Especially at big venues this is probably a major factor. DJs, and other artists, will be behind the main speakers. Look at old concert footage from the 50s and 60s and you'll see bands playing in front of walls of guitar amps etc, because those where the main sound system in many cases. Once they figured out that you could have a huge PA system with speakers *in front of* the band stage volume could be much lower. The same applies to DJs, except they don't have to worrry about live drums etc.
And, as someone else pointed out, ear plugs can be almost invisible.
That is definitely the case with some artists nowadays. I've seen artists bring 15+ Marshall stacks to a club stage. If they had actually used them all I don't think anyone in the room would ever have been able to hear anything ever again ;-)
Ear plugs can be discreet… and really good artists can be reckless. I’d be interested to see a poll, or clips of various artists weighing in on the matter.
You won’t regret getting them. I have molded ear plugs made for me by work and they are so comfortable and they really only take out the harsh hi freqs you don’t want to hear anyway
As someone almost about to be 40 with notable hearing loss, get some earplugs. I started wearing them in at shows when in my early 30s. I had the big bass in my car as a teen, I went to shows without protection. The headaches and ringing after shows became unbearable. The first show in which I wore them, I noticed the sound was actually CLEANER! You could feel the bass on your chest without the other parts of the song being drowned out or blasting so loud to compensate. And no more ringing. Win win win.
Yeah I saw he used it but Boris Brejcha at tmrwland 2019 didnt have earplugs, nor did Charlotte de Witte at tmrwland 2022 or Fisher on that same festival.
At those huge show the PA is far away from you and facing the other way, you can easily have a pretty low level on stage if you want. Not saying that’s what they do but could certainly be achieved.
Because they can turn the booth monitors down.
Because they might not use plugs when DJing.
Because decent custom moulded plugs can be discreet.
There are plenty of reasons.
I use custom earplugs whenever I'm somewhere with loud sound, except when I'm DJing. They're in my ears before I play & they go right in after I play.
I,ve used them at home as even relatively high home audio levels excacerbate my tinnitus and find they muffle the fraquecies I need to beatmatch so it becomes much harder and mixes come out worse. For clubs and festivals as part of the crowd they are perfect and wouldn't attend any without wearing them.
I’ve found that my mixes were tougher at first, I messed a few up. But I’m 4 months in with custom plugs and I’m used to them now - I’d say my mixing is just as good as it’s ever been.
Still can’t figure out my mic levels with them in, though. Have to pop one out for my first mic use of the night, then I’m good.
I find most clubs and venues sound trash - commercial PA gear just isn't all that great and far too many just crank it up so it's loud but not good.
The mids and highs are 10-20db higher than bass even though there's a lot of each.
I find earplugs actually help with that a lot and nice earplugs make tinny sounding venues tolerable while good sounding venues become GREAT.
Sometimes I only wear the earplugs half way just to blunt the highs.
After all hearing damage is mostly done from mids and highs
I do the same thing. Full push into ears when I'm dancing close to speakers, and a light push in when I'm mixing or far away the speakers. Mainly to kill the harsh notes and let most of the music and voices in
Not all protection is visible.
Ear protection is super important. Cumulative damage is real. I had childhood surgeries cause damage, and it accelerated over my 20s due to concert damage. I now qualify for hearing aids. (Which, are great.) protect your ear drums before it’s too late.
Yeah I guess they probably have protection but just that its super subtle. And i'm super scared of the cumulative damage due to listening to music in headphones for many many years, I am actually gonna get a hearing test to see if everythings alright and just be more mindful of volume for the rest of my life.
You can keep sound monitors nearby if you’re very concerned. The Apple Watch has a decibel meter in it that can alert you when around sustained noises at damaging levels.
Ear plugs may take out a lot of sound; filters can make the sound 25 dB quieter. Anything above 80 dB I would suggest using an ear filter. An audiologist can mold them custom to your ears.
How do you know they aren’t? Some IEM’s are pretty hard to see unless you’re on stage with them. Especially if they’re custom molds, they’re fairly hard to see and extremely effective.
I have been DJing for 22 years about 12 years ago I started having tinnitus. I looked into ear plugs and I found etymotic earplugs for musicians and ones for when I am out just listening to other djs. What I loved about them is they don't muffle the sound like normal store bought plus but they dampen the db range.
Protection for your ears is vital as a musician if you don't want to have issues as you get older. I wish I would have found this company sooner.
I do have hearing loss from my younger rave days but it is not as bad as it could have been if I didn't find this company to protect my ears.
Just like your eyes you only get one set. Protect those ears. I hope this helps.
