Ear Protection Tips

Those attending a Music Production Course at LSS are sooner or later reminded about the risk of developing tinnitus and the importance of looking after our ears.

To offer something more than generic advice we have found a couple of products that are definitely worth trying...
The first is a specially designed pair of earplugs which are more comfortable to wear than most cheap foam ones and – unlike the cheap foam ones – reduce the volume without affecting the sound quality; in other words what you hear is exactly what you would hear without earplugs, same balance between high and low frequencies, only quieter. You can buy them online for about a tenner and they can be reused many times.
The second will help when you need to get rid of excess ear wax. Some people are more likely than others to have this problem without apparent causes, and normally older people is more affected, but I found that ear wax increases with the amount of time you spend in noisy environment, so it's something that affects many DJs and musicians. If you do get excess ear wax blocking your ear canal do not, I repeat DO NOT, try to use cotton ear buds: these can only worsen the problem and could permanently damage your ear drum. Before anything else you should try to dissolve the wax using a specialised product and gently rinsing with a dedicated ear-syringe (both available at your local chemist/pharmacy). I would recommend trying to remove a little bit of wax at a time, rinsing with warm water and leaving the product to work for a few minutes every time, before going to get treatment by a doctor; in my experience doctors tend to have little time or patience and take a brute force approach with the syringe which will probably work but which might also damage your ear in other ways. Doctors reading this will disagree, I know.