Spectographs or Spectral Analysers offer you the opportunity to see what fundamental & overtones a singer produces in real time or by comparing recorded sounds. Download and try it out singing various pitch, vowel and volume combinations! There are several freeware and shareware programs listed below, plus information on frequencies, harmonics and links to tutorials. You will need a vocal microphone to use these programs (a cheap USB microphone will do the job).
Also Read
Spectograph/Vocal Frequencies By Martyn Clark.
Spectograph/Vocal Harmonics By Sally Collyer.
External articles – link opens in a new window.
A Pictoral Introduction to Fourier Analysis/Synthesis
This tutorial contains diagrams and pictures to aid in understanding Fourier Analysis, Sinewaves, Square-wave’s, frequencies and their uses.
Spectogram Reading
Provides background knowledge and advice on reading spectograms.
Free Spectograph Software
Armadillo
Sofware for real time analysis of musical sounds for Power Macintosh
with 16 bit sound. The primary objective of Armadillo is to provide a
convenient way to quickly analyze musical sounds on an inexpensive
computer without the need for specialized hardware. The site provides 3D
graph sample displays for the Phase Vocoder Analysis, Real Time Fourier
Analysis of a Voice, Tuning Window, example .aiff files, users manual
and step by step guides.
This free real-time spectral analysis program is a small 268K in size, available from their website: http://ben.music.uiuc.edu/beaucham/software/armadillo/
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FFT Properties – Spectram Analyser
PC based report oriented real time Scope/Spectrum analyzer. It
features parametric windows, peak interpolation, rich set of peak
marking features, on-line wavelets decomposition, higher order spectral
analysis, cross and auto correlation, cepstral analysis, cross spectral
analysis, FIR filter designer, decimation and interpolation, advanced
printing and high quality charts.
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Fastest Fourier Transform in the West
FFTW free GNU software is a C subroutine library for computing the discrete Fourier transform (DFT) in one or more dimensions.
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Gram 6 Spectograph software
A dual channel audio spectrum analyzer for Windows 95 which can
provide either a scrolling time-frequency display or a spectrum analyzer
scope display in real time for any sound source connected to your sound
card.
It also allows recording and playback of sounds, and can
provide very high resolution spectrum analysis of wave files with a wide
choice of frequency bands and frequency resolution and either linear or
logarithmic frequency scales.
Spectrogram is ideal for any
purpose related to sound spectrum analysis including: analysis and
identification of biological sounds, analysis and identification of
human speech, analysis of musical performances, tuning of musical
instruments, evaluation and calibration of home audio systems, ham Radio
audio reception and tuning, analysis of radio interference including
atmospheric, electromagnetic effects.
Right Click link & ‘Save As’ to Download Gram 6 (442 kb). The authors website: http://www.monumental.com/rshorne/ (no longer available or moved?)
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Sound Software Spectrograph 1.0
is a small utility that displays a frequency/amplitude graph of sound in real-time from the microphone or line-in.
A spectrogram or voiceprint, is a picture in which:
The brightness of a position represents the amplitude of a frequency component
The vertical axis represents frequency of sound
The horizontal axis represents time
Features:
Smooth scrolling display, selectable brightness, maximum frequency,
scroll speed, resolution and palette color scheme. Sampling from 8 kHz
to 44.1 kHz
Requires: Windows 95/98, Full-duplex sound card & Microsoft DirectX 6.1 or higher
Click Here
to download freeware program winspec.exe (124.08KB). The authors
website: http://www.soundsoftware.fsnet.co.uk – Sound Software – (no
longer available or moved?).
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SpectroGraph 1.0 for iTunes
SpectroGraph is a simple freeware visual plugin for iTunes for Mac
OS X that displays a graph of the frequency content of a sound. Visual
plugins are supported from version 1.1 on. The plugin is based on the
iTunesXPlugIn sample code.
Features: Horizontal or vertical scrolling, color, grayscale
display, invert the spectrogram or restart drawing at the left or top at
any moment.
Click Here to visit the authors site and download.
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Spectogram
Up to 24 bit, 96 kHz Analysis.
Compatible with Windows Vista and XP
This Freeware program is a calibrated, dual channel audio spectrum
analyzer for Windows that can provide either a scrolling time-frequency
display or a spectrum analyzer scope display in real time for any sound
source connected to your sound card. Spectrogram allows unlimited
recording and playback of the sounds from the spectrum display and can
provide high resolution spectrum analysis with a wide choice of
frequency bands and frequency resolutions and either linear or
logarithmic frequency scales.