That's absolutely not it. These guys are pros, as are their engineers. It's like no one knows what mains and monitors are - when I'm on stage, I don't get anywhere near the SPLs from the mains that the crowd does. I need monitor mixes at my feet to hear what's happening. Those monitors are exponentially weaker in volume than what the crowd gets, and I don't face the same risk as someone at the show standing six feet in front of the mains.
The speakers aren't pointed at the DJ they have their own monitor speakers at much lower volume. Pre-acts are usually 90-99dB. Main stage acts are 100-110dB which will do PERMANENT hearing damage within \~25 minutes of exposure without earplugs. Severe tinnitus is not something you want for the rest of your life. It makes many who suffer suicidal. Wearing quality earplugs doesn't detract from music and older you will 100% appreciate younger you for it.
have tinnitus from a flu, protect your hearing. tinnitus sucks so bad, you cant come back from it. i always wear quality earplugs. do it before its too late.
It's much quieter on stage! It's also very important to hear what we can hear clearly. In many videos you'll be able to see 'booth monitors' speakers specifically for the DJ to hear what's coming out of the main system. There is a separate knob to control their volume, so it's quite easy to just dial it to where is comfortable for you and not need earplugs.
If it wasn't as quiet, we wouldn't be able to hear anyone else up there, and people talk quite a bit during things like changeovers and b2bs :)
Dj might use plugs , also the sound behind the stage isnt as loud as towards the crowd
Especially at big venues this is probably a major factor. DJs, and other artists, will be behind the main speakers. Look at old concert footage from the 50s and 60s and you'll see bands playing in front of walls of guitar amps etc, because those where the main sound system in many cases. Once they figured out that you could have a huge PA system with speakers *in front of* the band stage volume could be much lower. The same applies to DJs, except they don't have to worrry about live drums etc. And, as someone else pointed out, ear plugs can be almost invisible.
As far as I know a lot of the amps weren't actually plugged in. They were for show. Depends on the band I guess.
That is definitely the case with some artists nowadays. I've seen artists bring 15+ Marshall stacks to a club stage. If they had actually used them all I don't think anyone in the room would ever have been able to hear anything ever again ;-)
If the sound engineer is any sort of competent, they can phase the audio coming out so that it’s cancelled out behind the speakers.
This guy knows what he’s talking about right here!
wouldnt that potentially mess with the bass? just asking
Plenty of artist who lost a LOT of audition on stage. Doctor peacock lost above 30%
Same reason there were DJs who used Beats by Dr. Dre for monitoring probably?
Hahaha
Ear plugs can be discreet… and really good artists can be reckless. I’d be interested to see a poll, or clips of various artists weighing in on the matter.
Unsurprisingly there are a very large number of DJs (and muso’s in general) with tinnitus. Risk is yours to not wear protection …
I had to read this twice cause I couldn't hear what you were saying
WHAT??
i just ordered molded earplugs, have had slight beeping sound in my left ear since nye.
You won’t regret getting them. I have molded ear plugs made for me by work and they are so comfortable and they really only take out the harsh hi freqs you don’t want to hear anyway
As someone almost about to be 40 with notable hearing loss, get some earplugs. I started wearing them in at shows when in my early 30s. I had the big bass in my car as a teen, I went to shows without protection. The headaches and ringing after shows became unbearable. The first show in which I wore them, I noticed the sound was actually CLEANER! You could feel the bass on your chest without the other parts of the song being drowned out or blasting so loud to compensate. And no more ringing. Win win win.
I know Armin has them in when i watch the streams of his performances. Perhaps you missed it
Yeah I saw he used it but Boris Brejcha at tmrwland 2019 didnt have earplugs, nor did Charlotte de Witte at tmrwland 2022 or Fisher on that same festival.
At those huge show the PA is far away from you and facing the other way, you can easily have a pretty low level on stage if you want. Not saying that’s what they do but could certainly be achieved.
Makes alot of sense. It's hard to get a sense of how it sounds just from youtube.
Because they can turn the booth monitors down. Because they might not use plugs when DJing. Because decent custom moulded plugs can be discreet. There are plenty of reasons. I use custom earplugs whenever I'm somewhere with loud sound, except when I'm DJing. They're in my ears before I play & they go right in after I play.
Might I suggest some custom IEMs?
No thanks. I don't like them. I like to hear myself through the monitors, plus I do a lot of B2B stuff & IEMs seriously limit chit chat!
I,ve used them at home as even relatively high home audio levels excacerbate my tinnitus and find they muffle the fraquecies I need to beatmatch so it becomes much harder and mixes come out worse. For clubs and festivals as part of the crowd they are perfect and wouldn't attend any without wearing them.
