Singer formant
As Sängerformant or Singformant is called a formant in the frequency range around 3 k Hz which, in the singing voice trained singer is formed.
description
Since the frequency range around 3000 Hertz is hardly particularly emphasized in natural human language , an intensive, multi-year training of the singer's voice is necessary to achieve the singer formant.
A pronounced singer formant is important for an unamplified singing voice, since frequencies around 3000 Hertz play a decisive role in the carrying capacity of a voice. This means that the singer formant is well developed when the frequencies between 2800 and 3300 Hertz, regardless of the fundamental frequency , are relatively strong in a sung tone . It should be noted that the tones c sharp 2 , f 2 and most tones from a flat 2 on have no overtones in this frequency range. For measurements in the singer's formant, it may therefore be useful to set the frequency band of the singer's formant to 2600 to 3400 Hertz. In this frequency range, all tones up to and including c sharp 3 have overtones.
With the frequency components in the singer formant, it is possible for a trained singing voice to better assert itself against background noises and even against a larger orchestra . A whole series of high overtones are amplified, which clearly shape the sound of the voice. This is often referred to as "ringing" (also "shine" or "radiance") in the voice. The singer formant thus shapes the character of a voice, such as B. the "metallic" sound of the hero tenor .
The singer formant is created in particular by the bundling ("clustering") of the third to fifth formants of the vocal tract (or attachment tube). High sound pressure levels of the singer formant can be found particularly in active, trained singing voices and are mainly detectable in male voices. Above all, this frequency range is achieved by lowering the larynx . Female singers, on the other hand, mainly use formant tuning as a sound strategy.
The singer formants of Enrico Caruso and Plácido Domingo were consistently determined to be 2800 Hertz. The tone f 4 lies at this frequency .
From the above, the wrong conclusion should not be drawn that the use of the singer formant for singing is indispensable. On the contrary, singing without a pronounced singer formant in the lay ( choir ) area is the rule with which musically satisfactory results can easily be achieved. However, it is difficult to integrate a trained voice singing with a singer formant into an amateur choir, since the solo voice does not mix with the choral sound. Singing in a choir with a trained solo voice is only possible if the singer is able to consciously influence the dampening position of his oral cavity while singing.
Examples
The following examples show the frequency spectra of the vowels i and u , which were sung by two different male baritone voices at the pitch a (220 Hertz). The vowel u naturally has few pronounced overtones , whereas the vowel i has strongly pronounced overtones. The singer shown on the left has a trained singing voice , the singer shown on the right does not. The singer formant is evaluated between 2600 and 3400 Hertz (with a gray background in the diagrams) and is given as a percentage of the spectral strength in this frequency range in relation to the entire frequency range. The display of the sound pressure level is logarithmic in decibels (dB) on the vertical axis so that the various overtones can be better recognized. A difference of 20 dB corresponds to a difference of a decimal order of magnitude with a factor of 10.
In the diagrams it can be seen that the twelfth overtone at around 2860 Hertz is much more pronounced for both vowels in the trained singer. The untrained singer has almost no noticeable sound pressure amplitude (dB) in the singer formant (0.4%) with the vowel u . Here the sound pressure of the trained singer is about ten times higher (4.4%), the maximum of the peak at 2860 Hertz is even about 36 decibels (dB) higher, which corresponds to a factor of 63.
In the case of the vowel i , which is richer in overtones , the frequency components in the singer formant are overall much higher (3.9% and 10.5%), but also here in the trained singer clearly more pronounced.
Audio sample
In the example, two F major scales sung by the same baritone at the same volume can be heard; first without and then with activated singer formant:
See also
literature
- Günther Habermann: Voice and Language. An introduction to their physiology and hygiene. 2nd revised edition. Thieme, Stuttgart / New York 1986, ISBN 3-13-556002-3
- Johan Sundberg: The Acoustics of the Singing Voice. Scientific American, 3/1977. The science of the singing voice. German: Friedemann Pabst, Orpheus, Bonn 1997, ISBN 3-922-62686-6