Homechoir’s latest news

Many thanks to everyone who took part in the project to improve the recording experience for people with hearing loss.  We know that listening online provides hearing aid users with a single direct signal to make choral music sound richer and clearer.  Our experiment intended to find ways to utilise this strength of online music-making to improve the recording experience in our “Sing & Send” projects.

Participants with no hearing loss provided a valuable “control” comparison group, and whilst the overall sample was fairly small, the results have been analysed with the intention of contributing to wider research projects into digital music as well as supporting Homechoir. 

In summary:

• Participants were asked to “Sing & Send” a recording of Parry’s Jerusalem twice: once to a video with sound mixed in stereo as per usual Homechoir practice (the backing choir/piano in one ear and the ‘one voice louder’ in the other), and once with the sound mixed in mono (both the backing and the ‘one voice louder’ the equally loud in each ear).

• The over-riding conclusion from a pilot study in 2022 had been that it is essential to hear your own voice to obtain an optimal recording.  

• This 2022 pilot also found that the greater the hearing loss reported, the greater the difficulty pitching when there were different sounds in each ear as per a stereo guide track mix.  For those with the worst hearing loss, diction as well as pitching improved when they could hear their own voice more clearly.

• We therefore hypothesised that a mono video soundtrack would provide the option for people to hear both the ‘one voice louder’ and the backing in one ear; they could then leave the other ear free to monitor their own voice by removing one headphone/disconnecting one hearing aid from the “Sing & Send” soundtrack.

• We also hypothesised that a mono soundtrack would be easier to follow for singers listening with both ears, as the panning of the ‘one voice louder’ and the backing to opposite sides would not then interact negatively with any differences in hearing ability between the left and right ears.

• This project received 23 responses: 11 came from “control” subjects with no history of hearing loss, and 12 came from Homechoir members with degrees of hearing loss varying from mild to profound.

• The control group did not express an overall preference for either the stereo or the mono guide tracks, scoring them similarly. Those reporting a slight preference for stereo were equal in number to those prefering mono.

• In the hearing loss groups, however, there was a marked preference for recording along to the mono track (64% v. 18%).  There was also significantly less difficulty on average reported in measures of hearing their own voice over the headphone sounds, and in pitching notes accurately - see bar chart.

• These improvements were even greater when selecting only for those with moderately to profoundly severe hearing loss.

• Study participants with hearing loss who listened back to their own recordings also noted that the mono version produced better results, especially with regards to pitching.

• Based on these results, Ben has decided to provide a mono guide track for future “Sing & Send” projects.

• A future version of this study would ideally have a larger sample size, test the differences between listening with one or both ears more explicitly, and randomise the order in which the tracks were played.

Scale of 1-7 where 1= very easy and 7= very difficult.

Written up by Jane James and Ana England, with thanks to Carole Webster.

Thanks very much for your contributions. More information for choristers with hearing loss may be found on our accessibility page.