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Voice Range (in Hz)

Started by Nygeel, June 16, 2011, 08:14:09 PM

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Nygeel

I recently tried to make an attempt at figuring out where my voice sat on the range of sounds. I came across this chart...

which shows where voices tend to sit by gender.

I tried to use a few different tools to figure out where I sat on this chart. I ended up finding this which didn't really work for me since my mic is built into my laptop (which makes a lot of noise).
The link is to a java based tuner which shows the note you speak, and how many Hz the sound is.
I also found this java based tuning fork which might work if you don't have a mic.

I found that my range was somewhere between around 100Hz (VERY hard for me to reach) and about 200Hz (also, VERY hard for me to reach). This puts my voice in the ambiguous range after 7 months of T.

So, where does your voice sit and if you're on T, how long have you been on?
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Ratchet

My voice isn't a Barry White deep, actually, I personally don't think it's very deep. When I hear it on video or something like that it always sounds very different to me. It kind of goes up and down, but always has this grovel to it. I always found it neat that you can hear my voice vibrate in my chest from my back, I don't know if that's because of the way I talk or a natural thing my body does when I talk.

According the the java thing, my voice tends to peak at 120, and drop into the 90's. So I'd say between 90-120 is about the range of my voice. It varies way too much to say one definite area but I definitely saw more 98's then anything else.
Edit: I forgot to mention I've been on T for about 3 years on and off, a solid year and half with some spotting afterward due to doctor and money issues.
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KrisRenee

I'm not on T but my voice range sits between 150 and 250...I guess that's a good starting point...better than starting super high.
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Bahzi

I cannot for the life of me get that Java tuner to work.  The readings are all over the place, whether I'm talking or making no noise at all.  From like 50hz to 350hz.  Yeah, my laptop doesn't like it, with either the built-in mic, or my external.   This makes me sad because I'm damn curious where I fall.  I was hoping Audacity had some way to tell hz that would make sense with that chart, but not that I can tell.  I know my voice has changed a good bit since starting T 10 weeks ago, but I can't be objective on whether I sound masculine or feminine, so that would have been a nice, objective way to tell.   

Does it work if you play back a recording with that tuner open?  Anyone willing to try for me? 
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Nygeel

Quote from: Bahzi on June 16, 2011, 10:49:55 PM
I cannot for the life of me get that Java tuner to work.  The readings are all over the place, whether I'm talking or making no noise at all.  From like 50hz to 350hz.  Yeah, my laptop doesn't like it, with either the built-in mic, or my external.   This makes me sad because I'm damn curious where I fall.  I was hoping Audacity had some way to tell hz that would make sense with that chart, but not that I can tell.  I know my voice has changed a good bit since starting T 10 weeks ago, but I can't be objective on whether I sound masculine or feminine, so that would have been a nice, objective way to tell.   

Does it work if you play back a recording with that tuner open?  Anyone willing to try for me? 
The 2nd link is a tuner which might help because it will make a sound and you'll see what the note is and what the Hz is. Match your voice to the tuner.
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Luc

Wow, what a trip. Apparently I can go as low as 70, or as high as 250. Best I could tell, my normal voice lies around 90. I've been on T sometime around 3 years.

SD
"If you want to criticize my methods, fine. But you can keep your snide remarks to yourself, and while you're at it, stop criticizing my methods!"

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Renate

I'd mostly agree with that chart.
I might place typical male at C3 (131 Hz), androgynous threshold at E3 (165 Hz) and female at A3 (220 Hz).

Most of the tuners out there are designed for stringed instruments and don't follow voice very well.
For non-real time analysis, Praat is probably the best. It's designed specifically for voice.
For real time analysis some of the "Auto Tune" plugins for audio software can be convenient.
Try Reaper.
  •  

pebbles

I still hold that the majority of the gender of a voice is determined by other things timber and harmonics (number of tones emitted by a voice) pitch is only 1/4-1/3 of the equasion. I would also disagree with anyone who says that inflection plays a big role really if you get everything else right the inflections will appear anyway... Hmm you know I've not performed any tests on my voice for awhile.

My average vocal range fluctuates slightly depending on my vocal health as do the number of harmonies within my voice (6 harmonies which is normal for a female when I'm healthy, 3 harmonies when my voice gets tired which would count as "shrill screechy female" This happens if I talk for 6 hours or if I glug down a pint of milk) .

Currently today when speaking my voice wavers between. 210hz - 299hz (236hz median range) With high spikes at 326hz when making exclamations!
highest note I can sing is 1197hz although I have no practical use for that.

When I'm talking in calm monotone my voice is apparently lower usually when giving my long complicated scientific explanations. (183hz) I do sound notably more masculine when doing that.

putting on my old male voice I get a general value between 109-129hz. (not that I use it for anything other than a "calibration tool"

I use spectogram for measuring mine.
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LordKAT

bounces around the hundred mark
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Bahzi

Quote from: Renate on June 17, 2011, 05:42:25 AM
I'd mostly agree with that chart.
I might place typical male at C3 (131 Hz), androgynous threshold at E3 (165 Hz) and female at A3 (220 Hz).

Most of the tuners out there are designed for stringed instruments and don't follow voice very well.
For non-real time analysis, Praat is probably the best. It's designed specifically for voice.
For real time analysis some of the "Auto Tune" plugins for audio software can be convenient.
Try Reaper.