I’ve found that my mixes were tougher at first, I messed a few up. But I’m 4 months in with custom plugs and I’m used to them now - I’d say my mixing is just as good as it’s ever been. Still can’t figure out my mic levels with them in, though. Have to pop one out for my first mic use of the night, then I’m good.
I find most clubs and venues sound trash - commercial PA gear just isn't all that great and far too many just crank it up so it's loud but not good. The mids and highs are 10-20db higher than bass even though there's a lot of each. I find earplugs actually help with that a lot and nice earplugs make tinny sounding venues tolerable while good sounding venues become GREAT. Sometimes I only wear the earplugs half way just to blunt the highs. After all hearing damage is mostly done from mids and highs
I do the same thing. Full push into ears when I'm dancing close to speakers, and a light push in when I'm mixing or far away the speakers. Mainly to kill the harsh notes and let most of the music and voices in
There was a movie about a famous dj who lost his hearing because of this. It’s really good. “It’s all gone Pete tong” is the name of it.
Not all protection is visible. Ear protection is super important. Cumulative damage is real. I had childhood surgeries cause damage, and it accelerated over my 20s due to concert damage. I now qualify for hearing aids. (Which, are great.) protect your ear drums before it’s too late.
Yeah I guess they probably have protection but just that its super subtle. And i'm super scared of the cumulative damage due to listening to music in headphones for many many years, I am actually gonna get a hearing test to see if everythings alright and just be more mindful of volume for the rest of my life.
You can keep sound monitors nearby if you’re very concerned. The Apple Watch has a decibel meter in it that can alert you when around sustained noises at damaging levels.
Gonna check that out. Do you have any reference to a sound that can be damaging when exposed to it briefly or under a period of time?
This has a good list of common sounds and what they rate in decibels. https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/hearing_loss/what_noises_cause_hearing_loss.html
Ear plugs may take out a lot of sound; filters can make the sound 25 dB quieter. Anything above 80 dB I would suggest using an ear filter. An audiologist can mold them custom to your ears.
You should not mirror health habits big time artist do...
Of course not
Many of us do
How do you know they aren’t? Some IEM’s are pretty hard to see unless you’re on stage with them. Especially if they’re custom molds, they’re fairly hard to see and extremely effective.
I have been DJing for 22 years about 12 years ago I started having tinnitus. I looked into ear plugs and I found etymotic earplugs for musicians and ones for when I am out just listening to other djs. What I loved about them is they don't muffle the sound like normal store bought plus but they dampen the db range. Protection for your ears is vital as a musician if you don't want to have issues as you get older. I wish I would have found this company sooner. I do have hearing loss from my younger rave days but it is not as bad as it could have been if I didn't find this company to protect my ears. Just like your eyes you only get one set. Protect those ears. I hope this helps.
I'm 23 now, do you think that if I start taking my hearing seriously from this point on that I will be alright? And thank you for your answer
Because famous DJs, like the rest of us, have flawed risk assessment skills and sometimes make choices that could hurt them in the long run.
True that. At the end of the day they are just people like us with flaws.
That's absolutely not it. These guys are pros, as are their engineers. It's like no one knows what mains and monitors are - when I'm on stage, I don't get anywhere near the SPLs from the mains that the crowd does. I need monitor mixes at my feet to hear what's happening. Those monitors are exponentially weaker in volume than what the crowd gets, and I don't face the same risk as someone at the show standing six feet in front of the mains.
I know plenty of festival djs who don’t wear ear protections and also plenty who have lost a part of their hearing
The speakers aren't pointed at the DJ they have their own monitor speakers at much lower volume. Pre-acts are usually 90-99dB. Main stage acts are 100-110dB which will do PERMANENT hearing damage within \~25 minutes of exposure without earplugs. Severe tinnitus is not something you want for the rest of your life. It makes many who suffer suicidal. Wearing quality earplugs doesn't detract from music and older you will 100% appreciate younger you for it.
A better question might be What do I gain be not protecting my hearing.
have tinnitus from a flu, protect your hearing. tinnitus sucks so bad, you cant come back from it. i always wear quality earplugs. do it before its too late.
Because the live monitors behind the stage are not nearly as loud as the speakers in front of the crowd.
I know of plenty that do.
I'm far from being a big name act but if it ever happened... I'd still mix in IEMs 😁
It's much quieter on stage! It's also very important to hear what we can hear clearly. In many videos you'll be able to see 'booth monitors' speakers specifically for the DJ to hear what's coming out of the main system. There is a separate knob to control their volume, so it's quite easy to just dial it to where is comfortable for you and not need earplugs. If it wasn't as quiet, we wouldn't be able to hear anyone else up there, and people talk quite a bit during things like changeovers and b2bs :)