..I cannot hear silence anymore.
I hear several high pitched tones and white noise (very low volume) when it is silent.
But I'm lucky, as long as there are some noises, I do not notice them. And they are not driving me crazy. The volume increases if I'm stressed, I do not know why...
I have worked as a sound designer/engineer for the soundeffects to commercials on TV and cinema and film and therefore been around sound and repetetative and often high volumed sounds, and have attended a lot of concerts "unplugged" (meaning without earplugs) AND the thing that finally did it, was that I was rigging for a rave concert (as local crew, not as a sound engineer) and was lying on the floor some 10 meters away from the speakers, when the sound engineer suddenly goofed up and the speakers exploded with sound. That REALLY HURT!!
Well, the thing is, I think the ears are very flexible, BUT still, standing next to a drum kit will give you very "sudden" and loud sounds with high peaks, which means the ear don't have time to prepare.
I see this is an old post, I hope it worked out ok, Josh!
But I have one bit of advice to EVERYONE attending concerts.
USE EARPLUGS!!!
I hear you now "Ohhh...earplugs destroy the music experience, it cuts away those and those frequencies!"
No excuse, they now have these fantastic earplugs that are made specially for you (shaped as your ear) and you can buy different types of bits to put in, that decreases the volume of the music over all the frequencies. I have one -10dB and one -15dB. (+6dB is a doubling of the volume) You still get the full music experience, but protect your ear. The professionals have these, so it's not embarrasing either... downsize is is that they are expensive, but you'll never have to change them! Just wash them, and they are good as new.
PROTECT YOUR EARS!!!
-<nerdo>-
