All,
For you Resound Smart Fit users, what do the Noise Tracker II settings do? I mean specifically? Reason I’m asking is that the numbers are all negative. I take that to mean it reduces gain. Look at my settings, they are the generic as shipped settings. I’ve changed the Speech ones to show smaller numbers (by one db), and increased the Noise ones (by one db) to show larger numbers. Why would you want any reduction in the actual voice when our main struggle is to hear voices?
Is there a reason that when I post a technical question I get no engagement? I mean 600+ requests for Resound Smart Fit software links, and not a single person has encountered Noise Tracker II settings in their tinkering? I feel like I’m screaming into the void.
I have not changed any setting there … yet.
The short answer:
https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-e&q=Resound+Smart+Fit+2.0+Noise+Tracker+II
The long answer:
Noise Tracker II reduces Noise. The settings are classified per Environment.
Found via quick web-search
https://www.gnhearing.com/en/research/features-explained
Noise Tracker II per environment
Reduces disturbing background sound without affecting speech audibility. Noise reduction can be customized for different environments. Enjoy improved listening comfort, hear speech clearly, and personalise the experience to suit individual needs.
Reduces noise by spectral subtraction. It analyses the incoming sound and recognizes when speech is present within the individual bands. A spectral analysis is continuously carried out whenever speech is not present. This allows the noise spectrum to effectively be “subtracted” from the total signal without affecting speech. The amount of noise subtracted is dependent on the setting and is weighted according to a speech importance function.
For devices with a situation-dependent noise reduction, the setting can be different for each of the 7 environments recognized by the Environment Classifier. To ensure a seamless, natural listening experience, an infinite number of actual settings are applied based on a weighted analysis of the Environmental Classifier data.
https://pro.resound.com/en-us/research/features-explained/environmental-classifier
Thank you. This is the kind of engagement I’m looking for. I apologize as my search expertise isn’t that good.
I really appreciate the guidance. I’ll have to read the white papers and see if I can decipher the jargon. Much obliged.
Ha yeah sometimes it’s a work in progress, actually I thought you were doing pretty good on your own! It’s pretty easy to find these things, but as already mentioned I’ve not had to make any adjustments there myself.
https://pro.resound.com/en-us/research/features-explained/noise-tracker
Let us all know how you get on with your DIY project using “noise tracker” should be interesting.
This page lists all the features available for you as well.
I’m dumb, but tenacious. As I was referring to with the jargon, I just finished reading the 15 pages of white papers referenced in that features article (once again, thanks all).
Now I’m really confused! I was thinking literally that speech was speech, but apparently it is one of the seven environments. So my lowering the number on Speech db reductions and increasing the number on Noise db reductions may not have the desired effect.
In reality, I can hardly tell the difference at -1 db Speech and + 1 db Noise. Maybe I’ll revert back to the OEM settings, which the white papers show have a significant amount of study behind them.
I wish there were more discussion that match my abbreviated intellegence. I try to parse my comments as such, so they can be referred to by anybody, even the laymen like me. Such as my dabbling in Expansion and Sound Shaper. I didn’t like either of those, made everything flat and lifeless sounding. I did find mild expansion helped with some of the quiet noises being overly loud.
I went back in to reset the Noise Tracker II to the default settings, and this brought up a couple of more questions and a comment.
Encountered these 2 screens.
First Screen, choosing the program to use. I found if I use the Reset to Initial Fit, it shows a different dome size and tube (wire) length, leading me to believe it’s the out of the box settings and not my initial fit. The only session in this profile is the very first and unmodified REM settings save from the new hearing aids. Am I right on the Reset to Initial Fit analysis?
Second Screen, Assuming I’ve botched it up so bad I want to go back to the original REM settings, and come upon this screen, do I select Calibrate, or is the original calibration carried over from the previous session? Is this the feedback calibration, and does it need a hearing booth to do it in?
As an aside, and on a whim, I went back in and “degraded” my Noise Tracker II back to a Noise Tracker 1 setting. I had read people were having a problem with both the Jabra and Nexia programs hunting or shifting gears. I even commented on it, it takes about 4-5 seconds to squelch the dehumidifier fan. So that got me to thinking, maybe it’s not all ironed out yet. It being the algorithm. So I reset my Noise Tracker II to moderate noise reduction. If I read the white paper correctly, that would be up to a 6 db reduction.
Sitting in my chair, the noise reduction for the dehumidifier seems about the same, but the hearing aids aren’t hunting anymore. At the Per environment setting it would stay dampened for 5-15 seconds, then sample for about 5 seconds before determining it was supposed to be squelched. Also, wind through the leaves and nighttime bug noises were extremely loud, and while I haven’t sampled the bugs, I can say I was pleasantly surprised with the reduction in wind noise. Sounds more normal now. Maybe I’ll leave it this way.
This is just a feedback calibration and no you don’t need a booth but you do need to be somewhere quiet. You can repeat the calibration, at any time, as often as you like.
I know it’s frustrating answering these same questions over and over for the new guys, please accept my apologies. And thank you very much for assisting me along my journey.
To add more context to the question, if I go all the way back to the beginning and reinstall the first session from my original profile, the one with the REM fitting from a professional that did do the feedback calibration, will I have to do the calibration again or does the calibration follow the session I’m installing? Reason I ask it this way is I don’t have a very quiet place. My computer and other equipment has fan noise.
All the calibration does is play loud noises into your ears and the microphones on the hearing aids pick up what leaks out and would potentially cause feedback. The hearing aids then adjust (ie lower) the gain so as to avoid feedback. If you have noise in the room then this may mask some of what the program is looking for and so the feedback cancellation may not work properly. But it might be OK. You need to minimise the fan noise for the duration of the test, which is only about one minute.
I don’t think any of us mind answering these sort of questions. All of us had to start somewhere!
Ok, here is where I’m at on the Noise Tracker II. My Jabra Pro 20’s were always hunting in the presence of steady state background noise. This resulted on an intolerable muted, then unmuted cycle ( I was about to give up and return them). I finally just started making changes to various settings, and only when I changed the settings in Noise Tracker II from Per Environment to Moderate did I find any relief.
Here’s the OEM setting. I tried moving the sliders, but the cycling continued.
Here’s what finally fixed it for me. I won’t say my tuning is done, but it’s now far better than where I started.
Noitice the Noise Tracker II is set at Moderate. This is about 6db of reduction.
Along with this I went into the Environmental Optimizer and made some very slight changes.
Here’s the OEM settings.
I pushed the speech settings up just a tad. To me, this resulted in better speech understanding.
I’m wondering if moving the Noise sliders down will reduce unwanted background clutter?