the problem with earplugs
Kyle has a good review of the Teenage Fanclub show over at DCist. He mentions that the sound started off muddled, then got better. Now, just to be clear: there's a great chance that it was a poor sound mix that got corrected, especially if Kyle had already sat through an opener. He's a smart lad and has been to a lot of shows. I'd trust him on this one.
But another possibility exists, and I think it's interesting enough to prattle on about for a while. It's also the reason that earplugs not only make you look lame, but also make shows sound worse (instead of just quieter).
Remember 9th grade biology? And your ear, and its hammer, anvil and stirrup? You know, those tiny little bones in the middle ear that move vibration from your eardrum to the cochlea? Yeah, those guys. They're held in place by little muscles called the tensor tympani. When you hear a very loud noise for a long time, those muscles tense up -- this restricts the motion of the bones, making them pound on your cochlea less, minimizing the damage that can be inflicted on the latter's delicate structure.
But this tightening also changes your ear's frequency response -- some frequencies get relatively louder, and others get quieter. So sound engineers blow your 'lobes off at rock shows for several reasons. One, because they need to make sure everyone can hear the music (obviously). Two, because people report a qualitative improvement in how good music sounds when you turn the volume up. And three, because sound above a certain threshold tightens up your ear, changing how you hear sound, and the engineer wants to be sure that everyone has a roughly equal frequency response so that he can properly equalize the show. Otherwise the folks at the front would hear a much different show from the ones at the back.
So -- if you go to a show and at first you can't make out the lyrics, and then suddenly everything starts to sound better, it might just be your ears adjusting. Unfortunately, if you wear earplugs your ears may never adjust, and you'll be stuck in audio mud. Also, shutting off your ear canals with foam will bias the sound toward the low frequencies that can still happily flow through your skull and into your inner ear.
Sucks, I know. I'm not looking forward to hearing loss, either. But it's a fact: earplugs impede rocking.
Comments
Yes, I had earplugs in. No, I didn't see the openers.
The sounds was basically the same as it was for that Engineers/Bloc Party show. The bass was overpowering EVERYTHING. But generally, when we get space downstairs, it's on the bass player's side of the stage, so naturally I think going to the middle of the room will fix that right up. And usually it does, but the sound last night was definitely off, as the comments left on my DCist post suggest. I think the problem was the stage was moved so far forward that it really messed up the acoustics of the room. It was almost flush against the bar stage left(the spot where we usually stand wasn't there, the stage was on it). So if you were at the end of the balcony upstairs, you were actually BEHIND the speaker stacks. So it was all effed up.
But they straightened it out and concert nirvana was reached.
Nice breakdown of how the ears work though. :)
I used the word cochlea in a post this week, too!
it's a pretty great word.
And Kyle, thanks for the clarification. Makes perfect sense. I really wish that clubs would shift some resources from their light shows to their sound systems. More speakers, blanketing the club in sound, might let them ease back on the volume.
An alternative that wouldn't require clubs to make any changes to their PAs would be if people at crowded shows would just shut up, thereby lessening the amount of noise that must be overcome.
Quality earplugs make a big difference too. Still not as good as going without them, but far better than that foam junk.
I've been pretty happy with my earplugs (from http://www.etymotic.com/ephp/er20.aspx). They basically reduce sound evenly across all frequencies so it is basically like turning the concert down 20 decibels or so. I'd like to go without them, but my left ear rang for 4 months after a Buzzcocks/Burning Airlines show at the 9:30, so the earplugs are a required piece of equipment for me.
I agree with Drew. My earplugs are only slightly better than the foam ones, and I still felt like I got an accurate representation of the mix. Also, it would be interesting to see if the sound guy is wearing earplugs also. I know some sound guys do, the guy at T.T. the Bears in Boston for example.
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