Musician In Ear Monitor Help and Suggestions

Hi all,

I'm looking for some help in getting a set of In Ear Monitors for use on stage with a (loud!) rock band. Long story short, I've been gigging small venues with bands for the past 5 or so years while neglecting to wear any ear protection, and have developed tinnitus as a result. I'm now trying to take every step possible to prevent it from worsening, and have finally picked up a set of Etymotic ER-20 earplugs (20 db reduction of all frequencies) for use in practice and live settings.

The band is now moving to the point that we will be utilizing a metronome and a backing track, meaning that we'll need to use some sort of ear/headphone setup on stage in order to stay in time and be on cue. However, we won't be putting any of the instrument mixes through the ear/headphones, meaning that the sounds from the instruments will still be focused on stage.

I'm a bit confused in what to look for in regards to In Ear Monitors, and am looking for some assistance. I understand that there are custom molded solutions that offer exactly this (protection from loud noises on stage, with the ability to listen to listen to something in-ear for keeping time).

However, I've also came across these Etymotic MC5 In-Ear Earphones which state they offer 35-42 dB of noise isolation when inserted properly. Would these be enough to allow listening to sounds in ear, while still protecting from on stage noise for short term until I can pick up custom molded earphones?

Apologies for the long post, I'm just not really sure what factors I need to be looking at while looking for in ear monitors!

Many thanks

 

Well, *my* suggestion, being a fellow musician in a rock band, is to stop playing out, LOL. I would give just about anything for my ears back, and making T worse would be awful.

If you must play out, get an electric drum kit, and make everyone go in-ears and direct, no stage monitors or amps. At least that way you have no stage volume and are behind the monitors. You still won't have control of the house though, and the clubs can be loud enough even without your stage volume. Also, spikes/pops in the mains may be bad.

I used 32+ dB earplugs for years, and we also had custom in-ear monitors, but I still managed to get bad T. Our band was loud, but there are much louder bands. I had a very low level T for years, maybe 9 years, and thought "oh, this is what tinnitus is, no big deal", but it can get much, much worse, to the point of being suicidal, which is what I discovered unfortunately.

I have started playing again (unplugged and/or super low volume), as playing music is a great therapy and great for the brain, but I would be very wary of playing a gig, or playing with any sort of "normal" volume drums or amps.

This won't be everyone's experience, but I thought I'd just throw that warning out there. Definitely go get your hearing tested, see an ENT to discuss, and if you do go in-ears, get large (and thick) custom molds.

 

Regarding the Etymotic plugs, from the looks of them, I'm sure a good set of dense custom molds would probably offer much greater volume reduction. Don't go cheap on that stuff, we only get one set of ears.

 

This is what I don't understand. How is it possible, with such reduction that you still have an increase of your T?
You are most likely exposed to something like 70-80 max with such reduction.
Do you have any insight in what went wrong?

 

It was a common cold (but a bad one) that the doctors think pushed it over the edge. Also, I did play at home (guitar) but didn't think it was that loud--no plugs. A gig with plugs.. A perfect storm apparently. I think if I hadn't caught that cold or didn't have the gig (I did wear plugs), that I would be ok... you just never know.

 

Morg, very sorry to hear that. I feel like I am at the same level at this point, and have been trying to not let the tinnitus get the best of me and it has been at pretty manageable levels. Have you gigged since the increase?

I've spoken with the ENT and there's nothing wrong with my hearing, and she suggested that as long as I'm playing gigs with plugs, it should be fine. I mean there are plenty of other (louder) bands out there, and while I understand they may have first-class sound engineers for every gig, they must be wearing good hearing protection while listening to a backing track/click/metronome.

Essentially, as we're still going to have on stage volumes, I'm looking for a way to block that out (currently with the Etymotic 20dB reduction plugs), but also be able to hear a metronome/backing track so we can stay in time (I play guitar by the way, not drums!) So I suppose what I am looking for are earphones that are really really good at blocking out external noise, so I don't have to have the in ear sounds cranked loud to hear over anything! I don't feel like I'm ready to give up playing gigs just yet, but I understand there is a large risk in doing so if it can make the tinnitus worse...

 

Guys,
I have almost NO hearing in one ear (except the very loud ringing of tinnitus) and am at about 50% in the other ear. The show band I'm traveling with wants to go entirely amp-less (and even invested in elec drums) I play lead guitar BTW, and wonder how you would proceed. ie: what kind of wireless gear, would it still work for me, etc.
Thanks for any advice
JohnB in Ohio