The "Does my voice pass?" thread

[Hayley]

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

To me your pre-transition voice was very good. Sounds to me like a young professional. The post-transition voice sounds like you are trying a bit to hard to me. I don't know was I am bad with voices and things of that nature. Still great work girl.

[anjaq]

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.

It was the other way around in the video, wasn't it? "clamp down on the top and let loose at the bottom - no vibration at the top but vibration at the bottom" - did I misunderstand that?

Getting surgery instead sounds much more scary and permanent to me. Also, women don't sound different just because of shorter vocal cords.

Permanent is what most people here will welcome, the scary part not so much. Things have improved since Melanie did these tapes in 1999 but still it is something to consider carefully. Surgery only can affect pitch, which is NOT what Melanie was showing there. What she showed in the video linked above was resonance - the most important factor. I doubt Melanie had a low pitch to begin with, she tries to go low in the female resonance register and does not get that low IMO - dropping the female resonance would allow her to go deeper probably but it becomes impossible after a while. Pitch is however not without importance I believe  - not as much as the other things like resonance most of them all - but still it is a factor if it is too low. As long as it is medium, its fine, but if it leaves the range where women usually talk in, it becomes a "tell" even with female resonance unless you are perfect in all other parameters.

[Unice]

Urff. You're right. I have it backwards. I wasn't being modest when I said to have doubt about what I say.

Well, that is a rather significant thing to get wrong... When I try it right now, it vibrates a little at the top and a lot on the bottom if I try not to sound falsetto by trying to open my throat, but it still sounds falsetto. I will have to play around with that. Thank you for correcting me.

There is a video of Melanie Anne from years before her transition and her voice then was not very deep but it was certainly deeper than most women's voices that I have heard.

About surgery, I don't want to trivialize the idea. I imagine it is a very emotionally taxing decision to make and I don't want to serve to negatively affect your courage. Also, I mean it when I say that I am very new and unsure. You have real experience. I do not.

I am an expressing an opinion. I hope it doesn't sound like a negative criticism. I am happy for you about taking action toward what you want.

[anjaq]

Hehe, no problem there. I actually used melanie Phillips voice tips 15 years ago to get my voice better. It largely worked but is not perfect for me. Maybe I should habe trained more, IDK. Re surgery - everyone says its a bad idea, I am used to that - so if I should do it, I will go up against the opinion of about everyone around me, but thats how it is... But I believe, either I have to come to terms with an exotic deep voice that I may be able to get more female sounding than it is  now somehow, find a way to increase pitch by training or do surgery...

[jussmoi4nao]

To me your pre-transition voice was very good. Sounds to me like a young professional. The post-transition voice sounds like you are trying a bit to hard to me. I don't know was I am bad with voices and things of that nature. Still great work girl.

Yeah, I'm not sure why that would be cuz that voice actually comes most naturally to me (I probably don't sound my best cuz I made that at 4 AM). And imo it matches a 19 year old better. Tho my pre transition voice sounds exactly like my mom's and my little sister's is starting to sound that way now that she's in puberty...but then I feel like they have husky/androgynous voices?

[anjaq]

Tho my pre transition voice sounds exactly like my mom's and my little sister's is starting to sound that way now that she's in puberty...but then I feel like they have husky/androgynous voices?

Lol. I would love to have your pre transition voice as a goal - Seriously it is really great already. But do what makes you happy - just make sure you dont strain your voice

[jussmoi4nao]

Lol. I would love to have your pre transition voice as a goal - Seriously it is really great already. But do what makes you happy - just make sure you dont strain your voice

Haha, it's not a strain at all xD does it sound strained? Cuz i've been using it for so long now, it just feels natural, even more so than my pre transition voice.

But yeah, I guess I have a high range. My voice never broke and I never really got much of if any adam's apple (not sure how to tell if theres one at all but i really can't see it).

[anjaq]

I wish mine would not have broken. Ah well... tough luck.I wonder how the adams apple relates to voice. I have none either. Not a hint. Yet I sadly dont have your nice pretransition voice even if I do my training sessions :/

[Unice]

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

They both sound female to me. It wouldn't have occurred to me that that voice was not born with a hoo hoo. Neither is annoying.

[Auroramarianna]

Haha, it's not a strain at all xD does it sound strained? Cuz i've been using it for so long now, it just feels natural, even more so than my pre transition voice.

But yeah, I guess I have a high range. My voice never broke and I never really got much of if any adam's apple (not sure how to tell if theres one at all but i really can't see it).

You really have a good voice, both of them are amazing actually, however I feel that your pre-transition voice sounds way more natural and still feminine. The post-transition is sounding too squeaky and young, although I kind of have the same problem so I may not be the best judge. I think we need to find a a middle ground as to sounding comfortable to us and high enough so we perceive our voices as feminine, but still natural and not falsetto.

Also, an information many may find usefull! Even if you think your voice is not feminine enough, only a recording can tell, because people tend to hear their voices distorted because when we hear ourselves, we're also hearing the vibrations our vocal cords transmit, we're hearing it through the bones and our organs, which also vibrate. That creates the fuller, richer, deeper and unique voice we hear ourselves. When played back, the recording reveals the truth: and the voice is often distinctively higher.

What do you think about my recordings?

