From: "fly_catcher27" <>
>
> Dear Folks,
>
> I wear hearing aids to correct a congenital hearing loss. While it is
> perfectly adequate for normal day to day work, when outdoors there
> are often bird sounds (or anything that nature produces) that escape
> me. Some of it may be due to the frequency, some may be because it is
> too soft for my hearing aids to amplify..
>
> I was wondering if anyone has experience hooking up hearing aids to
> recording instruments so as to be able to amplify distant sounds and
> record them. My intention is firstly to be able to apreciate the
> nuances of these sounds ... and then the possiblity of recording
> them.
First thing you need to find out is the details of your hearing loss.
What frequency ranges you can hear well, etc. Second thing is that your
hearing aids are presumably custom designed to match your particular
hearing pattern. Farther, they probably filter the sound to maximize
your ability to hear and understand human voice. So, first thing to do
is contact whoever designed the hearing aids and find out exactly what
your hearing can do and what the hearing aids do. It will probably do no
good to try and feed them amplified sound if they are just going to
filter it back out.
Once you know all this, then it should be possible to improve your
hearing of natural subjects. If it's a simple high frequency loss, then
Lang's songfinder or something like it would probably do the trick. But
I know several folks with hearing problems that would probably require
more. Their hearing has complex flaws.
As far as recording, it's possible to record things you cannot hear. I
have just normal high frequency loss from age, and some insects produce
readings on my recorder's metering and I don't hear them at normal
headphone monitoring levels. But, as long as I set the levels correctly
according to the meter, they will record. I can later use frequency
shifting in the computer if I want to hear them, or do a sonograph to
see the patterns of the calls I did not hear.
As far as recording from the hearing aids themselves, that's likely to
be difficult, they are really not designed to output to a recorder. You
are going to be better off recording with normal microphones, say some
of the small head worn "binaural" mics and listening with your hearing
aids in place (if they don't filter out the sounds you want) with studio
type headphones that will fit over them.
Walt
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