Yeson voice surgery booked

[LizMarie]

Wow, Sarah, you are sounding wonderful to these tin ears! I hope your healing continues to go well!

[Ms Grace]

You sound great Sarah! I'm so happy for you and that it has worked as you'd hoped. I'd never considered voice surgery because I'd heard I'd end up sounding like Minnie Mouse, but that was years ago and obviously the process has improved and is swaying my mind.

[anjaq]

Great - I just scrolled back to the pre op recordings and it sounds to me like you are now in the "elevated female" voice which pre op you wrote took some effort.

[sarahb]

Great - I just scrolled back to the pre op recordings and it sounds to me like you are now in the "elevated female" voice which pre op you wrote took some effort.

Yeah, I remember doing the high pre-op voice and it definitely took effort, and even then it only averaged to 190Hz or something. Now speaking as I am in these recordings I am easily hitting 215Hz+, and with just the smallest amount of effort it easily goes up to the 230Hz range. Once I am able to start talking again I think it'll really start to click, as I'll be able to actually spend some time really working on the resonance and everything again. As it is now, these sentences are too short, so by the time I can try to control the voice more I've already said the phrase. There's really no time to work on it with such little clips.

Thanks Liz and Grace! It's nice to know it's sounding good to others as well!

[abbyt89]

Sarah, you sound FANTASTIC! And this early in the recovery too!!! I am so happy for you.

[Jennygirl]

I concur. Your result is sounding utterly fantastic for being so early in recovery!

[sarahb]

Thank you thank you thank you!! :-)

I'm so excited for the next couple of weeks to pass so I can start talking again. It's been really tough not talking for 2 1/2 weeks! I'm still doing good with being patient and not talking, so I think I'll make it through the next 2 weeks ok. But once general conversation can begin again...oh boy am I going to talk! haha

[V M]

From what I am able to hear, you sound very good 

[barbie]

I have another couple of recordings to share. I'm still not saying anything else really outside of these recordings. I'm trying to let the healing process go as smoothly as possible. I'll see how I feel about it next week once I'm 3 weeks post-op and closer to being able to resume general conversation, but I think maybe next week I'll start actually responding with yes/no answers and such.

Sarah,

You now have lovely woman's voice. Your voice is beautiful. Congrats!
Hoping to listen your fully recovered voice soon,

barbie~~

[sarahb]

Today I've noticed a huge increase in the strength and quality of my voice. It's easier to get words out, they're clearer, cleaner, and less hoarse/breathy. This is the first time it feels pretty natural when I talk, as I don't have to force it so much and it doesn't sound so hoarse.

I still have about 10 days until I can start general conversation, but I think today (being officially 3 weeks post-op) has brought with it some great improvements! I'm extremely happy with the results so far, especially now that I'm starting to finally get strength back in my voice and I can start to actually hear it with some clarity! I do feel that my voice is still somewhat monotone overall, as I'm sure the Botox is still affecting my vocal folds, but I can already sense that it's starting to get better as I approach 1 month.

Overall I'm thrilled with the progress so far! It's kind of crazy that I still have almost a month and a half to go until I'm past the initial 2 month recovery period. I can't wait until then to really hear what it sounds like.

[Jennygirl]

Glad to hear that Sarah!

Can't wait to hear you speak freely!

[sarahb]

I still have 6 days until I can start general conversation, but I thought I'd do a little longer recording today. I think it sounds pretty good, although you can hear near the end it still cuts out every now and then until I regain more strength in my voice.

After cutting out the anomalies that Praat sometimes has, the average frequency comes out to 195Hz. For this recording I was trying to not raise the pitch at all, and I can tell that I still have a ways to go until I can really meld the new pitch with proper resonance and inflection control so it doesn't sound so monotone. I think I was pretty close to bottoming out in this recording (which is why it cuts out a little near the end). It's hard to go below like 170Hz, and in a lot of the recording I'm between 185-190Hz.

