Voice Acoustics: an introduction (and redirection)

Introduction and overview The source The filter Vowels Consonants Source-filter interactions Contrasting the voice with wind instruments The Source-Filter model Some difficulties The source at the larynx Different registers and vocal mechanisms Producing a sound When is the source independent of the filter? Resonances, spectral peaks, formants, phonemes and timbre Phonemes The vocal tract as a pipe or duct Resonances, frequency, pitch and hearing Timbre and singing The origin of vocal tract resonances Tract-wave interactions Do the ‘source’ and the ‘filter’ affect each other? Does the glottis affect the tract resonances? Do pressure waves affect the vocal fold vibration? Do singers and speakers use tract resonances and pitch in a coordinated way? Harmonic singing The singers formant References Links

More about speech and singing

This web essay was written by Joe Wolfe, Maëva Garnier and John Smith of the Acoustics Group at UNSW, 2009.

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Links

• A directory of our research on the voice.
• Our formal publications on voice and music acoustics.
• An introduction to the acoustics of the helium speech (includes sound files).
• Basics: a list of introductory pages in acoustics.
• Examples of the source-filter model – with sound files.
• What is a decibel?
• What is a sound spectrum?
• What are formants? A discussion of the different meanings of this term.
• What is acoustic impedance and why is it important?

• The Sounds of World English: make a 'map' of your own accent and contribute to this global project.

This web essay was written by Joe Wolfe, Maëva Garnier and John Smith of the Acoustics Group at UNSW.