Multi-track mixing is an essential practice in modern music production. Research on automatic-mixing paradigms  however  has mostly tested samples of trained, normal hearing (NH) participants. The goal of the present study was to explore mixing paradigms for hearing-impaired (HI) listeners. In two experiments we investigated the mixing preference of NH and HI listeners with respect to the parameters of lead-to-accompaniment level ratio (LAR) and the low-to-high frequency spectral energy balance. Furthermore, preferences of transformed equalization (EQ-transform) were assessed, achieved by linearly extrapolating between the power spectrum of individual tracks and a reference spectrum. Multi-track excerpts of popular music were used as stimuli. 

Here, we show some sound examples to illustrate the perceptual effects of the transformations. 

Lead-to-accompaniment level ratio (LAR)

-30 dB // -15 dB // 0 dB // 15 dB // 30 dB

Spectral balance 

-5 dB/Oct // -2.5 dB/Oct // 0 dB/Oct // 2.5 dB/Oct // 5 dB/Oct

EQ-transform

-100% // 0% // 100% // 200% // 300% // 500%