The "Does my voice pass?" thread

[Hayley]

wow hayley you really sound female , nice work!

sexy voice actually 

both the female and the male

Awww thanks. I really get nervous about the whole thing

[FalseHybridPrincess]

I can relate to the nervous thing , its hard to keep that voice up cause you know , its not something natural,,,yet at least I dont know...

but you do sound 100% female

[Auroramarianna]

Ok - now something I wanted to try was to vary pitch a bit and see how much this affects the perception, so I tried 4 different pitches for the rainbow passage. One is in the "male pitch" that is my physiological pitch which I used originally. I tried to also drop into a male resonance but am not sure that I made it. The other one is my normal speaking voice now which is above that in pitch and it is my relaxed speaking voice now. Then comes a pitch that I can reach with some effort - it is not that much straining, but I need to think about maintaining it. Personally I like it best and am bugged that I cannot do that without thinking about it which is why I do consider that VFS option to just have that withough effort. And then I tried to go up into what people usually consider a regular female pitch but I noticed that this is straining me. Tell me what you think:

http://vocaroo.com/i/s03QRLjg9j6E 100-110 Hz
http://vocaroo.com/i/s12OUSqSDztw 130-140 Hz
http://vocaroo.com/i/s0ESeHS5oaYj 160 -180Hz
http://vocaroo.com/i/s0WwF0Bhee7h 180-220Hz

The 160-180Hz range sounds more natural to me than 180-220, although it's kind of androgynus, but leaning towards female. It's a very good voice already! Higher than most male voices, actually about higher than 80-90% of adult male voices, if I recall correctly! Perhaps working on resonance will make it more feminine. Also, with training 180-220Hz will start coming more naturally, until it becomes your relaxed voice, right now it doesn't sound natural, but it will some day.

What do you think about my voice?

[anjaq]

Hello aurora.
I Think your voice sounds feminine but I personally think you are right and it is a bit high. I feel in the 069 recordning that you seem to strain your voice so it cannot be as full and loud as it could be. A bit like what is happening to me in that highest pitch recording I posted, although I think yours sound more natural.

thanks for the comments. I agree tha tthe 160-180 recording of me is the best - do you think it really is androgynous? I wonder why that is. is it the rahter androgynous pitch? female pitch supposedly starts at 180 Hz. Or maybe it is the intonation, I am working on that with my voice trainer now. She said owever that resonance is fine. Do you think there is a male resonance in there (except the very low recording of course)

My normal speaking range now is the 140 Range which is sadly about slightly above average only for men. My original voice is the 100 hz which is low for men. The 160-180 hz takes conscious effort to maintain, so I wish I could do that without effeor tor thinking

[Aquarelle]

Can anyone tell me what I need to improve about my voice and speech, beside the bad english?

My Female Voice

[Auroramarianna]

Hello aurora.
I Think your voice sounds feminine but I personally think you are right and it is a bit high. I feel in the 069 recordning that you seem to strain your voice so it cannot be as full and loud as it could be. A bit like what is happening to me in that highest pitch recording I posted, although I think yours sound more natural.

thanks for the comments. I agree tha tthe 160-180 recording of me is the best - do you think it really is androgynous? I wonder why that is. is it the rahter androgynous pitch? female pitch supposedly starts at 180 Hz. Or maybe it is the intonation, I am working on that with my voice trainer now. She said owever that resonance is fine. Do you think there is a male resonance in there (except the very low recording of course)

My normal speaking range now is the 140 Range which is sadly about slightly above average only for men. My original voice is the 100 hz which is low for men. The 160-180 hz takes conscious effort to maintain, so I wish I could do that without effeor tor thinking

The recordings were made on my phone, and I might not have managed to put the volume high enough. Although I do admit that I sometimes have a problem with my loudness in real life, which I am working on.

When I said it sounded androgynus, well, that's because the 160-180 is on the androgynus range! But you do sound mostly feminine, and I agree with you, a little more intonation would help your case, sometimes there's a little hint of "maleishness", but it's not really that much, and it could be resonance, but it probably is still pitch, because 180 is squarely female, while 160 is a bit more masculine. And I'm not a therapist of any kind, so if your therapist says it's not resonance, she is probably right!

