Improving music listening for those with hearing impairment (Cadenza-2025)
22 May 2025
We are now pleased to announce the ICA 2025 special session Cadenza Machine Learning Challenge (CAD2): Improving Music for People with Hearing Loss This will be an in-person event taking place in New Orleans on the 22 of May.
About
Hearing loss causes various problems when listening to music. Quieter passages can become inaudible, pitch perception may be poor or distorted, it can be difficult to identify and distinguish instruments, and understanding lyrics can become challenging This reduces the enjoyment of music and can lead to disengagement from both listening and music-making, diminishing the positive effects music can have on health and well-being.
The Cadenza workshops are designed to stimulate the development of systems to improve music for people with a hearing loss. The aim of this ICA Special Session is to report on the Second Cadenza Challenge. The challenge was launched on July 2024, presenting two tracks:
- Improving the intelligibility of lyrics for pop/rock music while not harming audio quality
- Rebalancing the level of instruments within a small classical music ensemble to allow for personal remixing for hearing aids users
The 2nd Cadenza Challenge (CAD2) is part of the IEEE SPS Challenge Program.
Organisers
- Michael Akeroyd
University of Nottingham, UK - Scott Bannister
University of Leeds, UK - Jon Barker
University of Sheffield, UK - Trevor Cox
University of Salford, UK - Bruno Fazenda
University of Salford, UK - Jennifer Firth
University of Nottingham, UK - Simone Graetzer
University of Salford, UK - Alinka Greasley
University of Leeds, UK - Gerardo Roa Dabike
University of Salford, UK - Rebecca Vos
University of Salford, UK - William Whitmer
University of Nottingham, UK - More info