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The vOICe Sonification Applet – Draw your own Sound!
Explore synesthetic sound & vision
Compose your own music fragments
Create your own sonic sculptures
Teach yourself polyphonic listening
Even learn about vision substitution
Seeing with sound: seeing with your ears!
This fully interactive page allows you to draw your own 64 ×
64, 16 grey-tone image and immediately hear the corresponding 64-voice
polyphonic soundscape being synthesized on the fly! See and hear how The
vOICe mapping works for your input. The 64-channel sound synthesis here
maps the image into an exponentially distributed [500 Hz, 4 kHz]
frequency interval for a 1.05 second soundscape.
Furthermore, you can view sound waves, sonify existing images,
train for audiovisual synesthesia, perform on-line composing, make
soundscape animations and create spectrograms.
The vOICe mapping: vertical positions of points in a soundscape
are represented by pitch, while horizontal positions are represented by
time-after-click. Brightness is represented by loudness. In this manner,
pixels become… voicels!
Online vOICe Java Applet – Java applet for online spectrographic
sound synthesis and analysis. Includes examples in the area of speech
and music synthesis/analysis.
Click Here to use online, download and find more information. (Please be patient it takes a while to load) or visit The vOICe Sonification Applet Homepage
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Voice2voice 1.0
“v2v
is based on voice2voice VoiceSync’s balancing tone generation
technology, it uses symmetric a mirror composition of voice formants as a
harmonizing sound, it therefore compensates excess tones reducing their
power and increases weak ones raising them, the result is a familiar
sound very close to nature environments that relaxes and increases your
concentration. You can mix v2v tones with your favourite music.
voicesync SW tools perform voice analysis and generates voice2voice
(v2v) relaxing and balancing tones. Click Here to download 379K freeware from Cnet or visit the authors site Roberto Forcen.
Voice Balancing System 1.0
“VBS.
Voice Balancing System. Analyses your voice and generates a v2v
(Voice2Voice) balancing tones, includes: easy open wav file capability,
complete wav file parameter display (samples, samp. rate, etc…) , real
time recording, analyses up to 25” of voice with circular buffer
management, save recording to .WAV file for later use, sound graph with
Pan/Zoom capabilities, musical grid containing power proportional hits
of musical notes, bar graphs associated to musical grid displaying
totals and octave bars, plays note contained on musical grid, info grid
with complete set of PHI (0.618…) based relations of formants.
Full 5 octave FFT display with local scale and Note grid
optional display. Radial spectrograph in note/octave and FFT format,
Harmonic wheel with musical notes relations. V2V graph containing
formants and mirror values (max-v(i)) Formant grid, v2v Tone control
generation panel.
Other programs available include:
Notes & Colors
See the colors of twelve musical notes and hear them in different octaves
Voice Params
Analyses main voice parameters
including Shimmer (volume variations), Jitter (freq. Variations) and N2H
(Noise to Harmonic). Exhaustive studies can be found linking
measurements and variation of these parameters with emotional and
physical states.
Voice spectrogram
Displays freq. evolution
in time and measures the range that contains 50% of voice power, it”s
useful to study voice rhythm and ”see” voice with time perspective
PHI analyzer
Counts the number of PHI relations in voice frequency formants and displays a graph with its evolution in time.
Radial spectrograph
Displays accumulated
voice frequencies in a radial format providing a convenient depicture of
voice freq. distribution, accumulated freq. distribution ‘shape’ can
provide extensive information about the speaker. See the difference
between these shapes depending on your emotional state. Spectrum data
can be copied to clipboard in a two column table containing (Hz, Power
0..100), enabling pasting from MS-Excel® or any text editor
Harrison Scale
a musical scale based in PI
number, more precisely in (2^(1/(2*PI))), instead of 2^(1/12) in
temperate one, defining two constants for musical fifth (1.494411510)
and fourth (1.338319457).
VoiceRings
Talk and see animated concentric
color rings following your voice, colors and number of rings are
calculated from frequency and number of voice formants
These are fully functional free programs but if you want to
support their development and the authors efforts a donation is helpful.
Visit the authors site Roberto Forcen to read more and download these programs for Windows 95/98/Me/2000/XP.
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VoceVista (“Visible Voice”)
is
a unique hardware/software package, incorporating the two electronic
signals most revealing of the singing voice (real-time spectrum analysis
and electroglottograph) into an integrated, user-friendly package for a
standard multimedia PC (133 MHz, 16 MB memory, desktop or laptop).