Also for someone who has started with out with 100Hz as your average speaking voice, you've done extradordinary progress and developed your high notes a lot, so don't be demoralized and don't give up just now, you're going to get there, I am sure.

Have you considered any more radical procedure like vocal surgery? With a 140Hz picth, you would probably have successfully reached a fundamental frequency within the normal female range.

Kiss

PS. Aquarelle: going to listen to it now!

[Auroramarianna]

Can anyone tell me what I need to improve about my voice and speech, beside the bad english?

My Female Voice

It's very feminine, and it sounds natural. I think you need a little more variation and less monotony! I am not sure, but your pitch is on the female range, right? Maybe working on resonance will make it even better.

[anjaq]

The recordings were made on my phone, and I might not have managed to put the volume high enough.

Ah yes - I used a higher quality USB microphone for my recordings as phone or laptop mics are just so distorted... never can tell if a voice is good or not with them

I agree with you, a little more intonation would help your case, sometimes there's a little hint of "maleishness", but it's not really that much, and it could be resonance, but it probably is still pitch, because 180 is squarely female, while 160 is a bit more masculine. And I'm not a therapist of any kind, so if your therapist says it's not resonance, she is probably right!

I might get a second opinion but will definitely work on the intonation.

Also for someone who has started with out with 100Hz as your average speaking voice, you've done extradordinary progress and developed your high notes a lot, so don't be demoralized and don't give up just now, you're going to get there, I am sure.

Nah, I dont give up. I can by now make a glissando, a not broken pitch "siren" sound going with an "u" sound from about the 100 Hz up to nearly 800 Hz. So I  am amazed at what is possible.
But yes - I dont give up because I think I am sure I will have a good voice within the next 18 months. Either by actually getting it with the training, or as you suggested:

Have you considered any more radical procedure like vocal surgery? With a 140Hz picth, you would probably have successfully reached a fundamental frequency within the normal female range.

I am all over the threads on voice surgery in Korea - even talked to my voice therapist about it.

[GorJess]

http://vocaroo.com/i/s0pBX4DzTH5v

Just speaking right now, trying to do a recording. Haven't really practiced it, but it seems to work a fair share. What do you think?

[Aquarelle]

It's very feminine, and it sounds natural. I think you need a little more variation and less monotony! I am not sure, but your pitch is on the female range, right? Maybe working on resonance will make it even better.

Thank you I supposed it was monotony, but I have no voice range to make it better I lost the ability to go in falsetto, when I was in puberty, so I have only a few notes from the female range (which I am using in this recording) and that's all... Everything above these notes, that I am trying to produce is just an air and no sound at all...
Nevertheless, I will work on resonance more - I hope it will compensate the lack of range.

[Unice]

Hi Aquarelle,

I am sceptical about you not being able to sing falsetto. Breathiness of the sort that you describe, in me, is when I am constricting my throat so much that it doesn't resonate. By gently going as high as I can without any strain, my vocal range has extended pretty quickly, I think.

This guy, and many others, have tips that are essentially describing how to distribute where you place stress to more of your throat, so that you are not squeezing a small area with a lot of stress:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLiiFZvKxPY&list=UUAbzTcqsroqxJG1qhzXns-Q

He doesn't really hold back though and make a big point about being cautious. I did do his exercises violently by trying to match what he is doing and it made my throat sore. So, I know do it much more gently and slowly.

I think his points are to try to introduce nasality that then moves stress away from your throat and to practice glotal stacatto to develop control and introduce vocal fry which is when your throat is so relaxed that it makes white noise.

Essentially, it's voice yoga. When I bend over to touch my toes, if I bounce violently it hurts and presumably is causing tears. Some bouncing can help, but gently. Otherwise, the goal is to extend how much you can stretch while being relaxed.

The same idea applies to the vocal exercises that Mr. I have no inferiority complex that would make me want to choose an exaggerated name guy above.

[Aquarelle]

I've been trying many times each one of the things this guy in the video is showing, but I can't produce any sound...only air...
I've been visiting vocal teachers for years and changed three of them and noone could help, nor figured out what is the problem with my throat. I saw a doctor as well and I know there is no physical damage, but the problem still persist...

[Unice]

http://vocaroo.com/i/s0pBX4DzTH5v

Just speaking right now, trying to do a recording. Haven't really practiced it, but it seems to work a fair share. What do you think?

