21. A method for classifying sound environments of a hearing assistance device worn by a wearer, comprising: converting one or more time domain analog acoustic signals into subband samples; extracting features from the subband samples using time domain analog signal information; detecting environmental parameters using the features to categorize one or more sound sources based on a predetermined plurality of possible sound sources, the plurality of possible sound sources including wind, machine noise, and speech, wherein detecting environmental parameters includes categorizing the sources using a classification result and a classification strength determined at least in part using a periodicity strength measurement, wherein the classification strength includes a relative likelihood that one of the plurality of possible sound sources is detected; and adapting processing of the subband samples using the one or more categorized sound sources, wherein the extracting includes generating two or more of: periodicity strength measurements, high-to-low-frequency energy ratio, spectral slopes in various frequency regions, average spectral slope, overall spectral slope, spectral shape-related features, spectral centroid, omni signal power, directional signal power, and energy at a fundamental frequency.
23. The method of claim 21 , wherein the predetermined plurality of possible sound sources further comprises: other noise.