My English is not very good, but I going to try to give a nice answer :embarrest:
As sound engineer I can say that wearing ear plugs is one of the important things in the sound & light industry. You said you are partially deaf in one ear from playing in a rock band. I know a few people en meet a lot of artists that play drums, guitar, bass and vocalists that have there one in ears or playing on very loud monitoring, but there always wearing earplugs (not the ones whit the in ear systems, they control there own volume).
When it’s old years day and night I don’t wear earplugs but after a few hours of continues firecracker bangs en explosions near me en far from me I get also a tone of 1k in my ears. Not good!
When you have the high tones in your ear (don’t really know how to call it in English) your ear is damaged. In your ear are little vibrating hairs that gives the sound to the brain. Sound is moving air, so the little hairs pick up the moving air and notice what it is (low, mid or high). But when you are expose to long to loud noise some of those hairs will fall down (like a tree in a wood during a storm) and will never grow back. Sow damaged is damaged. Because they don’t grow back is every time your exposed to loud noises (firecrackers, concerts, stage monitors) en you here the high tones after a certain period you have again new hearing damage.
I have see some movies on the internet of mascleta’s whit the dB’s on the side of the screen (some are on video.google) I see peeks of 120 or higher, but that’s measured on a big distance. Near a no4 the Sound Pressure Level (SPL) could be 170 dB for a very short time (a split of a split second) But the Pressure is enough to bring you hearing damage (the high tones you here) (I based that on SPL calculations I have seen before, a celebration cracker is 163/164 dB, maslecta’s go much louder)
Protecting your ears is a thing what you must do. You have 2 ears and when they are damaged inside it never going to grow back like it was before. You don’t’ notice to have damage because your brain makes something of the signals it still gets. (your brain have build a kind of database where it links some noises, that’s why sometimes some people say they hear there father or hear the doorbell)
I have ear plugs with a damping factor of -25 dB A that’s a lot, but when you are working in 105 dB continue it’s a smart idea. My plugs cost me € 170,- its for some people a lot of money, but mine are made specially fitting on my ears and special for music (I hear the same whit plugs in)
I know one thing, if I in the future going to Fallas I take my plugs whit me, cause what I heard a mascleta is very loud, en my ears are my work, and when I are 60/70 years old I want to here something to.
Hopefully you understand something of it :cheesy:
misterBoem
, but this year I was fine. Just interested to hear people's thoughts.