scholarly journals Overtone focusing in biphonic Tuvan throat singing

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Bergevin ◽  
Chandan Narayan ◽  
Joy Williams ◽  
Natasha Mhatre ◽  
Jennifer Steeves ◽  
...  

AbstractKhoomei is a unique singing style originating from the Central Asian republic of Tuva. Singers produce two pitches simultaneously: a booming low-frequency rumble alongside a hovering high-pitched whistle-like tone. The biomechanics of this biphonation are not well-understood. Here, we use sound analysis, dynamic magnetic resonance imaging, and vocal tract modeling to demonstrate how biphonation is achieved by modulating vocal tract morphology. Tuvan singers show remarkable control in shaping their vocal tract to narrowly focus the harmonics (or overtones) emanating from their vocal cords. The biphonic sound is a combination of the fundamental pitch and a focused filter state, which is at the higher pitch (1-2 kHz) and formed by merging two formants, thereby greatly enhancing sound-production in a very narrow frequency range. Most importantly, we demonstrate that this biphonation is a phenomenon arising from linear filtering rather than a nonlinear source.

eLife ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Bergevin ◽  
Chandan Narayan ◽  
Joy Williams ◽  
Natasha Mhatre ◽  
Jennifer KE Steeves ◽  
...  

Khoomei is a unique singing style originating from the republic of Tuva in central Asia. Singers produce two pitches simultaneously: a booming low-frequency rumble alongside a hovering high-pitched whistle-like tone. The biomechanics of this biphonation are not well-understood. Here, we use sound analysis, dynamic magnetic resonance imaging, and vocal tract modeling to demonstrate how biphonation is achieved by modulating vocal tract morphology. Tuvan singers show remarkable control in shaping their vocal tract to narrowly focus the harmonics (or overtones) emanating from their vocal cords. The biphonic sound is a combination of the fundamental pitch and a focused filter state, which is at the higher pitch (1–2 kHz) and formed by merging two formants, thereby greatly enhancing sound-production in a very narrow frequency range. Most importantly, we demonstrate that this biphonation is a phenomenon arising from linear filtering rather than from a nonlinear source.


2002 ◽  
Vol 14 (5) ◽  
pp. 453-461 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yoshio Higashimoto ◽  
◽  
Hideyuki Sawada ◽  

We are developing a mechanical model of a human vocal system based on mechatronics technology. Although various ways of vocal sound production have been actively studied, mechanical construction is considered to advantageously realize natural vocalization with its fluid dynamics. In voice generation, analysis of the behavior of the vocal cords and the vocal tract are required in a mechanical system. Furthermore, fluid mechanics are less stable, making control more difficult. Several motors are used to manipulate the mechanical vocal system. A neural network works to establish relations between motor positions and produced vocal sounds by auditory feedback in the learning phase. In speech performance, the mechanical system is able to vocalize while vocal pitches and phonemes are adaptively controlled by auditory feedback control. This paper presents the construction of a mechanical vocal system and its adaptive acquisition of vocalization skills.


2019 ◽  
Vol 62 (7) ◽  
pp. 2258-2269
Author(s):  
Fangxu Xing ◽  
Maureen Stone ◽  
Tessa Goldsmith ◽  
Jerry L. Prince ◽  
Georges El Fakhri ◽  
...  

Purpose Intrinsic and extrinsic tongue muscles in healthy and diseased populations vary both in their intra- and intersubject behaviors during speech. Identifying coordination patterns among various tongue muscles can provide insights into speech motor control and help in developing new therapeutic and rehabilitative strategies. Method We present a method to analyze multisubject tongue muscle correlation using motion patterns in speech sound production. Motion of muscles is captured using tagged magnetic resonance imaging and computed using a phase-based deformation extraction algorithm. After being assembled in a common atlas space, motions from multiple subjects are extracted at each individual muscle location based on a manually labeled mask using high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging and a vocal tract atlas. Motion correlation between each muscle pair is computed within each labeled region. The analysis is performed on a population of 16 control subjects and 3 post–partial glossectomy patients. Results The floor-of-mouth (FOM) muscles show reduced correlation comparing to the internal tongue muscles. Patients present a higher amount of overall correlation between all muscles and exercise en bloc movements. Conclusions Correlation matrices in the atlas space show the coordination of tongue muscles in speech sound production. The FOM muscles are weakly correlated with the internal tongue muscles. Patients tend to use FOM muscles more than controls to compensate for their postsurgery function loss.


