Singing vocal register Normal voice

Singing or voice AKA loft Higher pitch Breathy, light, & airy Due to fast vocal vold vibration

Exam 3 Flashcards by Mollee Pezold

Is the human voice perfectly periodic?

No. It’s semiperiodic; a perfectly periodic voice would sound like a machine to us.

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Jitter

Variation in F0 from one cycle to the next

The period of each cycle

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Shimmer

Variation in amplitude from one cycle to the next

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Chest register

Singing vocal register
Normal voice

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Falsetto

Singing or voice
AKA loft
Higher pitch
Breathy, light, & airy
- Due to fast vocal vold vibration

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Pulse/Vocal fry/Glottal fry/Creaky voice

Voice with very low F0 and creaky voice quality

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Modal

Voice at normal, comfortable pitch used for talking

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Open quotient

Proportion of time vocal volds are open during each glottal cycle

How voice quality types are differentiated

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3 main phonation types in voiced speech

Breathy
Modal (Normal)
Creaky

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Hypo- vs. Hyperadduction

Hypoadduction: VFs adducted w/ insufficient medial compression

Hyperadduction: VFs adducted w/ excessive medial compression

false VFs can start vibrating as well (harsh voice/ventricular phonation)

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Aphonia

Complete absence of voice

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Dysphonia

Any kind of vocal dysfunction resulting in a deviant-sounding voice

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Maximum phonation time for adults & children

Adults: 15-25 sec

Children: at least 10 sec

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Minimum-maximum intensity at varios F0 levels graph

Football-shaped

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Breathy voice production

Incomplete closure of VFs causes air to leak during phonation

inefficient, so intensity range is reduced
more air used than normal phonation

More common in females & increases w/ age

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Breathy voice: acoustic characteristics

Less periodic
More high-frequency noise (above 5 kHz)
Loss of energy between 2-5 kHz

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Rough/hoarse voice characteristics

Rough: sounds raspy & low pitched due to aperiodic VF vibration

Hoarse voice = breathy + rough

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Rough/hoarse voice: acoustic characteristics

Larger amt. of spectral noise at lower (100-2600 Hz) frequencies
Decreased periodic VF vibration

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Harmonics-to-Noise Ratio

Another way to measure how periodic a voice is

Compares amplitude of harmonics to amplitude of noise in signal

Mostly periodic voices have high HNR (20 dB + is normal)
More noisy/less periodic voices have low HNR

Vocal tract differences from Homo erectus to Homo sapiens

Larynx is now much lower. We can produce more sounds now, but we also have an increased danger of choking.

Vocal tract

Pharynx, oral & nasal cavities

Can change shape at tongue, lips, jaw & velum
Allows for speech sound generation

Formants

The resonant frequencies of the vocal tract

The vocal tract is a _______-wave resonator.

quarter

Closed end = glottis
Open end = lips

Source-Filter Theory

The vocal tract acts as an acoustic filter, which modifies the sound produced by a sound source (VF vibration, turbulent noise, or a combination of the two)

Source is independent of filter (F0 doesn’t affect our perception of vowels)

How does an acoustic filter work?

Filters out certain frequencies of complex sounds while allowing other frequencies to pass through * Complex sounds are composed of sine waves of more than one frequency * A filter reduces/increases the amplitude of one or more component sine waves

Characteristics of the sound produced at the glottis

* A complex periodic wave * Has an infinite number of sinusoidal components (harmonics) * All are integer multiples of F0 * Harmonic amplitude decreases as frequency increases * Harmonics above 10,000 Hz do not make a big contribution to speech production

Harmonics

Component sinusoids of a complex periodic wave * Integer multiples of F0 * Identified by numbers from lowest to highest frequency * **F0 = H1**

What factors affect sound quality?

Which harmonics are present What the amplitude of each harmonic is * determined by the SLVT

\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ determines which harmonics are filtered out by the SLVT.

Wavelength

What does it mean for a harmonic to "fit" the vocal tract?

Harmonics differ in their wavelength. Different harmonics will "fit" into the resonating chambers. * Harmonics whose wavelengths best fit into a chamber will gain amplitude (resonate) * These are formants * Those that do not fit will lose amplitude & be filtered out.

In a neutral-shaped vocal tract, a sinusoid will fit if there is a _______________ at the glottis and a ____________ at the lips.

pressure maximum; zero crossing

What is a standing wave?

A wave with a higher amplitude than the original sinusoid that is formed when a sinusoid's wavelength fits the vocal tract * Occurs from the echo (reflection) of the sound in the vocal tract

Resonant sounds are characterized by the relationship among the first __ formants

Formants on spectrograms vs. spectra

**Spectrogram**: frequency is on the **Y axis** **Spectrum**: frequency is on the **X axis**

Formant frequencies are ___________ of the rate of vocal fold vibration

independent

What 2 factors determine formant frequencies?

1. The length of the speaker's vocal tract 2. The size & shape of the vocal tract cavities

Vocal tract shape and F1

Influenced by the **pharynx** * A constriction in the oral cavity (**high vowels**) results in a **large pharynx** and a **low F1** * A constriction in the pharynx (**low vowels**) results in a s**mall pharynx** and a **high F1**

Vocal tract shape and F2

Influenced by the **oral cavity** * A constriction at the back of the oral cavity (**back vowels**) results in a **large oral cavity** and a **low F2** * A constriction at the front of the oral cavity (**front vowels**) results in a **small oral cavity** and a **high F2**

What effect does lip rounding have on formants?

**Lowers** frequencies of all formants because it lengthens the vocal tract.

/w/ and /j/ are like extreme versions of which two vowels?

/u/ and /i/

Why do liquids and glides have less amplitude than vowels?

As the vocal tract becomes more constricted, the amplitude drops.

Formant values for /l/ are sometimes very similar to those for which sound?

/o/