused by overloading nerves inside the cochlea. The nerves are attached to little hairs inside of the middle ear and when too much intense sound interacts with these hairs they wear out and eventually stop working. But after a while your body repairs the hairs and you can hear again, which is why you can still hear after a loud event such as a rock concert or a car accident involving airbags.

A very informative article!

I've always wondered about this because I was in band for 6 years and marching band for 3 and no one ever had ear plugs. It was always annoying when the trumpets, who sat behind me (alto sax) would try to play as loud as possible to annoy the people in front of them. Luckily, they didn't specifically target me with these sonic attacks. But, I was nearby. Those were times that I wished I had some ear plugs.

marko wrote:

Didn't Bach or one of them make and play music, but was deaf?

Beethoven.

Wikipedia wrote: Over time, his hearing loss became profound: there is a well-attested story that, at the end of the premiere of his Ninth Symphony, he had to be turned around to see the tumultuous applause of the audience; hearing nothing, he began to weep. Beethoven's hearing loss did not prevent his composing music, but it made concerts—lucrative sources of income—increasingly difficult.

Beethoven used a special rod attached to the soundboard on a piano that he could bite—the vibrations would then transfer from the piano to his jaw to increase his perception of the sound. A large collection of his hearing aids such as special ear horns can be viewed at the Beethoven House Museum in Bonn, Germany.

Better use some earplugs instead.

CursingLlama wrote:The incidence of hearing loss in classical musicians has been estimated at 4-43%, in rock musicians 13-30%.

Those numbers are little misleading. For one "noise-induced hearing loss" usually happens over time. Younger musicians are less likely to have hearing loss than older musicians, who have been playing for longer. Those numbers probably have both younger and older musicians mixed. Also professional musicians are probably better educated about hearing loss, so they know to take care of their hearing better.

xarumitzu wrote:

tuneofwind wrote:I don't know if this is true or not. But i have heard that people recover from hearing damage...

From what I heard in one of my high school science classes is that some of the hearing loss in your ear is caused by overloading nerves inside the cochlea. The nerves are attached to little hairs inside of the middle ear and when too much intense sound interacts with these hairs they wear out and eventually stop working. But after a while your body repairs the hairs and you can hear again, which is why you can still hear after a loud event such as a rock concert or a car accident involving airbags.

I can't really comment that much, but I can always quote some external sources.

rnid.org.uk wrote:In 2002, research conducted on behalf of RNID revealed that almost three-quarters of 18-30 year-olds who regularly go clubbing have experienced temporary tinnitus. In time, as a result of prolonged exposure to loud noise, this temporary tinnitus may become permanent.

I for one have some tinnitus. It's luckily not that much, atleast not yet, and I'm attempting to keep it at that. If there is some background noise I usually don't hear it. But not everyone is that lucky. For some tinnitus can be so loud that it affects their everyday life, causing for example depression and they may have difficulties to fall asleep.

Also one of the members of OU commented in one Youtube video's comments in the line of "My ocarina gave me tinnitus". I don't know wether he meant permanent tinnitus or only temporary. My ears atleast tend to be ringing more after I have played ocarina for some time without hearing protectors. And because of that, this article exists and I also ordered hearing protectors yesterday. I'll post some comments when I have tested them. And it'd be nice if people would share their experience with hearing protectors. That would help others to buy good hearing protectors.


Take care of your hearing people.


PS. I changed the name of this topic so that people won't think this thread as some kind of random "take care of your health" post with nothing to with ocarinas.

Just heard that my plugs weren't covered by insurance
They are quite the expensive investment , but then again how much is your hearing worth.
I was planning on testing them while playing ocarina yesterday, but I was too busy making a new neckstrap .
Will post my experience with them when I've tested them for a couple of days.

hmm great article... kinda scary wen you really think about it...