Remixing Preferences for Western Instrumental Classical Music of Bilateral Cochlear Implant Users.
Jonas Althoff, Tom Gajecki, Waldo Nogueira
PMID 38613359WHAT IT FOUND
Bilateral cochlear implant users preferred remixing classical music to pan instruments to their right side and to boost percussion, unlike normal-hearing listeners.
Frequent music listeners also spread instruments more widely across the stereo field.
Key findings
01CI users significantly panned musical components further to the right than normal-hearing listeners in both the Trio+ and orchestral datasets.
02In the Trio+ dataset, CI users set the relative gain for percussion significantly higher than normal-hearing listeners.
03CI users who listen to music frequently preferred a significantly broader spatial spread of instruments compared to those who listen occasionally.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The sample size was small (10 CI users). There was a large age difference between the CI group (mean 60 years) and the normal-hearing group (mean 28 years), which is a confounding variable. The CI group listened to significantly less music daily than the normal-hearing group. The 'Trio+' dataset was synthesized from MIDI files and included artificial percussion tracks, which may not represent natural classical music recordings. The experiment used direct audio streaming via a TV streamer, which may not reflect real-world listening conditions involving room acoustics or microphone input.
Declared interests
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest. The work was funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation).
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume these preferences apply to all CI users or all music types. The right-side panning bias was strong in this group, but individual factors like which ear is preferred for speech and daily music listening habits significantly changed the results. Also, the study used simplified or synthesized music excerpts, so these findings may not directly translate to complex, live orchestral recordings.