Generating electrode stimulation signals for an implanted electrode array is described. An acoustic audio signal is processed to generate band pass signals which represent associated bands of audio frequencies. Macro bands are defined, each of which characterizes multiple band pass signals. The macro bands are processed in a sequence of sampling intervals. For each sampling interval, the processing includes: i. extracting timing and energy information from each band pass signal to form requested stimulation events, ii. decimating the requested stimulation events to select a maximum energy band pass signal within each macro band, and iii. decimating each selected band pass signal based on a pulse selection inhibition function and preserving temporal and spectral structures of the band pass signals so as to generate stimulation event signals. The stimulation event signals are weighted with a weighting matrix reflecting patient-specific pitch perception characteristics to produce output electrode stimulation signals to the implanted electrode array.
