Yeson voice feminization surgery 2.0

[Dana88]

Haha so here is a story.

I had a conf call with a vendor yesterday. They're working on a project with us and I'm the lead on the technical side, hammering out the specs. However I had called one of the sales people before I had my surgery, actually it was while I was in the KAL lounge at JFK waiting for my flight. (The lounge food was bleh by the way, Delta Sky Club is way better). Of course I had my pre-op voice and I told him I was transitioning because he knew me by my old name. So we had a call, he said oh its cool and stuff, congrats on transition (don't they all say that?) and we were very much in the preliminary stages of the project, then I had to leave to go board my flight.

Fast forward to today where we have a call to discuss and get some final specs on the project. I joined the call. A few minutes in, I am talking and then he asked, "Wait, who is this?" I said, "It's (kate)." He then said, "wow, really! I didn't even recognize you. I was beginning to think I was on the wrong conference call. How was your trip? You were going to where, Korea?" I didn't give him all the details, I just said I went on personal business but I had fun with it.

^^^ I love this.

SO! I recorded once again the opening to my favorite book, the Pillars of the Earth, the same thing that I recorded the first day I could speak again so that you can get a direct comparison :-).

Day one of speaking:
http://vocaroo.com/i/s1mTgXYD1QQM

Today (8 1/2 weeks later):
http://vocaroo.com/i/s0QKq8hr1EzN

I'm still talking with a little rasp and reedyness, but again, this is not a new issue. I spoke like that preop as well and I'm struggling to get my voice more forward. I can get it forward when I speak lower, but it's not actually where my voice wants to sit and then I get tired quickly when I do it because I'm speaking too low. I was telling my speech pathologist, I used to compensate for that reedyness by really amping up my chest resonance, but obviously now I am incapable of doing that (thanks Dr. Kim!  ). So, that's gonna take some time to work through and break old habits. But other than that I am QUITE happy so far.

[iKate]

^^^ I love this.

SO! I recorded once again the opening to my favorite book, the Pillars of the Earth, the same thing that I recorded the first day I could speak again so that you can get a direct comparison :-).

Day one of speaking:
http://vocaroo.com/i/s1mTgXYD1QQM

Today (8 1/2 weeks later):
http://vocaroo.com/i/s0QKq8hr1EzN

I'm still talking with a little rasp and reedyness, but again, this is not a new issue. I spoke like that preop as well and I'm struggling to get my voice more forward. I can get it forward when I speak lower, but it's not actually where my voice wants to sit and then I get tired quickly when I do it because I'm speaking too low. I was telling my speech pathologist, I used to compensate for that reedyness by really amping up my chest resonance, but obviously now I am incapable of doing that (thanks Dr. Kim!  ). So, that's gonna take some time to work through and break old habits. But other than that I am QUITE happy so far.

Yeah, you do sound good! There is much improvement between the first and second, and it should only get better.

[Dena]

If you can maintain the voice in the second sample, I think you have it. The pitch, inflection and softness is a good blend and I would expect a voice like that to come from a CIS woman. If you wanted to make audio book, that would be the perfect voice because it is clear and understandable. 

[Dana88]

If you can maintain the voice in the second sample, I think you have it. The pitch, inflection and softness is a good blend and I would expect a voice like that to come from a CIS woman. If you wanted to make audio book, that would be the perfect voice because it is clear and understandable.

Awww. Well thank you :-). Yeah, that second recording is literally just my voice now and where it sits. Dr. Kim did a good job! I mean... These days when I'm tired and speaking low, I sit at around 210-215 hz, and when I'm in good voice it can be around 225-239 hz. My voice is UNMISTAKABLY in a female range now, which is amazing :-).


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[Dana88]

Just had a story I need to share! I called up my pharmacy because my endo called in a new prescription for me yesterday and I wanted to make sure it was ready before I went to get it. My insurance is still under my male name, so I called up and said a prescription was called in for "male name" and I just wanted to make sure it's ready. And they said "what is his date of birth?" And I gave it to them, and then they said "yup, it's all ready for him whenever he wants to come in." So just on the phone they read my voice alone as female and assumed I could not possibly be "male name." YAAAAAYYYYY!!!!


