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Booked With Haben

Started by Cadence Jean, May 04, 2015, 01:48:00 PM

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Dena

I was busy when you posted it and I needed time to analyze it. I don't have perfect pitch but it sound like you are around 180-190Hz but you may still be having issues getting inflection in the voice. It might be the result of trying to think of something to say instead of knowing what you are going to say. On the other had, Dr Haben said the triple takes longer to gain control of and you may still be bit early for the voice to really shine. It sound like you are in the female range and more work on the voice should bring it where you want it.
Rebirth Date 1982 - PMs are welcome - Use [email]dena@susans.org[/email] or Discord if your unable to PM - Skype is available - My Transition
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Cadence Jean

I'm happy with it as is. :) I like a distinctly androgynous voice, than necessarily a very feminine voice. I can sound like a valley girl with the inflection, but then I feel ridiculous. Lol I will be having ffs soon. It will be interesting to see what that does to the resonance - my frontal sinus and my nose will both be made smaller.

As is, I have yet to be misgendered, even during the hoarseness phase. XD
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runaway

Hi Cadence, sorry I haven't been on here much lately. School started, so I've been busy settling in, and also preparing for my upcoming trip to Rochester. The nurse from the hospital just called me today!

Your new relaxed voice sounds great for the amount of time you've had to heal, and I'm sure it will only improve as time goes on especially now that you coughed up the offending tissue. :)

I was actually just listening to your recordings yesterday morning while preparing to leave home, and as mentioned in one of my earlier posts I read this thread every time I feel a panic attack coming up.

Thanks again for sharing your results, and please keep doing so. I'll be sure to do the same in the coming weeks and months!
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runaway

I'm all done! Report to follow after some much needed sleep. :)
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Cadence Jean

Awesome! Glad to see that you're up and about! I can't wait to hear your story. :)
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Dena

Get all the sleep you want, the report can wait . I couldn't sleep for more than a few hours until I was back in my own bed.
Rebirth Date 1982 - PMs are welcome - Use [email]dena@susans.org[/email] or Discord if your unable to PM - Skype is available - My Transition
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runaway

I slept until I had a headache from sleeping too much, so I got up and typed out my report. :D

Link: https://www.susans.org/forums/index.php/topic,196156.new.html
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Cadence Jean

#87
Latest, from this morning:

http://vocaroo.com/i/s1wReGJz6xXy

I'm pretty happy. :)  Haben is working on analyzing the pitch gain now.  At first blush, he told me that I sound amazing.  :icon_redface:  Part of me wants to believe him and part of me wants to think that he's just saying that because I'm his patient. lol  I guess I must be around thirteen and a half weeks out of surgery now.  My voice has really improved over the past couple weeks, I think.  I hope it continues to improve over the next month or so as it settles into the new normal. :)

I still feel some hitching in my throat at times when I swallow.  It's definitely on the left side.  But it doesn't really hurt.  It probably has something to do with that blob of tissue that I coughed up last week.  Now that my body has expelled it, hopefully it will heal over whereever it came from, and my swallowing will stop hitching and my voice will get a little extra oomph. :)

Since Dena has suggested that I had more prosody to my voice, I should try recording one with the sing song valley girl thing. I think my issue is more resonance than anything else.  I'm kinda too lazy to do anything about it. lol

So, here's me trying to remove resonance: http://vocaroo.com/i/s0bx4qNYFMTB

Do y'all think this version of my voice sounds lighter and more feminine than the post up above?

UPDATE: And here's a recording after practicing holding my larynx with the "no resonance" method.  I'm thinking it sounds boss. :)  There are some things I need to work on with it - but for just realizing how I need to hold the muscle above my larynx to kill the resonance and increase pitch, I think it sounds pretty good.  I'll have to run this method by my speech therapist in a couple weeks when I see her!

http://vocaroo.com/i/s1msgSCB1kJT
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Lunarain

Quote from: Cadence Jean on September 19, 2015, 02:42:19 PM
At first blush, he told me that I sound amazing.  :icon_redface:  Part of me wants to believe him and part of me wants to think that he's just saying that because I'm his patient. lol 

Cadence, I bet he says that to all his girls!  ;D But seriously, you sound marvelous and I'm a little jealous! Congrats and keep up the good work!
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Cadence Jean

Thanks, Luna! Do you like best the first or second version from my last post?
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Dena

You don't need to fake a speech pattern because you already have one. You just need to let the excitement and the emphasis to show in your voice a bit more. When you want a word to stand out more, normally volume goes up but so should pitch. It may not be all your fault at this point because the triple makes it harder to use the new voice at first and the triple isn't good for singing because it restricts the voice range. I knew I would still need a trained voice after surgery and the triple wouldn't help me there so I went with VFS for the lower cost and increased range. It was supposed to allow for a faster recovery as well but so far, I still am dealing with recovery. More on my thread latter.

