Custom earplugs... Anything less then 9dB attenuation?

[jefflam79]

I play in a small church (usually run about 90-95db Im guessing). I do have custom westones with the 9dB buttons. I often dont use them due to loosing dynamics with them in and not being able to hear everything in the monitors clearly. It seems when we have a louder drummer (still not that loud) I just need maybe a 3-6dB attenuation just to relieve some of the snare ring. I usually dont need plugs at all but sometimes it would be nice to get a tiny bit of attenuation and still be able to hear the monitors and play with good dynamics.

I searched all around and found nothing. Looking for a 3-6dB plug with high fidelity.

[Stumbo]

Maybe try pulling the 9db plugs out of the the ones you have. Or use only one ear plug in the ear that's facing the drums. Try using a different material (possibly cotton).

[MichaelVee]

I use Westone custom-molded plugs with the Etymotic ER attenuators. The ear molds were done for me back in 2006 by Dr. Sally Baerman who is the head audiologist and owner of Bridgewater Speech and Hearing here in Knoxville.

The ER-25s are a bit too quiet. I have just picked up a set of ER-15's from Bridgewater, and I will report back on whether the 15 dB attenuation works better.

Michael Vee

[rockstarbassist]

Yeah I feel ya.
They work ok for practice (I have the -15db model Westones) when we're all just jamming and I know the tunes, but live it really cuts out a lot of the dynamics and tone so I sometimes go without and I really pay for it the next day.