Looking for an Audio equalizer program

[Michael Weber]

I've downloaded several freeware and trial versions. While some of them are very nice and even professional quality, all that I find are limited in the amount different frequency bands can be adjusted. Typically +-10 or 12 db. I'm not sure how much adjustment I need db wise but 12 isn't nearly enough. The greater the better as I want to almost eliminate some frequencies and greatly enhance others during playback so I suspect I will need +- 60db or more. Application is to enable me to try and aid an audiologist in programming of a cochlear implant to clear up speech by showing her what sounds better for me. The more frequency bands the better. Because this may not even work and I only have a very short term use for it, I don't want to spend a great deal. Anyone familiar with something available that offers the range of adjustment I need? Thanks, Mike

[Duane Meadows]

Do you want real time or post editing? Audacity will do 31 band at +-30 db post edit. Don't know of one that do real time right of the top of my head. Run audio thru the process twice.. +- 60 db.

Even hardware eq's are typically +-6/12 or maybe +-15 db.

[Dan Hintz]

Audacity is my suggestion, too... more tools than you will ever need.

[Michael Weber]

Thanks, I found Audacity and downloaded it. Took a while to locate the equalizer but eventually did. Unfortunately, everything I did just made the sound worse lol. Oh Well, it was worth a shot.

[Dan Hintz]

What are you trying to do? An equalizer may not be the proper tool for the job. For example, if you're trying to knock out a specific frequency, you really need a linear filter notched at the appropriate frequency. You can get more selectability with a parametric EQ, but even then it covers a wide frequency range.

Note... a 60dB gain would increase the center frequency magnitude by over 1 million times (and swamp out everything else around it)... so be sure that's what you really want.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Dan,

An equalizer is what he needs but it won't help in his case, IMO.

The tone/pitch one hears in a normally functioning cochlea is positional dependent. The high frequencies are sensed near the base while the low frequencies are sensed near the apex. In a normal functioning cochlea, approximately 21,000 "hairs" line it and are set in motion by fluid motion. They, in turn, excite the auditory nerve. Mike has a cochlear implant that has 16 leads and therefore it excites the auditory nerve in the cochlea at 16 different places.So the 16 electrodes are spaced at different areas of the cochlea and each one excites a different narrow frequency band.

A cochlear implant has to be "mapped" which is similar to adjusting an equalizer to produce a desire sound. As you get used to using a CI for hearing and a given mapping, your hearing changes and the implant has to be remapped. This amounts to independently adjusting the gain to each of the 16 electrodes which will provide different amounts of stimulation to the different areas of the auditory nerve.

Would you believe different sounds like the letter "s" or the letters like "st" are sensed differently? It gets even more complex by the difference in position in a word......such as "star" vs "cast".......you can have your CI mapped and be able to understand , for example, the "st" in one place in a word and not in the other.....


When you are mapped there is often a delay time for one to get used to the new mapping. It amounts to the brain adapting to the new stimulation.

Mike is having difficulty understanding human speech. Mapping is critical to understanding human speech.

How do I know? Mike and I have the same implant.

Mike is wanting to try to find out on his own what frequencies he can and cannot hear. He hopes to be able to prepare for his next mapping session. The problem is this. The only thing an equalizer might tell Mike is where his hearing deficit (frequency range) currently resides. I am not sure if it will be to an advantage if his hearing has changed and the current mapping is thus less relevant. In short, while testing using an equalizer, he could be listening with an already defective mapping.

Think of it as trying to listen to music through a defective speaker and trying to adjust an equalizer to make the music sound better.

As a sufferer of Meniere's disease, my hearing changes periodically. My mapping is rendered less useful too when this happens.

It's a complex issue.

I can empathize Mike!

[Tom Stenzel]

Mike, would a tone generator be what you're looking for?

[Michael Weber]

Mike, would a tone generator be what you're looking for?
First thanks Ken for that explanation and of course I can now say it does not appear to work as regardless of how I manipulate the bands the distortion just seems to get worse. Tom, no a tone generator isn't what I wanted but thanks for the suggestion. I actually have excellent hearing now for individual tones up to 7000 Hz when testing in the booth at an almost flat 15db loss across the spectrum. Just being able to hear high frequencies now with the implant seems pretty miraculous. I enjoy hearing rain, leaves rustling, crickets, and a boat load of sounds I haven't heard since I was a child. On the other hand car squeaks now drive me crazy lol.