1. A computer-implemented method for characterizing an input acoustic signal, the method comprising, with a computing system: accessing a set of models representative of training data, wherein the training data comprises training acoustic signals, each training acoustic signal-being representative of one of a plurality of different types of nuisance characteristics, the plurality of different types of nuisance characteristics comprising at least two of: a channel effect, a background noise, a reverberation, a signal-to-noise ratio, a language variation, a speaker mood, and a recording condition; extracting a plurality of features from the input acoustic signal; based at least partly on the extracted features and the set of models, generating a mathematical representation of the input acoustic signal that indicates a likelihood of a presence of each of the different types of nuisance characteristics in the input acoustic signal; based at least partly on the mathematical representation of the input acoustic signal, outputting nuisance identification data to a speech processing system; performing, by the speech processing system, at least one of: speech or speaker recognition, language identification, and/or emotion detection, using the nuisance identification data, wherein the nuisance identification data identifies at least two different types of nuisance characteristics present in the input acoustic signal; predicting and applying at least one parameter of the speech processing system based at least in part on the nuisance identification data identifying the at least two different types of nuisance characteristics present in the input acoustic signal used to improve performance of the speech processing system in processing the input acoustic signal including the detected nuisance characteristics; and wherein at least one result of the performing at least one of speech or speaker recognition, language identification, and/or emotion detection is output by the speech processing system and displayed to a user of the computing system.