Ha! It doesn't like the answer violets are violet...

Hi GorJess,

I like the inflection and that it is not falsetto. It sounds like a weird comment maybe, but it doesn't sound stereotypically gay, it sounds more feminine and sweet, to me. There is a component that sounds like it's male to me, that I don't know how to describe and can't figure out how to get rid of in my own voice. Maybe it is what you mean when you say it works sometimes and not other times.

Maybe doing the same thing but feeling confident about it removes that quality that i can't describe. I think you are on to something by not trying to do falsetto.

You should consider the source of this comment too. I don't know anything and my voice is awful.

Unice

[NicholeD]

http://vocaroo.com/i/s1gTnqPY3HMX

Not sure how good my voice sounds. My only real input thus far has been one friend. I did make a thread about it, but I realized it was like a 9 minute long audio recording that was meant for that sort of thing, so yeah.

Here's 20 seconds.

Thanks for any input.

[Unice]

I am a novice with a big mouth.. So, seek a different opinion.

It sounds like falsetto to me, but just barely, meaning it is very close to sounding genuine rather than faked. I don't know how to identify what it is that makes it sound falsetto.

Here is me and my thoughts about where I am doing falsetto instead of genuine voice. I think it sounds weird because I slip into affecting the pronunciation of "cold". The falsetto quality becomes more obvious around the word "legs", to my ears anyway:

https://soundcloud.com/cheyrn/erythromycin

You probably want to stop the sound as soon as you hear the next clip that is a siren sound with the voice, otherwise you will be subjected to even worse falsetto.

The advice from genderlife.com to add a breathiness has sounded to me like it makes a difference when I have managed to do it, I think. Also, if I am not relaxed or I am thinking about how to pronounce the words, then it sounds fake.

The singing teachers that I have heard talk about mixed voice vs. head voice. I think this is like what Melanie Anne refers to when she says you make cartoon voice and then relax your throat while keeping your larynx there. Yawning forms the shape that opera singers use. Between being all in the throat when doing falsetto and the yawning shape is maybe mixed voice or genuine sounding higher pitched voice...

The guy in the video above demonstrates this when he starts saying that you make the voice go up the back of your head and out the top of your palette.

[llerret]

https://soundcloud.com/llerret/audio-recording-on-tuesday/s-3tsFX


HELP ME! I don't know how to make my voice sound more female

[Seras]

http://vocaroo.com/i/s1gTnqPY3HMX

Not sure how good my voice sounds. My only real input thus far has been one friend. I did make a thread about it, but I realized it was like a 9 minute long audio recording that was meant for that sort of thing, so yeah.

Here's 20 seconds.

Thanks for any input.

Not gonna lie it doesn't sound so great. This takes a lot of work though.
From what I can hear it sounds like your voice is on the edge of breaking a lot (listen to when you said "probably not"), if you know what I mean? Like your vocal muscles are trembling a bit or something while you try to speak like this. Keep practicing until that doesn't happen and you will be making progress at least on that front. You gotta develop your control.

Sounds kinda falsetto to me too.

I am a novice with a big mouth.. So, seek a different opinion.

It sounds like falsetto to me, but just barely, meaning it is very close to sounding genuine rather than faked. I don't know how to identify what it is that makes it sound falsetto.

Here is me and my thoughts about where I am doing falsetto instead of genuine voice. I think it sounds weird because I slip into affecting the pronunciation of "cold". The falsetto quality becomes more obvious around the word "legs", to my ears anyway:

https://soundcloud.com/cheyrn/erythromycin

You probably want to stop the sound as soon as you hear the next clip that is a siren sound with the voice, otherwise you will be subjected to even worse falsetto.

The advice from genderlife.com to add a breathiness has sounded to me like it makes a difference when I have managed to do it, I think. Also, if I am not relaxed or I am thinking about how to pronounce the words, then it sounds fake.

The singing teachers that I have heard talk about mixed voice vs. head voice. I think this is like what Melanie Anne refers to when she says you make cartoon voice and then relax your throat while keeping your larynx there. Yawning forms the shape that opera singers use. Between being all in the throat when doing falsetto and the yawning shape is maybe mixed voice or genuine sounding higher pitched voice...

