Level and Center Frequency of the Singer's Formant

Abstract

The “singer's formant” is a prominent spectrum envelope peak near 3 kHz, typically found in voiced sounds produced by classical operatic singers. According to previous research, it is mainly a resonatory phenomenon produced by a clustering of formants 3, 4, and 5. Its level relative to the first formant peak varies depending on vowel, vocal loudness, and other factors. Its dependence on vowel formant frequencies is examined. Applying the acoustic theory of voice production, the level difference between the first and third formant is calulated for some standard vowels. The difference between observed and calculated levels is determined for various voices. It is found to vary considerably more between vowels sung by professional singers than by untrained voices. The center frequency of the singer's formant as determined from long-term spectrum analysis of commercial recordings is found to increase slightly with the pitch range of the voice classification.