[jussmoi4nao]

I dunno, I guess I get the annoying/squeaky comments, but not so much unnatural. It isn't an effort at all,it just comes out. And I didn't really try to sound like it per se, it just sort of happened. I was actually surprised to hear how much it changed from pre transition, just cuz it was incremental, but yeah. My pre transition voice is actually harder to find cuz it's been so long since I talked that way.

Also, as for falsetto, no, lol. I can go a looot higher than that, like seriously,haha. If my voice sounded falsetto it was cuz it was 4 AM and i was trying not to wake people,cuz that's simply not a problem for me.

As for the age thing, I don't feel like its 'too young' considering I'm only 18. I think maybe that's a response tailored to an older age group.

But thanks for all your commentsss!

[jussmoi4nao]

I dunno, I guess a part of me likes to believe my current voice is my real one because of how natural it feels and the old one was like my best attempt to sound male. My family all said they remembered id talk like i do now sometimes, in fact it happened frequently (they just thought id be a voice actor or sumthin lol)

[anjaq]

If you dont have to do anything to make that voice , it does not strain you and people think it sounds female - I would not worry. You are in a much better position then compared to many others who have to train to get a voice that is close to any of these voices

[Auroramarianna]

I dunno, I guess I get the annoying/squeaky comments, but not so much unnatural. It isn't an effort at all,it just comes out. And I didn't really try to sound like it per se, it just sort of happened. I was actually surprised to hear how much it changed from pre transition, just cuz it was incremental, but yeah. My pre transition voice is actually harder to find cuz it's been so long since I talked that way.

Also, as for falsetto, no, lol. I can go a looot higher than that, like seriously,haha. If my voice sounded falsetto it was cuz it was 4 AM and i was trying not to wake people,cuz that's simply not a problem for me.

As for the age thing, I don't feel like its 'too young' considering I'm only 18. I think maybe that's a response tailored to an older age group.

But thanks for all your commentsss!

Okay! Fair enough! If it doesn't hurt at all and you're not straining and you feel good about it, then great You're only 18 and I'm 17, yay!! But I think my voice sounds too young for my age, I often get comments that I sound like a baby, which I am not sure. What do you all think?

[FalseHybridPrincess]

Both voices sounds good jussmoi4nao

but your pre voice sounds a lot more natural
and btw, it has nothing to do with age , im 19 I have female friends with much lower voice , still sounds really nice...

[Auroramarianna]

https://soundcloud.com/auroramariana/voz-091

Okay, this is my best attempt at a masculine voice. I personally think it is kinda low, not sure if how this voice would be gendered, tell me what you think

https://soundcloud.com/auroramariana/voz-088 ---> this is me reading a book passage (in  my native language, sorry!) yes, with an infuriated tone because the character was really angry and upset at social injustice at that moment.

I don't know if anyone else notices, I do seem to get slightly hoarse a lot of times I think it is because of the acid reflux, a disease I have, even with medication it continues to affect me. I don't know what else this could be.

[Unice]

I might be having cultural blindness, but your clips might sound nervous. That would be rapid speech in the California. So, it's hard to say. I can't picture what you would sound like with a slower more relaxed voice.

Acid reflux is supposedly very bad for the vocal tract, I heard someone say once. It seems like it would be. It can also be related to stress... So, if it is true that you sound nervous, maybe relaxing is important in more than one way.

[anjaq]

aurora, just a word of caution - not sure if this applies to you. I personally had hoarseness and the feeling that something is stuck or burning a bit in the throat for the past 2 years. I had a lot of issues with digestion as well and I was thinking the the reflux causes these issues. Eventually i went to an ENT who is also phoniater and they checked and found that not the reflux caused the isses but me soverstraining my voice by using it wrong. so i went into a voice rehab training. if you get issues like that - maybe they are really from reflux, but keep in mind that it still may be an issue with your speaking habits

[Auroramarianna]

aurora, just a word of caution - not sure if this applies to you. I personally had hoarseness and the feeling that something is stuck or burning a bit in the throat for the past 2 years. I had a lot of issues with digestion as well and I was thinking the the reflux causes these issues. Eventually i went to an ENT who is also phoniater and they checked and found that not the reflux caused the isses but me soverstraining my voice by using it wrong. so i went into a voice rehab training. if you get issues like that - maybe they are really from reflux, but keep in mind that it still may be an issue with your speaking habits

I actually had therapy for that at the time they also diagnosed reflux, and supposedely the issue was fixed. They wanted to get me to lower my voice to a man's range, but I didn't. So when I began using it properly, I quit going! However, I am not really that hoarse during the day, I seem to get on morning and night, I don't know. But yes, I do have reflux and it is horrible. If I forget to take the medication, I feel really sick and also feeling a lump in my throat.

[Auroramarianna]

https://soundcloud.com/auroramariana/voz-096

Here I tried to sound lower and more relaxed. I don't know if anyone else feels this, but no matter how high my voice actually is, I fear that sometimes it sounds masculine or that it slips into male mode sometimes. I don't know if it's me who is being self-conscious or anything, because even when it sounds low to me, on recordings it is still high, so I don't know, maybe it is my distorted self-perception which leads me to believe in things that are not true.

Tell me what you think about this new recording!
And I do have very intense acid reflux, to the point of coughing really hard, even though I take all medication.