How effective is praat?

[TSJasmine]

I understand praat is good for averaging out the Hz of your voice & it's pretty simple to use but how accurate is it really? I'm just curious cause I'm not sure I believe some of the readings it gives me.

[ImagineKate]

It's accurate. Pitch is not really hard to determine. Actually the biggest variable would be your microphone and sound card.

[anjaq]

I noticed if you have a bad mic, it can act up. Look at the blue line in the pitch analysis - the best is if it is really a line that goes up and down. If you have very high peaks or bits of the line that float at the top or bottom of the range, it can be noise, which can distort the reading.

Also of course it gives an average pitch - meaning you can choose which part of the audio you are analyzing you want to look at. Depending on that the reading may differ a lot. If you pick a word that had a high pitch it is obviously different than if you look at a low pitched word in a sentence that had some melody in it. I think for me what is interesting is of course the overall average, but I pick also the parts of a file with less inflection (the more monotonous parts) to see what would be a realistic average if I am maybe tired or bored or just lazy, and I also like to look at the low ends. Usually my blue lines are having a noticeable baseline from which the "hills" of inflection are starting and this interests me as I believe that people perceive this one more than an average pitch.

[ImagineKate]

A good headset mic is a must. Even the cheap plantronics ones will be better than a built in computer mic because it takes out much of the room acoustics (especially if you have wood floors or uninsulated walls. )

[JulieM]

Fair warning--results can be depressing. Hooked up my new headset last night, downloaded Praat and found out my speaking voice range is 75-85. Cripes, thought I had a higher pitched voice than that. No kidding, this is seriously depressing. Hope drinking isn't bad for the voice because I needed some comfort after that. I think facial hair, voice and HRT are the three biggies, at least early on, and the voice thing looks like it's going to be...um...challenging.

[anjaq]

A 80 Hz average speaking voice is very rare. i am not sure your setup is right there. if you want you can upload the recording you used for this on vocaroo and post it here or send me a PM and I can check.

[TSJasmine]

can someone run Praat on me? I have no idea how to use it. dohhh

I will

[anjaq]

I am sure if you post a clip here, someone will do it for you. Or are you not comfortable with uploading a voice clip?

[TSJasmine]

Frequency shifting
https://soundcloud.com/shizuma7775/rainbow-frequency-shift

My usual voice.
https://soundcloud.com/shizuma7775/voice-011-m4a

Frequency shifting - 166 Hz

Usual Voice - 191 Hz

[JustASeq]

I have trouble analyzing anything longer than 10 seconds... Also my built in mic on this thing sucks...

But anyways, how do you analyze longer files? Here is the recording from tonight I am trying to analyze.
https://soundcloud.com/just-a-seq/the-north-wind-and-the-sun/s-hFjBN

[TSJasmine]

Thanks, Jasmine!

Np

I have trouble analyzing anything longer than 10 seconds... Also my built in mic on this thing sucks...

But anyways, how do you analyze longer files? Here is the recording from tonight I am trying to analyze.
https://soundcloud.com/just-a-seq/the-north-wind-and-the-sun/s-hFjBN

Praat averaged it at 173 Hz. As for how to do it yourself, it's actually very simple. Either the first or second post on this section of the site tells you how with pictures & all

[JustASeq]

Np

Praat averaged it at 173 Hz. As for how to do it yourself, it's actually very simple. Either the first or second post on this section of the site tells you how with pictures & all

Bahhhh. I totally just figured it out. Thanks!

[anjaq]

Can you download a fiule from soundcloud? I cannot - So I cannot put soundcloud files into praat. Voracoo allows downloading...
Nice - Northwind and sun instead of Rainbow passage - thats the text I had to read in German in all the tests up to now

[JustASeq]

Can you download a fiule from soundcloud? I cannot - So I cannot put soundcloud files into praat. Voracoo allows downloading...
Nice - Northwind and sun instead of Rainbow passage - thats the text I had to read in German in all the tests up to now

Yeah... I have a hard time drawing inside the lines.... When I first started working on my voice I used to read a monologue from Addams' family by Wednesday. You know the sweet one at the Thanksgiving play at that camp...