To me it sounds a lot lighter than my old voice. It has a more natural sound to it, and definitely doesn't sound as forced as my pre-op recording does. I'm noticing that I'm settling in a lower range somewhere between 190-205Hz as the recovery progresses. This may be because I'm still not used to using a higher frequency, I tend to speak in the lower ranges normally, or I still have a lot of recovery to go. I think it's a mixture of all three of those really.

I'm really amazed with the recovery so far and how it's sounding, and it's only going to get better as I regain strength, re-introduce full resonance and inflection, and increase my range after 2+ months! I think once I can start general conversation again it's really going to start to take shape too!

https://soundcloud.com/theartoflogic/longer-recording/s-WcEnH

---

For accessibility, here is a link to the entire set of recordings I've done so far: https://soundcloud.com/theartoflogic/sets/yeson

[anjaq]

*Amazing*

[Paige]

Wow Sarah.  Your voice sounds absolutely amazing.

[AmyBerlin]

Congratulations, Sarah! You sound marvelous. And so do all the other voices I've heard on this board and elsewhere that were given the Dr. Kim touch. I'm negotiating an appointment with Jessie at the moment for mid-April. I don't wanna scare anyone: that's not how long their waiting list is, though, but mid-April is the beginning of a timespan of over 2 months when I don't have any jobs that require me to sing (backup vocals, I wouldn't dare singing lead until I was about half a year past the procedure).

Regards,

Amy

[barbie]

https://soundcloud.com/theartoflogic/longer-recording/s-WcEnH

Yes. Without doubt, lovely women's voice.

Today my little daughter murmured that my voice would reveal that I am a man, despite my looking feminine. Nowadays she preaches a lot to both me and my wife.

barbie~~

[sarahb]

I seriously LOVE my voice! Today is the first time I'm starting to talk a little bit at work again and it's amazing! This last week has shown a lot of improvement in the quality of the voice, and each day it gets better. I'm flying out to Austin, TX tomorrow for work and will be there until next Tuesday, so I'll be doing quite a bit of talking. Depending on how you measure a month, I'm either fine starting general conversation today (4 weeks) or on Wednesday (by day of month). I'm still going to try to keep talking to a minimum today and tomorrow though, just to be safe.

I'm listening to my previous recordings I did pre-op and I just can't believe it. I'm easily at, or past, the "high" pre-op recording without even trying. The tone and softness of the voice is way better, and I no longer have to force it to get it that high of a pitch. It just comes out that way. I'm only half way through the major portion of the recovery though, so I still have a LOT of progress to make. My voice is still hoarse and it's hard to get a lot of volume. Also, after a bit of talking the quality starts to diminish in that it gets a little more scratchy as I go along until I let it rest.

I'll probably be doing the rainbow passage for Yeson some time after Wednesday, so I'll post it here when I do.

[sarahb]

I decided to record a new Rainbow Passage today. The average frequency is somewhere around 195Hz-205Hz, with a low around 172Hz and a high around 296Hz. Obviously, my voice still has a ways to go until I'm fully recovered, so it's still a little scratchy, and the quality can improve a lot. Compared to my pre-op voice, it's a pretty dramatic change already though!

1 Month Pre-Op:
https://soundcloud.com/theartoflogic/rainbow-passage-low/s-meihH

1 Month Post-Op:
https://soundcloud.com/theartoflogic/rainbow-passage-post-op-2013-12-10/s-9ISHB

[Jennygirl]

MAGIC!

Sarah, I think you will probably have the best sounding result from Yeson yet. You already sound fantastic already at only 1 month. At 2 months you will notice a huge difference when the upper part of your chest register starts to open up.

Way-to-go! You sound GREAT!!!

[AmyBerlin]

Hi Sarah,

very good indeed, after only 1 month! The scratchiness will fade over time and you'll have a wonderful voice! Congratulations!

Jenny, how is the singing coming along? I keep thinking that in addition to speaking clips, I should also collect some singing samples (all of the same song) before I go in April, in full male voice, and in the low (perfect 4th up) and the elevated versions (perfect 5th up) of its feminized version, and eventually record the same song again when I've recovered enough, maybe 3-4 months post-op, at whichever pitch it may then fall, in order to put some data points on the effect of the surgery on the singing voice on the map...

Regards,

Amy