Automatic Assessment of Acoustic Parameters of the Singing Voice: Application to Professional Western Operatic and Jazz Singers

Abstract

Summary: Introduction. The obvious perceptual differences between various singing styles like Western operatic and jazz rely on specific dissimilarities in vocal technique. The present study focuses on differences in vibrato acoustics and in singer's formant as analyzed by a novel software tool, named BioVoice, based on robust high-resolution and adaptive techniques that have proven its validity on synthetic voice signals. Material and Methods. A total of 48 professional singers were investigated (29 females; 19 males; 29 Western operatic; and 19 jazz). They were asked to sing ''a cappella,'' but with artistic expression, a well-known musical phrase from Gershwin's Porgy and Bess, in their own style: either operatic or jazz. A specific sustained note was extracted for detailed vibrato analysis. Beside rate (s À1 ) and extent (cents), duration (seconds) and regularity were computed. Two new concepts are introduced: vibrato jitter and vibrato shimmer, by analogy with the traditional jitter and shimmer of voice signals. For the singer's formant, on the same sustained tone, the ratio of the acoustic energy in formants 1-2 to the energy in formants 3, 4, and 5 was automatically computed, providing a quality ratio (QR). Results. Vibrato rates did not differ among groups. Extent was significantly larger in operatic singers, particularly females. Vibrato jitter and vibrato shimmer were significantly smaller in operatic singers. Duration of vibrato was also significantly longer in operatic singers. QR was significantly lower in male operatic singers. Conclusions. Some vibrato characteristics (extent, regularity, and duration) very clearly differentiate the Western operatic singing style from the jazz singing style. The singer's formant is typical of male operatic singers. The new software tool is well suited to provide useful feedback in a pedagogical context.

BioVoice: A multipurpose tool for voice analysis

“…Moreover, a revised version of the singing voice analysis is under development. In this case, two more formants, F4 and F5 must be estimated, as well as the so-called singer's formant and other acoustical parameters [13]. Finally, up to now the melodic shape is computed only for newborn cry and children voice, but it will be extended to the adult's voice too, as it might be related to the emotional state of the subject.…”

Semioccluded Vocal Tract Exercises Improve Self-Perceived Voice Quality in Healthy Actors

“…All the recordings were acoustically analyzed. Specifically, the following parameters were computed with the software BioVoice 32 : mean, standard deviation, lowest and highest value for fundamental frequency (F0) and for the first five formants F1-F5, jitter%, duration (seconds), % voiced and % unvoiced, LTAS and Quality Ratio (QR). QR is the ratio between the acoustic energy in the cluster of F1 and F2 and that in the cluster of F3, F4, and F5.…”

“…The more QR is close to 0, the more the speaker's formant is prominent. 32 Shimmer%, NHR and dynamic range (dB), were computed with the software Praat. 33 We included in our acoustic analysis not only basic voice quality parameters like jitter, shimmer and NHR, but also prosodic (F0 range, speech rate) and dynamic (dB range) criteria, which were supposed to reflect the expressivity of the voice, and a measure related to the strength of the actor's formant.…”

Physiology and Acoustics of Inspiratory Phonation

“…This choice was based on previous studies, mainly including synthesized deviant voices. [22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29] (1) PRAAT 5.3.10, 2012, by P. Boersma and D. Weenink (www.praat.org) for intensity and power spectrum. (2) BioVoice2 for fundamental frequency, central frequency of formants 1, 2, and 3, jitter and adaptive normalized noise energy (ANNE).…”

“…22 Extended references can be found in Manfredi et al 23 Jitter To calculate jitter, the following (traditional) formula is used: this parameter (×100 in percentage) measures the very shortterm (cycle to cycle) irregularity of the pitch period of the voice: where T is the fundamental period for each frame (glottal cycle length) and N is the number of cycles.…”