Hearing aids for musician

Hearing Aids
#1

I am a bassist with a severe loss- -40 at the low end and -105 at the top. I have a pair of America Hears VTEC aids, BTE medium power but am having a distortion problem at the low end around 200hz, even though the aids are far from being maxed out and compression & expansion are almost nil. I am not sure if it is the processor, AD convertor or the transducers, but, at this point I need to solve this fast- this is affecting my perforance and work. I suspect it is the transducers, but I have no way of isolating it. i spent a long time twiddling with the software- raising the over all gain, dropping the gain, raising & lowering the EQ faders, and the VC on the aid, but the distortion will not go away. I plan to talk to America Hears about this, but I am wondering if I need a new pair of aids altogether.

So I am here asking for advice on aids that are able to handle moderately loud sound levels with fidelity, and ones that I can program. (I play (real, not that fake smooth stuff) jazz with combos & big bands). I have heard about a new processor an ezairo5900 that is supposed to be the next big thing (ahem) but I can’t find out who is using it. I tried a K-amp, it sounded great, but didn’t have enough power. The style of aid is not a factor for me, as long as it sounds good with live & recorded music.

I know how to program, having done it with two types of aids and I know computer based audio production, so the software is no problem to me. My experiences with having someone else program the aids has been less than satisfactory, so I am set on being able to do so, and being able to get the interface & software with the aids. This and fidelity are paramount.

Ideas, suggestions?

#2

It seems you need to use a hearing aid analizer and check the harmonic distortion… Again, i believe you should seek an Audi that is able to perform
adjustments for you… This is why most audis go to school many many years…
There are other factors which you need to consider, such as
feedback cancelation, noise reduction, attack and release…
I had 2 clients which where musicitians, and you need to have an aid with a
dedicated music program it was a lot of work…
I would also suggest to get a hearing aid with an expended frequency response…

LovelyWendie99

#3

Hi there

I’m also a musician (and bassist, jazz and world music mostly) with hearing loss: in my case, reverse-slope, around 50dB loss in the lows.

I got hearing aids quite recently and initially had problems with distortion in the low end. I’m not an expert, but I’m also a sound engineer, so we can speak the lingo.

From my limited experience, I’d try for high compression with a reasonably low threshold (60dB or lower) in the lows, as well as less gain. With only 40dB loss in the lows, I imagine hearing your bass in an amplified situation isn’t the worst problem: it’s the distortion. If you have a mutli-setting aid (and if you don’t, get one… we musos have to use our ears all the freaking time, in varying situations), have your own “gig” setting with less amplification/high compression in the lows (since they’re probably reasonably loud on the stand anyway). Then you can switch to a normal setting on set breaks

Hope that helps. Good luck!