The "Does my voice pass?" thread

[Seras]

Hi, back again since last time I posted here I have practiced every day with my computer, my spectrogram and myself.

So I have been using the videos posted earlier, that consult from the finding your female voice woman. I have to say she is real great. Since I have practiced on and off with other techniques before and gotten nowhere.

Anyway:

Harvard sentences group 1:

https://soundcloud.com/olivia1988-1/5daysorso/s-LLsnx

(It is private but with that link it should work, please let me know if it does not.)

I am finding it hard to relax and sound a bit overly "received pronunciation" though being in the UK it could be worse! I normally try to sound more common since, most people round "ere" don't like you to be too posh

Anyway I would really appreciate some feedback.

--

Maybe approaching good enough to go around in public dressed up and not stress about speaking? This having to speak to people business is what stresses me the most since I know I can look decent.

Thanks!

[Noah]

Hi! I am still working on my voice...thank you for all your previous feedback, and your advice...it is you guys who have given me the tools to really find my voice...in this clip I give two female voices that I can't decide between...and my male voice for comparison...x

https://soundcloud.com/user443462524/voice-5

[Seras]

Im no pro but the first one sounds better to me.

[PaigeM]

Noah, The first one sounds much better and much more natural. Good work!

Paige

[Ms. OBrien CVT]

Noah, I don't hear anything wrong with your daily voice.  Sounds good to me.

Seras and Sam79, maybe it is because the microphone is too close, but you both sound too breathy and that makes it seem that your voice is too forced.  They both sound so close.

[Seras]

Thanks for listening. I will try a couple more over the next few days. One with the mic further and one with the mic further and less breath

[Angélique LaCava]

Please don't be to mean lol
Regular voice: http://soundcloud.com/ang-lique-lacava/sounds-from-sunday-morning

Female voice: http://soundcloud.com/ang-lique-lacava/sounds-from-sunday-morning-1/s-k9MH7

[sam79]

Noah, I'm so jealous! 

A third test for me... Please be kind, I'm still new to this voice.

http://soundcloud.com/samc79/voice3

[Isabelle]

Angelique, your "male" voice is actually not too far off from being fine, all you need to do is learn to close your throat off a little to remove the chest resonance (the deeper tone) Your female version is ok but your pitch is too high, you don't need to have a high pitched voice to sound like a girl, it's just the resonance that does that. Your natural voice is high enough to pass.

[Keaira]

no? nothing?... k..

[Seras]

This is Harvard sentences again. It is a lot easier to say these for some reason. I think because I have practiced the specific lines several times. This is the whole of the first 3 groups, I have removed the mic from down my throat and also increased the pitch a little. I think it is better but I really need outside opinions.

https://soundcloud.com/olivia1988-1/1-3-day-7-late-attempt2/s-XGoXa

Don't be kind, be honest!

---

Angelique, I think you try to hard your too squeaky.

Keaira, your the opposite. Your pitch is too low, also as I have said before I am noob at this voice stuff having only just dedicated myself to it a week ago but the resonance does not sound so good to me either. You tried working through Andrea James online consult videos? That is how I made the above recording. My regular voice is a bass but I can now pull a steady mid range tenor low range alto at about 200-220hz. Even if the other aspects need work.


PS your link does not work for me Sam.

[Ms. OBrien CVT]

Angelique: Your normal voice is so close.  You only need to have more head resonance to be right there.  Your female voice sounds to squeaky.

Seras:  That is the best so far.  Maybe read just a little slower and enunciate more.

[Seras]

Cool, thanks

[Jamie D]

no? nothing?... k..

Soft spoken, lovely Scottish accent.

Still some chest resonance evident.  Don't feel bad, I have that problem too.

Keep working on it - what Isabelle suggested for Angelique up the page.

[sam79]

Any comments on my voice3 sample? Still only a couple of weeks into it.

[Isabelle]

Any comments on my voice3 sample? Still only a couple of weeks into it.

Your link doesn't seem to work

[Jamie D]

Sam79, you may have set your soundcloud recording as private.

You can change the setting, or just record a new one.

[Assoluta]

Angelique, your "male" voice is actually not too far off from being fine, all you need to do is learn to close your throat off a little to remove the chest resonance (the deeper tone) Your female version is ok but your pitch is too high, you don't need to have a high pitched voice to sound like a girl, it's just the resonance that does that. Your natural voice is high enough to pass.

I agree that while the "female" voice does pass, it does sound slightly too high and unnatural, but I don't think the "male" voice would be high enough to consistently pass for somebody Angelique's age even though it doesn't sound too masculine. For a more mature woman, a deeper voice without the chest resonance can work, but for someone younger, I think it sounds better when the pitch is raised at least a few tones, probably somewhere in between the "male" and "female" voice.

What it also allows you to do if you lower the overall voice a bit is to vary your pitch more as women tend to vary their pitch, particularly when surprised/questioning something etc. If you're already speaking high it's difficult to do that, but for me, what sets apart a reasonably good feminine voice from a completely passable one, where you would never think the voice was male in a million years, is when there is more variation in pitch and occasionally using higher tones. Of course some women might sound more masculine or monotone and that's fine if that fits in more with your identity, but I would imagine the objective of most people here is to get their voice to sound completely feminine.

For the older woman who is having trouble raising the pitch - Hilary Devey is a good person to imitate!

[Seras]

Hi again.

So I have been trying to practice speaking without using the Harvard sentences since I have my next gender appointment very soon and need to be able to say stuff that I am not reading. To this end I have uploaded another sound clip. Any and all feedback is greatly appreciated. I think some bits of this sound alright, however I think I am speaking too fast. As told before I think I need to speak more clearly and carefully, course that did not come through in this recording

https://soundcloud.com/olivia1988-1/freestyle3

Took me a couple attempts before this to get pitch up but other than that this was no warm up exercises or anything. Just straight into speaking.

Interestingly though when speaking freely I have a much less rigid speaking style. Sounds more like my regular accent which I think is good.

Thanks again for any feedback, I find it really hard to judge myself 

[sam79]

Sorry about the issues with the previous recording... Not sure exactly what happened.

Here's another sample: https://soundcloud.com/samc79/voice3

I'm about 2 weeks into this voice, and it doesn't really sound very feminine to me, but judge for yourself.