this.

Tinnitus?
 

So I gigged last night, night before, night before, etc. I do lots of gigs and never realyl thought about protecting my ears.

Suddenly when I got in the house last night I was convinced there was a burgular alarm going off next door. Turns out it's in my head. I mean loud too.

My question is, I thought tinnitus came on slowly and gradually, Is this Tinnitus or have I just damaged my ears temporarily because I'm now quite worried about gigging Wednsday.

You're damaging your ears permanently every time you gig with no hearing protection unless you guys play really really soft and low (Sure...).
If I were you, I'd worry more about the long term than next Wednesday. While you may not be seriously impaired later on, you're definitely going to suffer hearing loss and loss of the ability to hear certain frequencies. As a musician, that sucks.

If you're already experiencing drastic effects, however temporary they may be, it's cause for concern and calls for a change in your gigging habits if you intend on retaining your proper hearing in the future.

So I've been told, It's never really something that's occured to me before and has kind of just hit me as a bit of a shock. It should go down this time I think being so powerful so quickly but the long term is shaking me a bit.

Like FD said, it's best to think about the long term. If you haven't already, go see an audiologist (your GP can refer you to one). They can give you a proper hearing test.

I just wish someone would have told me that back in the days I was drumming for bands. Those cymbals have a tendency to kill the high frequency sensitivity in your ears and I know it started affecting me somewhat long before I wised up and started using earplugs.

It sucks when I'm trying to mix a song and I'm constantly wrestling with whether I'm EQing properly or not. Although it's not debilitating at this point in my life, I still prefer to lean on software to help make those decisions and it's just something, as a musician, that should not be.
Overall it's mostly a general feeling of loss that a natural function of your body has been diminished and can't be restored. For some folks like mastering engineers, their ears are the most important part of their lives and you'll see those guys walking on city sidewalks with earplugs in.

You'd be surprised at some of the innocuous-seeming background noises happening in daily life that are actually damaging your hearing slightly. We're so used to a loud life that this stuff just slips by unnoticed and years later we don't even realize how much of our hearing we're no longer able to use that's aside from natural aging.

I just think it's worth it to protect your ears while you're young. Especially as a musician or anyone else who's prime enjoyment in life needs the use of ears to appreciate.

^totally agree

http://img704.imageshack.us/img704/4853/soundchart.jpg

Tinnitus is cause by damage to the hair cells in the inner ear. Even listening to noise at a long period of time at a low volumes can have the same effect as loud volumes of noise at a short duration of time.

Give you ears a rest, wear earplugs when you practice, even when you practice alone without the band. There are different kind of earplugs out there, the moldable Silicon earplugs are pretty good, imo. The sponge earplugs that is inserted in the ear canal can overtime cause another problem of wax buildup by pushing the wax in further. - well that's the advice my doctor gave me. I hoped I helped some

^ Agreed.
The molding earplugs are good in that they don't push the ear-wax in. And if you've ever been to the doc to get earwax taken out, it is NOT a pleasant experience. They take what looks like a crochet needle and really jam that shit up there to hook out the wax. I had to go through that once after never taking seriously the huge warning on boxes of Q-Tips that explicitly state: "Do Not Insert Into Ear Canal".

There are also safe earplugs out there that are designed to filter out high-frequencies, which are usually the most damaging. Those are good for when you're gigging acoustic sets where you don't want to be too deaf from the plugs, for obvious reasons.

All I can say is that a good pair of earplugs that meet your needs without handicapping you in any way are by far a very good investment.

Yeah, I always get a ringing after I go to gigs, and never thought about using earplugs or other protection until someone told me that that particular sensation you get, i.e. the ringing, after a concert is when a whole bunch of little hairs lining your ear canal have died... and they don't grow back!

I think I have Tinnitus, because I definitely hear a ringing in my ears when it is silent. But I've had dodgy ears my whole life anyway, I've had 7 surgeries on them so far!

I've been a bit concerned about my hearing lately as it seems to have deteriorated a bit even though I don't often listen to music that loudly, although I am definitely guilty of listening for long periods. I don't mind mishearing what someone's saying and asking them to repeat it once, but any more than that and it becomes embarrassing.

To that end, I've stopped listening to music on the bus... as a result of having to compete with the engine, music which doesn't seem loud on the bus reveals itself to be quite loud as soon as you jump out. And I'm definitely going to buy some decent earplugs before the ISIS concert this time round, instead of trying to use shitty ineffective $2 earplugs.