Spectrogram of my Voice Looks Weird

Ardalan

Hi there,

Why does this spectrogram of me singing a scale show more than one frequency at the same time?

See image: https://1drv.ms/u/s!AhsK2ywg2_s8g4ZSNb1j0fNLUmdf5w

stratman

@Ardalan that is perfectly normal. What makes everyone's tone different is exactly what is shown in the image i.e. the differing intensities of each harmonic. It's a fascinating subject that I have a specific interest in. If you're interested, have a search on youtube for harmonics and formants. In simple terms, every pitch sung by our voice can be broken up into a sequence of pure sine waves ... it's a great way to look at the timbre of our voice. The individual sine waves are called harmonics with the first harmonic being called the fundamental and the others (which are frequency multiples of the fundamental) being called overtones.

Take a look at this wiki article to see how this works for instruments. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmonic

The voice is a little more complex as the space of our throat and mouth can be changed resulting in two main resonances called formats F1 and F2 respectively. F1 is predominantly from the throat and F2 from the mouth. How we shape the throat and mouth creates the sounds of vowels (F1, F2 resonant frequency is modified).

@highmtn maybe I could do a thread specifically about voice science and why Kens method is supported by the science?

highmtn

Yes, @stratman

I would find a thread on that topic interesting, especially as it applies to the bright sound and why Ken encourages that sound. He often says that's the Only Sound that truly grows the voice. The formants are why that is a true statement. Truly bright tone encourages singers formants and resonance.

Furious_Phil

@stratman , I for one would love to see that

Ardalan

@stratman Thanks for the info!!!