Simple to operate, it is non-invasive and intended for use by those
whose expertise concerns the singing voice, rather than signal
processing. The major objective of our research is to implement and
assess the effectiveness of the application of recently developed
specialized technology in the instruction of singing.
It is our hope that the proliferation of user-friendly software,
providing real time spectrum analysis, as well as depicting the signals
from an electroglottograph, will lead to accelerated learning for both
students and teachers, and will provide the vocal establishment with an
objective basis upon which to communicate. We hope that the use of this
new software will illuminate and explain, rather than replace, the
special language and practices of singing and its pedagogy.
During the recently completed fall semester at the University of
Missouri – Columbia the authors had the rare opportunity to apply real
time spectrum analysis and electroglottography directly in the teaching
of University level voice majors
Tools for the Voice Professional! Freeze and compare two samples
plus see a real time analysis of whatever sound you make discover
overtones produced and more.
VoceVista – RealTime is a freeware program from the University
of Groningen Voice Research Laboratory for voice and speech training
using a color spectrogram display for real-time audio for study of voice
resonance and for visual feedback in voice training using the
spectrogram and the Electroglottograph
Right Click link & ‘Save As’ to Download Voce Vista (641 kb)
or visit the following pages to download the full version.
Visualization Software VocaVista-Audio (shareware).
Voca Vista
Voca Vista freeware & full lab versions from LAS3
Southwest Missouri State University
has downloadable voce vista, spectrography software and educational
information in various papers including a site for stuttering Click Here for main site.
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Wavesurfer
is
an Open Source tool for sound visualization and manipulation. It has
been designed to suit both novice and advanced users. WaveSurfer has a
simple and logical user interface that provides functionality in an
intuitive way and which can be adapted to different tasks. It can be
used as a stand-alone tool suited for a wide range of tasks in speech
research and education, but is also a platform for more advanced
applications. WaveSurfer can be extended through plug-ins. It is also
possible to embedded it in other applications or to control it remotely.
WaveSurfer 1.0.4 released July 24, 2001
Recent features
Ogg/Vorbis file format support through plug-in
Transcription plugin supports encodings and Unicode
Localization support
New functionality for HTK/MLF files, multiple -mlf options can now be specified
Nicer looking interface on the Mac
Highlights:
Multi-platform – Linux, Windows 95/98/NT/2K, Macintosh, Sun Solaris, HP-UX, FreeBSD, and SGI IRIX
Flexible interface – handles multiple sounds
Common sound file formats – reads, and writes WAV, AU, AIFF, MP3, CSL, SD, and NIST/Sphere
Transcription file formats – reads, and writes HTK (and MLF), TIMIT, ESPS/Waves+, and Phondat.
Unlimited file size – playback and recording directly from/to disk
Sound analysis – e.g. spectrogram and pitch analysis
Customizable – users can create their own configurations
Extensible – new functionality can be added through a plugin architecture
Embeddable – WaveSurfer can be used as a widget in custom applications
Scriptable – hosts a built-in script interpreter
WaveSurfer – an open source speech tool (ps format) (paper in
pdf format) a paper presented at the ICSLP 2000 conference in Beijing,
China.
WaveSurfer is being developed at the Centre for Speech Technology
(CTT) at KTH in Stockholm, Sweden, and is provided as open source, under
a BSD style license.
Visit Wavesurfer site to download software.
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WaveTools
A suite of real-time audio analysis tools for high quality measurements:
Spectrum analyser and oscilloscope (with calibration in dB or Volts)
Signal Generator (tones plus pink and white noise)
Audio Meter / Vectorscope.
Oscilloscope – a dual-channel storage oscilloscope
Spectrum Analyser – a narrowband spectrum analyser. The display shows
level (Y-axis) against frequency (X-axis)
Audio Meter – provides stereo peak meters, stereo RMS (average) meters,
phase correlation meter, vectroscope and peak hold.
Signal Generator – produce test tones from 20 Hz to 20 kHz plus white
and pink noise. 1/3-octave band frequencies and musical notes (based on
A440) can be directly selected from the menu.
A help file is included, but some knowledge of acoustics and signal analysis is assumed!
Requires Windows 3.1 or later and a soundcard.
Requires vbrun300.dll in your WindowsSystem folder (224k)
To install, unzip into a new folder and (if required) make shortcuts to the EXE files.
Right Click link & ‘Save As’ to Download WaveTools (210 kb)