Dynamic range compression for noisy mixtures using source separation and beamforming

Dynamic range compression is widely used in digital hearing aids, but performs poorly in noisy conditions with multiple sources. We propose a system that combines source separation, compression, and beamforming to compress each source independently. We derive an expression for a time-varying weighted multichannel Wiener filter that performs both beamforming and compression. Experiments using recorded speech and behind-the-ear hearing aid impulse responses suggest that the combined system provides more accurate dynamic range compression than a conventional compressor in the presence of competing speech and background noise.