Problem: I keep having these urges to have a chat with people. This is quite impossible in bar dancing’s or other loud social gatherings like loud bars (very common in Amsterdam), festivals and concerts.
Solution: Bring a few sets of industrial earplugs to keep the interesting things (the conversation) and filter out the often irritating things out (drunks singing, bar music, or the feedback of a bad PA system).
Another advantage is that you can also talk with a normal volume (and hear other people talking with normal volume), and other people can’t. So the conversation can be as intimate as you want. This makes loud concerts perfect surroundings for talking about bribes, state security and personal affairs.-- psneekes, Aug 25 2002 Sonomax earplugs - the baked product of this idea http://sonomax.com/...roducts/custom.aspxI wear mine daily. Great for industrial use - no loud noises, but pretty good clarity from conversational-level sound. Analogous to a low pass filter for sound intensity. [Custardguts, Jan 17 2008] WHHAAAT?-- po, Aug 25 2002 My recommendation is to use those texting phones they advertise on TV for this very purpose.
[As far as I can tell, now that we no longer touch each other when we dance, loud music is simply a mating aid, designed to force people to lean into close contact just to hold a conversation.] [I can think of no other plausible explanation for it, anyway.]-- DrCurry, Aug 25 2002 mating aid? hardly.
turn the lights down darling and the MUSIC UP - I don't think so.-- po, Aug 25 2002 Where's the invention?-- thumbwax, Aug 25 2002 po: you're too old, dear. (It is a mechanism to get youngsters unused to touching the opposite sex to touch; thereafter, nature takes its course.)-- DrCurry, Aug 26 2002 I always thought the strategy was "Ha-ha! Now it's too loud for you to talk, you have nothing to do here except drink and dance!"
I quite like your theory though, [DrCurry]. [po] The lights going down most definitely is a mating aid - it has a similar effect to the infamous 'beer goggles'.-- -alx, Aug 26 2002 I think you'll find that folks have been wearing earplugs in loud environments such as nightclubs for many an age now, at least since the advent of earplugs and/or loud environments. Very often the band members and sound technicians are sporting them.
As 'wax said, what is the idea here?-- waugsqueke, Aug 26 2002 ..and if there was an idea here, it would be thoroughly baked. One girl I know even has a special wrist watch shaped container to keep the earplugs in before heading to the club.-- yamahito, Aug 26 2002 psneekes, if you can find me some industrial earplugs that behave as you wish, I can make you rich.-- pfperry, Aug 26 2002 As some others observed, the idea is not new on it self, but the use of industrial earplugs outside a profesional context seemed new to me and rrr.
The idea is: get a nice conversation in a loud context.
It's like a nonsmoker beeing able to coexist with smokers, without the bother of smoke. But then with sound. So beeing able to enjoy the ambiance and beeing able to speak with a normal tone of voice.-- psneekes, Aug 26 2002 But if the level of background noise is high and you have to shout into the ear of your partner-in-conversation to be heard, then what are the chances of anybody eavesdropping?
[DrCurry: your recommendation is a dangerous one. Already groups of young people go to clubs & pubs and fail to engage in any form of conversation with members of their party - they're all texting people who aren't present. If people were to text each other instead of conversing face-to-face, in a few generations time humans will have no vocal cords and gigantic thumbs.]-- calum, Aug 26 2002 Maybe someone could invent a language based on hand gestures, so you could communicate even while wearing earplugs.-- Ford, Jan 17 2008 I used to wear earplugs on stage all the time (rock'n'roll band) and in classical choral rehearsals... I don't particularly recall conversations being made any easier, but it should help somewhat if you have a <400Hz'ish rolloff.-- FlyingToaster, Jan 17 2008 See [linky]. Baked as a baked thing.-- Custardguts, Jan 17 2008 random, halfbakery