Voice spectrum software

[KathyLauren]

I know I'm supposed to aim for a 220 Hz voice.  My voice therapist has an app on her phone that shows you the pitch in real time, but I don't have a phone that runs apps.  So I'm looking for an equivalent that will run on a PC.

I tried the Overtone Analyzer from Sygyt.com, but it doesn't run well on my old laptop, and it doesn't show me anything in real time.  I have to record a bit and play it back to analyze it.  I'd prefer something that works like the phone app in real time.

Any suggestions?

[Sophia Sage]

Spectrogram16 is free and was developed long enough ago that it should work on older machines:

http://www.physiol.ox.ac.uk/~jan/gram16_setup.zip

There are some settings involved after setup that you'll want to toggle to make things easy on yourself.  First, under Preferences, toggle Display Freq Mark to on -- you'll then get a dialogue box for putting two red lines on the graph.  Set them for 160 and 220 Hertz.  The lower line is the line you don't want your voice to drop below.  The higher line is where you want most of your spoken words to hover around.  And, of course, you'll want to want to be able to hit 400 (.4 Khz) if you can for your highest-pitched words.

To run the software, go to Function-->Scan Input.  Again, you get a dialogue box, with more settings.  Toggle the following:

Display: Scroll 1
Spectrum Level (dB/Hz): Min: -60
FFT Size: 8192
High Band Limit (Hz): 900
Low Band Limit (Hz): 50
Scroll Display Width: sec, 30

I strongly recommend recording and then playing back every thirty seconds or so (hit STOP and then PLAY WDW).  Our voices sound different in our heads than when played back, but it's the played back voice that everyone else actually hears.  This is tricky, because hearing that voice can trigger dysphoria.  Nonetheless, this feedback is crucial, I think, to properly evaluate things like timbre and resonance.

Good luck!

[KathyLauren]

Thanks, Sophia.  It is a little flaky on my old machine, but it works well enough to be useful.

[Beth Andrea]

One thing that took me awhile to figure out...when recording, viewing in real time, and playing back, remember it's going to take time to get an authentic voice established.  Practice, practice, practice, but don't beat yourself up if you can't stay at 220ish for the entire sentence. Natural voice fluctuations can be 50+/- hz, so if you can reach 220 "sometimes" this means you'll also be hitting 170 "sometimes."

And that's ok. Keep practicing, and as your "sometimes" high end becomes 230, 240, etc that also means your low end will also be increasing to 180, 190, etc.

When I was doing voice training I tried to keep my vooce at 220...very monotone! LOL! My voice therapist pointed out that voices go up and down during speaking, but I had developed a sort of "target fixation" on The Magic Frequency and lost sight of the goal...problem is once I let go of the frequency fixation, the inability to quickly raise my overall freq range caused a depression which I'm just now getting out of.

[KathyLauren]

Yes, I noticed the monotone thing. 

I can hit 220 Hz fairly easily.  It is an octave above my male voice, so it sounds pretty darned high to me, but I can get a bit higher without straining.  My biggest issue right now is that it falls back down to the male range at the end of every sentence.  Like you say, practice, practice, practice!

[Sophia Sage]

One thing that took me awhile to figure out...when recording, viewing in real time, and playing back, remember it's going to take time to get an authentic voice established.  Practice, practice, practice, but don't beat yourself up if you can't stay at 220ish for the entire sentence. Natural voice fluctuations can be 50+/- hz, so if you can reach 220 "sometimes" this means you'll also be hitting 170 "sometimes."

And that's ok. Keep practicing, and as your "sometimes" high end becomes 230, 240, etc that also means your low end will also be increasing to 180, 190, etc.

If your lowest end is 170, you're actually doing quite well.  However, by the same token, if you're striving for 220 and hitting 170 on occasion, you'll also want to be hitting 270 and above.  220 is what we want for our "baseline" -- not the high end.

And, if you want to be "musical" about it, in the Western (chromatic) musical scale, you'll really want to hit 261 and 330, the "third" and "fifth" marks of the octave, assuming 220 is your baseline, for your high pitches. 

When I was doing voice training I tried to keep my vooce at 220...very monotone! LOL! My voice therapist pointed out that voices go up and down during speaking, but I had developed a sort of "target fixation" on The Magic Frequency and lost sight of the goal...problem is once I let go of the frequency fixation, the inability to quickly raise my overall freq range caused a depression which I'm just now getting out of.

There's only so much we can do with just trying to raise pitch like a singer.  I had to get very experimental with different ways of creating tension in the larynx to successfully open up the higher pitches -- as well as cutting out the sub-160 pitches entirely. 

[anne_indy]

Speaking of the audio spectrum analyzer, does anyone know of a good voice analyzer app for the iPad?


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[Dena]

This is not a recommendation but I think I would try it if I were looking for something for my phone.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/developer/speech-tools-limited/id940679564
The voice analyzer is the package I would try and it's in the App store but it will cost you to have it.

[anne_indy]

Thank you Dena


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[Beth Andrea]

I have the purchased Voice Analyst app, it's real-time, records and shows pitch or volume (selectable). Only issue I've noticed is the trace sometimes disappears briefly, but that may be related to my volume and/or phone mic placement.

[Annushka]

Speaking of the audio spectrum analyzer, does anyone know of a good voice analyzer app for the iPad?


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I use on my iPhone one app called Singscope. It is simple, but great for recording and analyzing the voice pitch. It is the best free option I´ve found.