3 ms·

Pondering what makes this sound "male".

by smlacy 8y ago

crb002 8y ago
Vocal chord.
tlb 8y ago
You can make it sound female by dragging the voicebox control to the right and down. It requires both higher pitch, and less power in the odd harmonics.
- smlacy 8y ago
  I agree it gets closer, but as is with much of speech synthesis, it still to me ends up sounding like "a male talking in a high-pitched voice" and not "a female". In addition, this would imply that only males can talk in a low register, which is patently false. Low register female voices are fairly common.
  - raverbashing 8y ago
    It's a bit of a subtle distinction. A lot of voice acting on cartoon boys is done by women (classic example: Bart Simpson) So they can make it sound more masculine but still high pitched
mobilejdral 8y ago
I have actually used this very tool back in the day to help learn how to speak in a male or female voice. One of the five things I do is manipulation of my tongue to change the cavity of my mouth to make the space bigger (more masculine) or smaller (more feminine) which this tool demonstrates very well. Edit: to be clear I used to sound male 24/7 and now I sound female 24/7 Rather than thinking you are speaking male or female it helps if you think you are playing a musical instrument with a number of controls that you control (with your mind whahahaha). Then it is just about learning what each control does and how to play them so you get the result you want. Your voice is muscle memory so while at the start I had to actively "play" a female voice that is no longer the case and now if I ever want to "play" a male voice I have to actively think about how I am going to speak each word to make it male.
- evincarofautumn 8y ago
  This is also exactly how male countertenor singers produce a female-sounding voice, by making the vocal cavity smaller to adjust the formants upward. If you don’t do that, it just sounds like a male head voice or falsetto.
nearbuy 8y ago
It has to do with formants. It's briefly explained in this video, which also demonstrates changing a female voice to male: https://youtu.be/nPAINeIGxMc https://youtu.be/nPAINeIGxMc.

Pondering what makes this sound "male".

by smlacy 8y ago

Pondering what makes this sound "male".

crb002 8y ago

Vocal chord.

tlb 8y ago

You can make it sound female by dragging the voicebox control to the right and down. It requires both higher pitch, and less power in the odd harmonics.

smlacy 8y ago
I agree it gets closer, but as is with much of speech synthesis, it still to me ends up sounding like "a male talking in a high-pitched voice" and not "a female". In addition, this would imply that only males can talk in a low register, which is patently false. Low register female voices are fairly common.
- raverbashing 8y ago
  It's a bit of a subtle distinction. A lot of voice acting on cartoon boys is done by women (classic example: Bart Simpson) So they can make it sound more masculine but still high pitched

mobilejdral 8y ago

I have actually used this very tool back in the day to help learn how to speak in a male or female voice. One of the five things I do is manipulation of my tongue to change the cavity of my mouth to make the space bigger (more masculine) or smaller (more feminine) which this tool demonstrates very well. Edit: to be clear I used to sound male 24/7 and now I sound female 24/7 Rather than thinking you are speaking male or female it helps if you think you are playing a musical instrument with a number of controls that you control (with your mind whahahaha). Then it is just about learning what each control does and how to play them so you get the result you want. Your voice is muscle memory so while at the start I had to actively "play" a female voice that is no longer the case and now if I ever want to "play" a male voice I have to actively think about how I am going to speak each word to make it male.

evincarofautumn 8y ago
This is also exactly how male countertenor singers produce a female-sounding voice, by making the vocal cavity smaller to adjust the formants upward. If you don’t do that, it just sounds like a male head voice or falsetto.

nearbuy 8y ago

It has to do with formants. It's briefly explained in this video, which also demonstrates changing a female voice to male: https://youtu.be/nPAINeIGxMc https://youtu.be/nPAINeIGxMc.