The guy in the video above demonstrates this when he starts saying that you make the voice go up the back of your head and out the top of your palette.

Yea you are too falsetto as well sounds to me.

Btw the best advice I ever got for the throat positioning of the larynx and stuff is to get in the position of how it would be if you were sucking hard on a lemon. Also you need to learn to hold it while opening your mouth and breathing too. You should practice like doing kegels except with your larynx goin up and down.

You seriously just gotta practice and get control of those muscles to make progress. There aint no magic tricks.

Not that my voice is particularly good, but I have gone a long way from where I started, my starting point is crazy deep. Hell I assume its terribad since every time I ever posted a clip on this site it gets totally ignored. I go to better sites though for voice stuff mostly.

[NicholeD]

So this may sound like a dumb question, but what is falsetto? I mean I thought it was a fake high that goes way beyond the natural limits. Like it was to my understand that the average male voice is around 120hz, the average female voice is around 210hz, and falsetto would be 400+hz. Generally my new voice sits at about 200hz and around the 180hz range is where my voice will always break.

So yeah, what is falsetto and what do I do about it? I've never been one for singing, playing an instrument or having any sort of musical inclination, so this all still new to me. If a bit more vocal evidence is required or appreciated:

http://vocaroo.com/i/s0c2wjA8eemn

Thanks for the input thus far though!

[Unice]

https://soundcloud.com/llerret/audio-recording-on-tuesday/s-3tsFX

Hi llerret,

This is the blind leading the not so blind, but maybe I have thoughts that can be like pointers to seek answers to from people that have gotten somewhere with their voice. Have doubts about what I say.

The modulation of your pitch sounds good to me. There is some deep resonance, but woman with deep voices still sound feminine, which means that pitch is not what makes the difference, like you say in your clip. A physical difference generally between male and female voices is the size of the throats and voice boxes. Both Melanie Anne Philips and Andrea James describes ways to make your throat have a smaller shape in order to resonate like that of a vaginally endowed person.

If you haven't already, you might want to watch their youtube videos and go to their sites:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTbQviDaGnk&list=PL04329A4C04D8112D

http://heartcorps.com/page2.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mO41CpUW7IM&list=PL0CCD9AF3C587C9A2

http://genderlife.com

You can also listen to "counter tenors" who are men who sing soprano. The italian guy above demonstrates some counter tenor singing techniques. The advice sounds similar to Melanie Anne talking about starting with a cartoon voice and then relaxing your throat.

I think it would be good to support both people for their hard work by buying their lessons.

So this may sound like a dumb question, but what is falsetto?

Falsetto means fake voice, more or less. It is usually used to mean the sound of a man talking like a woman, often for comic effect. A "counter tenor" sings in a way that supposedly sounds "not fake" but is higher in pitch.

In the clip of Melanie Anne above, she shows an exercise where you feel the vibration around your adam's apple and she says that when doing falsetto you can still feel vibration below the Adam's apple. When she speaks now, she says that she can't feel vibration below the Adam's apple. But, advice goes beyond that and talks about other aspects of vocal timbre and modulating one's voice instead of talking like Frankenstein as men tend to do (to hide emotions typically).

In my clip above, it sounds to me like there are areas where it is more and less fake sounding. Some seems to me to be about the way that I pronounce words that is forced and some is a difference in the sound, there is like a secondary resonance that is deeper when I sound the most falsetto, I think

For me anyway, I can't follow advice that is a procedure, it has to make some kind of sense to me. Do this with your Adam's apple and then you will magically start sounding natural, is unlikely to work.

Also, anjaq has posted a lot of very interesting information, it seems to me. She warns about damaging one's voice by attempting to affect a female voice. Probably, doing anything incorrectly for a long time will have negative results. So, I can at least get that it is important to stop whenever it feels uncomfortable.

Getting surgery instead sounds much more scary and permanent to me. Also, women don't sound different just because of shorter vocal cords. But, I'm very new to this and that is just my opinion. You can read other people's posts and go look at web sites.

https://www.susans.org/forums/index.php/topic,153931.0.html

[jussmoi4nao]

Post transition vs pre transition voice:

http://vocaroo.com/i/s12tqcmhilSe

I personally muuch prefer my post transition voicr, mostly cuz I think it's more feminine/age appropriate, but some people say it's annoying