Documentary: Nothing Is As It Sounds

Peter Stelmacovich owns three bass guitars, dreams about becoming the next Geddy Lee.

He is almost entirely deaf.

He has a hearing aid in his left ear, a cochlear implant in his right, and curly hair that covers both. With his aids, he can carry a conversation, call someone up on the phone and listen to the radio.

But there is one thing he cannot do: Stelmacovich can't hear music, at least not in the way most of us do.

The sounds of a band or an orchestra or even a solo singer are too complex for his mechanical ears.

But that hasn't stopped him from making music ... or from joining a band.

He's converted his basement into a music studio. Once a week, he jams with Deb Taylor and Luigi Berardelli.

They call themselves "Below the Belt" --  and refer to the band fondly as a shared mid-life crisis.

Taylor and Berardelli have perfect hearing. Stelmacovich has technology.

After years of trial and error, he has invented a method for making music in a world where nothing is as it sounds.

Melanie Ferrier's documentary is called Nothing Is As It Sounds.