My bloody eardrums

There was an interesting article in the Guardian today about noise exposure of rock musicians and their audience (Come on, feel the noise).

One particularly interesting quote came from Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine when asked about whether he was concerned about using potentially harmful sound levels

"It does bother me, that's why I made sure earplugs were available and that we play within tried and tested sound pressure levels with a limit of 119dB(A). We also never overdrive the PA, which can provide spike of distortion up to 130dB. We'd like to say that it is cool to wear earplugs; it's not cool to get your hearing damaged. And anyway, feeling the music is a great experience."

European noise legislation includes a Limit Value of 87 dB(A). This is a daily "average" which must not be exceeded, although the protection provided by any ear defenders worn can be taken into account when assessing compliance with the limit. At 119 dB(A) the daily noise dose would exceed the Limit Value in less than a minute!

Ear defenders would have to provide 32 dB attenuation to make sure exposure was below the limit, and there are not many devices that can provide such a high level of protection. And its worth bearing in mind that as the protection provided by ear defenders is frequency dependant so they also distort what the wearer hears - with higher frequencies being reduced more than low frequencies. So is he really serious about it being "cool" to wear earplugs?

Audiences exposed to this level could experience ear damage even if they only attend one concert. The band, exposed to this sort of noise level regularly, certainly will.