Formant frequency tuning in singing

Abstract

<h2>Summary</h2> It is sometimes claimed that some singers tune their two lowest formant frequencies to harmonic partials in order to increase the audibility of the voice. Voice acoustics predicts that such tuning of formants should cause vowel quality to change. Using a newly constructed digital singing machine, the authors have explored the perceptual consequences of such tuning. Four different cases were represented, in which the two lowest formant frequencies were either constant or adapted to the fundamental frequency according to either of three different strategies. The resulting voice timbres were judged by an expert panel of singing teachers in a listening test consisting of descending chromatic scales. Constant formant frequencies were clearly preferred, presumably because formant tuning entails formant frequency shifts between adjacent tones so substantial that salient vowel quality shifts occur.