Lovely People,
I need your advice! As many of you know, I've been working toward an MFA in
electronic music and recording media at Mills College. For my thesis, I was
hoping to combine my interest in vocal pedagogy with recording technology.
What I'd like to do is record a bunch of mezzos, sopranos, countertenors
and tenors and compare the position/formation/intensity of the frequency
bands, especially the singers formant. I will use spectral analysis to
quantify differences between the voices, if any.
So... all you vocal teachers and scientists out there... I was hoping you
would critique my research proposal and suggest related research papers.
I'd love to see what's been done so far in this vein! (spectal/layrgiscopic
studies comparing voice types) Also, if you can offer any words of advice
on how to make this project more effective or easier, i'd appreciate it!
Here's the general gist of this project:
* Same studio, same microphones, same gain, flat EQ for all singers
* Identical vocalises - a variety of:
Pitches
Dynamics
Vowels
Vibrato
* Glissandi spanning the entire range
* Maybe an Italian song with legato and non legato sections.
Questions:
How many voices of each type would I need to make the results
scientifically compelling? What is a good distance between mic and voice?
Stereo or mono recording? Recommendations on good (and inexpensive)
spectral analysis software? What are some comparative quantitative methods
using spectral analysis technology? Beyond the Vennard, any good books that
review a bunch of papers on this subject?
Those of you who live in the San Francisco Bay Area, do you know of a
library that carries back issues of the NATS journal?
Thank you so much for your help and wish me luck!
email: toda at mills.edu
Tako Oda
MFA Candidate in Music
Mills College
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