Okay, Praat worked for me, and the minimum and maximum pitch functions are cool, although I just clicked around on the recording to see a general range too.  It looks like I top out around 138Hz, with the lows being around 100Hz.  The majority of my speech is around 115Hz.  I can hit 90Hz with a concentrated effort.  If I try to get my voice near 200Hz, it sometimes squeaks and cracks. 

Quote from: pebbles on June 17, 2011, 06:43:36 AM


I still hold that the majority of the gender of a voice is determined by other things timber and harmonics (number of tones emitted by a voice) pitch is only 1/4-1/3 of the equasion. I would also disagree with anyone who says that inflection plays a big role really if you get everything else right the inflections will appear anyway... Hmm you know I've not performed any tests on my voice for awhile.

My average vocal range fluctuates slightly depending on my vocal health as do the number of harmonies within my voice (6 harmonies which is normal for a female when I'm healthy, 3 harmonies when my voice gets tired which would count as "shrill screechy female" This happens if I talk for 6 hours or if I glug down a pint of milk) .

Currently today when speaking my voice wavers between. 210hz - 299hz (236hz median range) With high spikes at 326hz when making exclamations!
highest note I can sing is 1197hz although I have no practical use for that.

When I'm talking in calm monotone my voice is apparently lower usually when giving my long complicated scientific explanations. (183hz) I do sound notably more masculine when doing that.

putting on my old male voice I get a general value between 109-129hz. (not that I use it for anything other than a "calibration tool"

I use spectogram for measuring mine.

Just from my own experience, I think that's very true!  It's as if I have the capability to speak low now, but unless I make a conscious effort, I sometimes still sound a bit feminine.  Allergies aren't helping, but there's this odd, nasal quality to it at times.   I think I sound a bit like a gay man, haha.  I think a lot of it is learning to use the thickened vocal cords, so I'm sure I'll sound better with time.  For 10 weeks on T, I suppose I should be pretty happy with it, considering I sounded like this before:
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Hikari

Awesome lots of cool info here, and it seems praat is in the debian stable repos so it is very easy to install on my netbook \o/

Now, if only I could get some reasonable audio samples, it appears that the noise ratio is totally messed up, my built in mic works, but the static is far louder than anything I can record. I have a few external mics and if those don't work I can just record on my phone and transfer the files over but that is a fair bit more work, but just about any phone with an SD card isn't too hard to get files off of.

Thank you for this thread, I know there is more to things than pitch, but this is pretty helpful to me.
15 years on Susans, where has all the time gone?
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EthanD

I can go as low as 100 but the most comfortable range for my speaking voice bounced between 130 and 137. I am 8 weeks on T today. 
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asher

Hm, this is really interesting. Cool post Nygeel :]
I'm pre-T. Most people say I pass alright aside from my voice. I know I don't have a hyper feminine voice but something about it must give me away. I personally wouldn't call it very masculine at all either, though I've never been very feminine in body language or verbal cues.
But according to Praat my normal speaking ranges between 114 and 140 which is masculine-gender ambiguous on the chart. Weird. The highest I can go without difficulty is 220, but most of my speaking range sits around 120-130.
I guess it can't be all about pitch or I must be doing something wrong, otherwise I probably wouldn't get people saying I need to work on it haha.
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PandaValentine

220 - incredibly hard to reach, voice starts cracking. I'm going to put my regular speaking voice around 130 (11 months on T but according to my endo will drop much lower) but it does fluctuate. It's difficult to reach 87 but 82 is my breaking point for my lowest. I'm impressed, especially since my voice isn't done changing. :)
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Kylo

Praat is an interesting tool. I found an old voice recording from 9 months ago and found the mean Hz 176 from back then. Now my mean is 97 Hz, with a minimum of 77, which is quite the change.
"If the freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter."
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Lisa_K

Old thread but I didn't see this...

If you have an Android phone, search the play store for the free app: Voice Pitch Analyzer. Don't know if there is an iOS version or not?

It gives you different graphs to see visually where you are. I tried it out just for fun.



If you try it, I'd suggest reading something other than the text that comes in the app.
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James80

I just tried that app. (I think the text might be Oscar Wilde...so I read it anyway.)

My general average is 162Hz with 94 min and 247 max. So I sound mostly male.

I have to admit, this has been the highlight of my day.
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JayBlue

I finally figured out how to us Praat by following this video .  I've been on T about 7 weeks and my average was about 175, which is at the to range of a masculine voice according to http://www.nyspeechandvoicelab.net/transgender/voice-masculinization/.   This is great. I can do this each month and see where I'm at.  8)

T Day: 5/26/2017
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Dan

Quote from: Lisa_K on July 14, 2017, 06:13:00 PM
Old thread but I didn't see this...

If you have an Android phone, search the play store for the free app: Voice Pitch Analyzer. Don't know if there is an iOS version or not?

It gives you different graphs to see visually where you are. I tried it out just for fun.



If you try it, I'd suggest reading something other than the text that comes in the app.

Thanks for this. I've downloaded and used it. Damn I'm still in lower end of female voice register. Ah, well, it's only 13 days on T, so there is still a way to go d o w n.
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Cailan Jerika

I use the voice pitch analyzer, early on T (no voice changes thus far at 5 weeks) and for speaking (not singing) I have a min average of 142Hz, max average of 271Hz, and an average of 199Hz.

I'm rather hoping I am a voice change fail and keep my voice, which already sounds sorta like a teen boy's, sorta like a woman. But that probably means (thanks to Murphy's Law) I will end up rivalling Barry White.










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