1971 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 527-537 ◽  
Author(s):  
Norman P. Erber

Two types of special hearing aid have been developed recently to improve the reception of speech by profoundly deaf children. In a different way, each special system provides greater low-frequency acoustic stimulation to deaf ears than does a conventional hearing aid. One of the devices extends the low-frequency limit of amplification; the other shifts high-frequency energy to a lower frequency range. In general, previous evaluations of these special hearing aids have obtained inconsistent or inconclusive results. This paper reviews most of the published research on the use of special hearing aids by deaf children, summarizes several unpublished studies, and suggests a set of guidelines for future evaluations of special and conventional amplification systems.


2001 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 258-268 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Jianmin ◽  
R. Gall ◽  
W. Zuomin

Abstract A variable parameter model to study dynamic tire responses is presented. A modified device to measure terrain roughness is used to measure dynamic damping and stiffness characteristics of rolling tires. The device was used to examine the dynamic behavior of a tire in the speed range from 0 to 10 km/h. The inflation pressure during the tests was adjusted to 160, 240, and 320 kPa. The vertical load was 5.2 kN. The results indicate that the damping and stiffness decrease with velocity. Regression formulas for the non-linear experimental damping and stiffness are obtained. These results can be used as input parameters for vehicle simulation to evaluate the vehicle's driving and comfort performance in the medium-low frequency range (0–100 Hz). This way it can be important for tire design and the forecasting of the dynamic behavior of tires.


2020 ◽  
pp. 13-23
Author(s):  
Natalya Kornova ◽  
A. Krylov

The article presents results of a study on the effectiveness of using lowfrequency ultrasound and photochromotherapy in the complex treatment of patients with chronic bacterial and viral rhinosinusitis. The study involved 69 people aged 18 to 55 years: 39 (56.83 %) women and 30 (45.11 %) men with chronic rhinosinusitis during the period of clinical exacerbation and concomitant chronic tonsillitis without exacerbation. All patients included in the study underwent X-ray examination or computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging of the paranasal sinuses. 100 % of the patients were examined for the presence of antibodies to Human gammaherpesvirus 4 (ELISA), had study of blood serum for IgM and IgG and test to determine the avidity of Ig G antibodies to γ-herpesviruses. The obtained data indicate the effectiveness of including low-frequency ultrasound and photochromotherapy in the complex treatment of patients with chronic rhinosinusitis and concomitant chronic tonsillitis of bacterial and viral nature without exacerbation.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 1932
Author(s):  
Weixuan Wang ◽  
Qinyan Xing ◽  
Qinghao Yang

Based on the newly proposed generalized Galerkin weak form (GGW) method, a two-step time integration method with controllable numerical dissipation is presented. In the first sub-step, the GGW method is used, and in the second sub-step, a new parameter is introduced by using the idea of a trapezoidal integral. According to the numerical analysis, it can be concluded that this method is unconditionally stable and its numerical damping is controllable with the change in introduced parameters. Compared with the GGW method, this two-step scheme avoids the fast numerical dissipation in a low-frequency range. To highlight the performance of the proposed method, some numerical problems are presented and illustrated which show that this method possesses superior accuracy, stability and efficiency compared with conventional trapezoidal rule, the Wilson method, and the Bathe method. High accuracy in a low-frequency range and controllable numerical dissipation in a high-frequency range are both the merits of the method.


2005 ◽  
Vol 83 (7) ◽  
pp. 721-737
Author(s):  
H Teffahi ◽  
B Guerin ◽  
A Djeradi

Knowledge of vocal tract area functions is important for the understanding of phenomena occurring during speech production. We present here a new measurement method based on the external excitation of the vocal tract with a known pseudo-random sequence, where the area function is obtained by a linear prediction analysis applied to the cross-correlation between the sequence and the signal measured at the lips. The advantages of this method over methods based on sweep-tones or white noise excitation are (1) a much shorter measurement time (about 100 ms) and (2) the possibility of speech sound production during the measurement. This method has been checked against classical methods through systematic comparisons on a small corpus of vowels. Moreover, it has been verified that simultaneous speech sound production does not perturb significantly the measurements. This method should thus be a very helpful tool for the investigation of the acoustic properties of the vocal tract in various cases for vowels.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document