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[anjaq]

Way cool - Hehe - I should try some situations like that. But usually they rather ask me for my first name in phone calls

Something else. I found it very strange that my voice is quite different before and after the exercises. One das I did a recording, just spaking as I normally would and then I did the voice exercises, did some of the LaxVox voice relaxation in between and concentrated a bit on my voice, also to use a bit more feminine pitch, which was possible without any strain - and it sounded much better, IMO - I guess the goal would be to have voice #2 as voice #1... I hope one day it just sticks

voice#1: http://vocaroo.com/i/s1o1c36x8kKl
voice#2: http://vocaroo.com/i/s1DDvQFm3F4H

[Dana88]

Way cool - Hehe - I should try some situations like that. But usually they rather ask me for my first name in phone calls

Something else. I found it very strange that my voice is quite different before and after the exercises. One das I did a recording, just spaking as I normally would and then I did the voice exercises, did some of the LaxVox voice relaxation in between and concentrated a bit on my voice, also to use a bit more feminine pitch, which was possible without any strain - and it sounded much better, IMO - I guess the goal would be to have voice #2 as voice #1... I hope one day it just sticks

voice#1: http://vocaroo.com/i/s1o1c36x8kKl
voice#2: http://vocaroo.com/i/s1DDvQFm3F4H

The second voice sounds great!

The first voice sounds almost like you're putting on a low voice... The second one sounds more natural to me... Maybe it's what we were talking about yesterday? You're used to speaking around there and are still capable so that's where your brain wants to go, and then maybe when you do the exercises your brain realizes you're speaking at the low end of your range? For example, right now I *can* speak at a fundamental frequency of 175/180, but it doesn't feel right and my voice tires really quickly doing it since I'm putting too much pressure on it. Where it *wants* to sit when I just speak without thinking is in that 220-230 range. So maybe you have a little of the same situation?


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[iKate]

It's funny about the passing power of a voice.

Today in court I went to change my name, and the judge was apparently confused until I said, "I am transgender" and then it clicked in his head, LOL.

[anjaq]

The second voice sounds great!

The first voice sounds almost like you're putting on a low voice... The second one sounds more natural to me...

Yes -  but for the second one I do have to concentrate... weird. If I don't watch it, I will be more in the first voice. And if I try to get into the habit of using a higher pitch, I fall back into the habit of squeezing my voice and then it gets strained.

You're used to speaking around there and are still capable so that's where your brain wants to go, and then maybe when you do the exercises your brain realizes you're speaking at the low end of your range? For example, right now I *can* speak at a fundamental frequency of 175/180, but it doesn't feel right and my voice tires really quickly doing it since I'm putting too much pressure on it. Where it *wants* to sit when I just speak without thinking is in that 220-230 range. So maybe you have a little of the same situation?

Yes. I suspected this from the beginning, at 8 weeks, that I am "underusing" my voice in therms of pitch. We did some voice relaxation stuff at the SLT this week. Me lying down, relaxing , then doing some air flow without sound and then adding a bit of sound ot it. Of course its more singing than speaking but in these esercises, I usually come out at either G or A - at the end of them, the G seems to be really low for me and I trend towards the A, although it is in the voice break zone.

But what is even weirder, I can also go almost into my pre OP untrained voice. I can speak in a mode that gives the same average F0 that Dr Kim measured for me pre-OP, with whole words only averaging 115 Hz and the overall Rainbow passage averaging 135 Hz. I did not expect to be able to actually do my pre OP voice again.... apparently for almost everyone else having had VFS, this is impossible... not that it is comfortable to do - I expect this voice only to come out of me when I really dont watch it and have spent a long night at a club with some drinks maybe - for daily, conscious use, the voice comfortably is at the 170-200 Hz range as in the two examples...


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[Dena]

I can get back to my preoperative voice (almost) but I can't hit the pitch that my chest voice could produce before. My chest voice moved up to where my old trained voice was and my trained voice moved into the lower female range. It sounds like your pre surgical measurements of your old voice may have been off.

[Dana88]

Yes -  but for the second one I do have to concentrate... weird. If I don't watch it, I will be more in the first voice. And if I try to get into the habit of using a higher pitch, I fall back into the habit of squeezing my voice and then it gets strained.

Yes. I suspected this from the beginning, at 8 weeks, that I am "underusing" my voice in therms of pitch. We did some voice relaxation stuff at the SLT this week. Me lying down, relaxing , then doing some air flow without sound and then adding a bit of sound ot it. Of course its more singing than speaking but in these esercises, I usually come out at either G or A - at the end of them, the G seems to be really low for me and I trend towards the A, although it is in the voice break zone.

