1. 1 THE HUMAN VOICE LECTURE 2 ELC 523E

2. 2 WHAT IS HUMAN VOICE sound made by a human being using the vocal folds for talking, singing, laughing, crying, screaming, etc Frequency range: Type of SignalRange of Frequency (Hz)Bandwidth (Hz) Voice Signal in Telephony300-3,4003,100 Music Signal20 – 15,00014,980 TV Signal (Picture)0-5,000,0005,000,000

3. 3 COMPONENTS OF THE HUMAN VOICE The human voice is a complex sound signal made up of many individual sinusoidal pressure waves. The individual waves vary slightly below 100Hz to 10KHz. Engineering applications are more concerned with the frequency and spectrum of the human voice.

4. 4 VOCAL RANGE In linguistics and phonetics, attention is also placed on breadth of pitches that a human voice can phonate which is usually referred to as Vocal range. The following are the general vocal ranges associated with each voice type using scientific pitch notation: SopranoSoprano, Mezzo-soprano, Contralto,Mezzo-sopranoContralto Tenor, Baritone, Bass:TenorBaritoneBass

5. 5 SOPRANO The highest female voice being able to sing roughly between C4 (middle C) and C6 (high C), and possibly higher.

6. 6 MEZZO-SOPRANO A female voice in between the soprano and contralto that is able to sing roughly between A3 (A below middle C) and A5 (two octaves above A3). Some mezzos may be able to sing slightly lower or higher.

7. 7 CONTRALTO The lowest female voice being able to sing roughly between F3 (F below middle C) and E5, and possibly lower. Some very rare contraltos share a similar range to the tenor.

8. 8 TENOR The highest male voice being able to sing roughly between B2 (2nd B below middle C) and A4 (A above Middle C), and possibly higher.

9. 9 BARITONE A male voice in between the tenor and bass that is able to sing between G2 (two Gs below middle C) and F4 (F above middle C). Some baritones may be able to sing slightly lower or higher.

10. 10 BASS The lowest male voice being able to sing roughly between E2 (Two Es below middle C) and E4 (The E above middle C), and possibly lower.

11. 11 Mechanisms for Voice Production Mechanism for generating the human voice can be subdivided into three parts: – the lungs, – the vocal folds within the larynx, and – the articulators.

12. 12 LUNGS The lung (the pump) must produce adequate airflow and air pressure to vibrate vocal folds (this air pressure is the fuel of the voice).

13. 13 VOCAL FOLDS (CORDS) The vocal folds (vocal cords) are a vibrating valve that chops up the airflow from the lungs into audible pulses that form the laryngeal sound source. The muscles of the larynx adjust the length and tension of the vocal folds to ‘fine tune’ pitch and tone.

14. 14 The articulators The articulators (the parts of the vocal tract above the larynx consisting of tongue, palate, cheek, lips, etc.) articulate and filter the sound emanating from the larynx To some degree, articulators interact with the laryngeal airflow to strengthen it or weaken it as a sound source.

15. 15 VOICE IN TELEPHONY Signal Frequency range: 0.3 - 3,400Hz