Now the evaluation. All three voices will sound like great feminine voices if you brighten them up a bit. Pick the one you are comfortable working with and use it. In my case, the voice I want is at the sweet spot. The point where the voice is the strongest and just a little above where the voice wants to naturally fall. To push it up that little bit means paying attention to my voice and not getting sloppy. It isn't a strain to do so, it just I can't over relax when I speak.

The truth is I was listing to my niece two days ago as she happily talked about how she lost another job and her speech pattern, and pitch wasn't that much different than yours. What I am asking will give you a better voice than that of many CIS women. I just figure when you pay all that money for a voice, why not get the best if all it requires is a little attention to detail.

Don't worry about my niece as she always seems to land on her feet and she likes the time away from work. She won't starve or become homeless but she might become more uncomfortable in life if we can make it so.  :eusa_wall:
Rebirth Date 1982 - PMs are welcome - Use [email]dena@susans.org[/email] or Discord if your unable to PM - Skype is available - My Transition
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Cadence Jean

Shoot, I had a long reply and managed to kill it. I keep doing that on here! So, to be concise, I think my pattern reflects my inner turmoil and ambivalence and fear and tension and malcontentness very well, lol I get your analogy with your niece's voice. What she's feeling is probably what I typically feel. It's crazy how much tension in he musculoskeletal system up top affects one's voice. My voice is much lighter when I've been relaxed by my speech therapist performing reflex work on me. I think that "lightness" that I attain in my voice(and my being as well) is the phenomenon that you're describing as "brighten". Maybe my next best step for my voice is simply learning how to relax and calm my inner turmoil. :)
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Cadence Jean

PS thank you for your opinion and kind words. I hope the best for your niece!
to make more better goodness

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runaway

Hey Cadence, you sound INCREDIBLE! I'm really excited about my results now, and I can't wait for the next few months to go by.

In your first recording, you sound like a woman who has just woken up. My sister talks like that in the morning, and I notice girls tend to sound that way when talking to other women they are close to (friends, family members, etc).

Your second and third recording sound "brighter" and more cheery, and is what I imagine to be a "public" voice for most women when speaking to strangers, polite company, etc.

So to sum it up, you sound slightly different, but unquestionably female in all three recordings. :) Congratulations!
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iKate

Quote from: runaway on September 20, 2015, 06:22:39 PM
In your first recording, you sound like a woman who has just woken up. My sister talks like that in the morning, and I notice girls tend to sound that way when talking to other women they are close to (friends, family members, etc).

Hey you know I notice that too. When I talk to my wife, for example, my voice is lower. When I talk to my kids it gets a bit higher. When I talk to guys it gets to its highest. In the morning my voice is a bit croaky as well.
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Cadence Jean

Thanks, Runaway! My speech therapist has said that talking to somebody one is familiar and comfortable with will cause one's voice to drop subconsciously. I don't recall the reasoning though. And also speaking to a crowd to strangers, one's voice gets higher and breathier. Typically. So, the behavior that you have noted correlates to what she has been taught as well. :)
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runaway

iKate, spot on! I always felt the trained voice only approximated an overly-formal elevator voice that sounds authentic, but it can seem phony or overly-practiced depending on the context it's used in.

The appeal of Yeson and Dr. Haben was that it would allow me to just speak freely and be myself without worrying about slipping up, which was the whole point of transition for me. Years ago, my unpassable voice was one of the reasons I dissuaded myself from transitioning, because doing so seemed realistically impossible because of my voice.

While I didn't go with Yeson, your feedback on the Yeson thread (along with Jenny, Anjaq and a few others), definitely helped me decide that a glottoplasty VFS was now viable, so thanks. :)

Cadence, ever since your procedure, has the external swelling from the tracheal shave and CTA gone down much? I know the CTA projects the thyroid outwards a little to stretch the vocal folds, but I feel like mine has become a bit more prominent than I'd like even though the tracheal notch is gone.

It's not a big deal, and I'd rather deal with that than an adam's apple, but it's giving me a bit of anxiety because my neck was quite slender before. I wish I had a tape measure to check if I'm just imagining it haha. :)
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Cadence Jean

My swelling never really caused any projection. My neck was flat coming right of the surgery. Dr. Haben even commented on how impressed he was with the results. Even after the swelling has subsided, I still don't see any projection. I think over all, my larynx seems more visible, but I think that may be more that I would fixate on my adam's apple when in old at it before. If I poke around at it, I can feel a little bump, probably where it used to be. But my skin hides it just fine. I'm very happy with my results. I hope you can enjoy yours too!
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Lunarain

Quote from: Cadence Jean on September 20, 2015, 11:35:22 AM
Thanks, Luna! Do you like best the first or second version from my last post?

All three sounded fantastic but I personally love the 3rd one where you hold your larynx when you speak.  :)
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Cadence Jean

Yay! Thank you for your feedback! I'm pretty stoked that I've found my new voice. :)
to make more better goodness

I have returned to recording on TransByDef!  Watch us at: https://www.youtube.com/TransByDef
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