But what is even weirder, I can also go almost into my pre OP untrained voice. I can speak in a mode that gives the same average F0 that Dr Kim measured for me pre-OP, with whole words only averaging 115 Hz and the overall Rainbow passage averaging 135 Hz. I did not expect to be able to actually do my pre OP voice again.... apparently for almost everyone else having had VFS, this is impossible... not that it is comfortable to do - I expect this voice only to come out of me when I really dont watch it and have spent a long night at a club with some drinks maybe - for daily, conscious use, the voice comfortably is at the 170-200 Hz range as in the two examples...


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I can speak somewhat close to my old voice if I try hard, but the timbre sounds weak and like a girl trying to put on a low man voice. The absolute lowest pitch where I bottom out is the D below middle C which is my old fundamental frequency. I'm sure if I tried I could speak on an E or F but it's not where my voice wants to sit.


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[anjaq]

I can speak somewhat close to my old voice if I try hard, but the timbre sounds weak and like a girl trying to put on a low man voice. The absolute lowest pitch where I bottom out is the D below middle C which is my old fundamental frequency. I'm sure if I tried I could speak on an E or F but it's not where my voice wants to sit.

So the D below Middle C is the D3, which is below the C4, right? Thats about 150 Hz I think. This is great. I heard this from many others who had VFS. For me the lowest is the A below the low C. So thats A2 (115 Hz). I can speak at C3 or D3 if I want to. I believe my voice wants to either sit there when I am in some sort of "male resonance mode" maybe - or it wants to sit at a G3 or A3 in a more feminine resonance mode. Sometimes it seems undecided and go all across these pitches. My old fundamental frequency was C3 (in sort of a "male mode" that I was asked to do at Yeson - 134Hz accoring to Dr Kim).

[Dana88]

So the D below Middle C is the D3, which is below the C4, right? Thats about 150 Hz I think. This is great. I heard this from many others who had VFS. For me the lowest is the A below the low C. So thats A2 (115 Hz). I can speak at C3 or D3 if I want to. I believe my voice wants to either sit there when I am in some sort of "male resonance mode" maybe - or it wants to sit at a G3 or A3 in a more feminine resonance mode. Sometimes it seems undecided and go all across these pitches. My old fundamental frequency was C3 (in sort of a "male mode" that I was asked to do at Yeson - 134Hz accoring to Dr Kim).

Yup. D3, which my old fundamental frequency was 152 hz, so about D3. For me the lowest note I can hit with some real resonance is F3. Then D3-E3 are pretty breathy and weak sounding.


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[iKate]

I can get back to my preoperative voice (almost) but I can't hit the pitch that my chest voice could produce before. My chest voice moved up to where my old trained voice was and my trained voice moved into the lower female range. It sounds like your pre surgical measurements of your old voice may have been off.

I can most certainly try to get back to my pre-op voice but it sounds really ridiculous, like a girl trying to sound like a guy and totally mocking him. It does help with passing!

[Dana88]

So, I made a little before and after video :-). I recorded stuff the night before my surgery and was waiting to create a before and after till I had healed up a bit and could talk :-).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xt-1Mx_xQc&feature=youtu.be


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[iKate]

Sounding good!

Incidentally, a Chinese co-worker told me that it's pronounced Yee(a)-Son. The first two characters are Chinese and apparently even a little change in the way it is pronounced completely alters the meaning.

[Dana88]

Sounding good!

Incidentally, a Chinese co-worker told me that it's pronounced Yee(a)-Son. The first two characters are Chinese and apparently even a little change in the way it is pronounced completely alters the meaning.

Good to know! I've been saying Yee-son sometimes and Yeh-son others haha.


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[barbie]

Good to know! I've been saying Yee-son sometimes and Yeh-son others haha.


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In Korean, it is "Ye-song".
"Ye" means "art" in Chinese character, and "song" is the sound of "Son", a French word meaning "Sound".

http://www.yesonvc.net/introduce/hi.asp

barbie~~

[Dana88]

In Korean, it is "Ye-song".

barbie~~

Double good to know! I'm gonna trust the person who's actually Korean on this one...


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[iKate]

I assume Ye is not pronounced "Yay" but more like Ye olde English?