The First Cadenza Signal Processing Challenge: Improving Music for Those With a Hearing Loss

Dabike, Gerardo Roa; Bannister, Scott; Firth, Jennifer; Graetzer, Simone; Vos, Rebecca; Akeroyd, Michael A; Barker, Jon; Cox, Trevor J; Fazenda, Bruno; Greasley, Alinka; Whitmer, William

The First Cadenza Signal Processing Challenge: Improving Music for Those With a Hearing Loss

Dabike, Gerardo Roa; Bannister, Scott; Firth, Jennifer; Graetzer, Simone; Vos, Rebecca; Akeroyd, Michael A; Barker, Jon; Cox, Trevor J; Fazenda, Bruno; Greasley, Alinka; Whitmer, William

Authors

Dr Gerardo Roa Dabike G.RoaDabike@salford.ac.uk
Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Scott Bannister

Jennifer Firth

Dr Simone Graetzer S.N.Graetzer@salford.ac.uk
Research Fellow

Dr Rebecca Vos Rebecca.Vos@salford.ac.uk
University Fellow

Michael A Akeroyd

Jon Barker

Prof Trevor Cox T.J.Cox@salford.ac.uk
Professor

Dr Bruno Fazenda B.M.Fazenda@salford.ac.uk
Associate Professor/Reader

Alinka Greasley

William Whitmer

Abstract

The Cadenza project aims to improve the audio quality of music for those who have a hearing loss. This is being done through a series of signal processing challenges, to foster better and more inclusive technologies. In the first round, two common listening scenarios are considered: listening to music over headphones, and with a hearing aid in a car. The first scenario is cast as a demixing-remixing problem, where the music is decomposed into vocals, bass, drums and other components. These can then be intelligently remixed in a personalized way, to increase the audio quality for a person who has a hearing loss. In the second scenario, music is coming from car loudspeakers, and the music has to be enhanced to overcome the masking effect of the car noise. This is done by taking into account the music, the hearing ability of the listener, the hearing aid and the speed of the car. The audio quality of the submissions will be evaluated using the Hearing Aid Audio Quality Index (HAAQI) for objective assessment and by a panel of people with hearing loss for subjective evaluation.

Citation

Dabike, G. R., Bannister, S., Firth, J., Graetzer, S., Vos, R., Akeroyd, M. A., …Whitmer, W. (2023). The First Cadenza Signal Processing Challenge: Improving Music for Those With a Hearing Loss.

Conference Name	HCMIR23: 2nd Workshop on Human-Centric Music Information Research
Conference Location	Milan, Italy
Start Date	Nov 10, 2023
End Date	Nov 10, 2023
Acceptance Date	Nov 10, 2023
Online Publication Date	Nov 10, 2023
Publication Date	Nov 10, 2023
Deposit Date	Feb 15, 2024
Publicly Available Date	Feb 19, 2024
Keywords	hearing loss; hearing aids; inclusive music; music quality; machine learning; signal processing; challenge