Voice Samples

[Guest Kaze]

I haven't been working on my voice real long, but I think I've made some decent progress and found one that could work for me, but I'm not sure if it is female sounding or not.

In the sample I read the first paragraph of the first chapter of the Book of the Asmodians from Aion's lore, so hopefully it'll be a decent sample for the voice.

I'd really appreciate any honest feedback on how my female voice sounds. If it'd help, I can provide a reading of the same thing in my normal male voice, but since having both goes past the attachment limit here and I don't know of a good place to upload it to, I'm leaving it out unless it is requested.

[Sally]

Kaze,

The pitch is very good and there isn't a lot of resonance so that is good but you could add a little more variation in pitch.

Men tend to stay a bit more monotone while women use a great deal more range, that inflection is one of the things that separates a low female voice from a high male voice in speaking.

In singing it is only the resonance that separates high male from low female and you've got that working already.

Love ya,

Sally

[Guest Joanna]

Good pitch the only thing i can recomend is to speak from the head a little more. Other than that good job. also i would only post the male voice for compairison between the two to see how different the two sound.

[Guest LightNebula]

I agree that you are making decent progress. Sorry, but to be honest you sound very androgynous to me, but a bit more on the masculine side. I think with more practice you'll be able to get a very female sounding voice. I think you could get a few people to think that you are a female (in body) with your voice, because like I mentioned, it does sound very androgynous.

[Guest Kaze]

Thanks for the comments.

After listening to it more and paying attention to women talking on TV, I am starting to get an impression similar to what LightNebula said. I've been trying to work on doing what Sally and Joanna recommended and while I'm not sure if I was doing them properly or not, but I'm starting to get the impression that it may not be the right place for my voice as I can't get it to sound more "real." I've been doing some more looking around online and think I've found a few new techniques to try so I'll see where that takes me.

[Guest Kaze]

Sorry to bother you guys/girls again, but I was wondering if I could borrow some of your time once again for some critic on my voice.

I've been doing a slightly different technique than previously and I think it sounds better overall. I think I've successfully incorporated as much "head speak" as I can do, and I tried to make it more sing songy rather than monotone. There is pitch variance as I had watched a pitch monitor as I played the MP3, although I'm sure it still needs quite a bit of work. The main thing I'm concerned with right now is if it sounds like it could be a realistic female voice rather than androgynous/male since the other aspects will come with practice/using the voice. I think it sounds closer than my previous file, but I don't really trust myself when it comes to things like this.

Since I don't have enough attachment space to upload it here, I've gone with megaupload to host the file. I know it isn't as convenient, but of the sites I found it seems to offer the least annoyances and shouldn't have any bad ads for the audience here.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=7UHIW8KW

[Guest LightNebula]

It is better overall. It does sound pretty close to your previous file, but it does sound more feminine to me. I noticed how it is sing songy, and to me, it's a large reason of how your voice sounds more feminine in this file than the previous one. I think at this point it could maybe be a realistic female voice, but a very, very rare one. It still seems very androgynous to me.

I don't usually trust myself for things like this, either.

[Guest Kaze]

Thanks for the reply. I think in the future I'll have to refrain from posting files so late/early though as I could have sworn it sounded better than it actually does, but must've been due to me being tired.

It is possible my female voice would be a bit unique sounding even when I get better at it. My normal voice doesn't sound entirely like a normal male voice either. I'm not sure if height would effect voice or not, but I'm caucasian and only 5' tall, which is shorter than even the average female size in most parts of the world. It could also be related to me not having a visible adam's apple, or maybe I was just born with a weird voice.

I recently tried a spectrogram program and put in markers I saw in a video for the range female voices are supposed to be in. With the most recent file I uploaded it was mostly in the markers with some slightly above it, but my normal male voice is completely in the range. I don't really know entirely what that means since finding info on spectrograms in this use seems somewhat difficult, but I guess it may be another sign my male voice is a bit different from "normal" male voices if nothing else.

[Guest Sara N]

I can hear the improvement from your previous version but still very similar. Like LightNebula

I also think it’s fairly androgynous tending towards a masculine side, but it could fit a female voice.

I’ve been messing around with recordings lately and noticed that my recorded voice doesn’t fully

capture how it sounds in real life. Could just be my microphone though since the recording tends

to be on the quite side. I really think I sound better than what the recordings play back.

~Sara

[Guest Kaze]

Thanks. I guess some improvement is good overall as one of the things that has me confused the most about doing this is how to actually practice. Videos and such always seem to go over various methods to reach the voice, but not as much what to do if you're having trouble getting the voice right. I didn't actually intend for it to sound as similar to the original file (which I didn't even notice the morning I uploaded it) as it is as I was practicing a different method of raising my pitch, but I guess since it all falls into the same range, the way you do it doesn't really matter if it ends up at the same place or close to it.

I’ve been messing around with recordings lately and noticed that my recorded voice doesn’t fully capture how it sounds in real life. Could just be my microphone though since the recording tends to be on the quite side. I really think I sound better than what the recordings play back.

It is likely going to be a bit different since there will be some quality lost if you're using a standard microphone and recording software. I don't know how different it would be though as I don't have a standard handheld recorder to compare it to, and even those may have quality loss if you get a cheap one. I have noticed using Ventrilo, when I hear my voice over the speakers when someone else has their mic active after I said something, my voice does sound somewhat different than when I record my normal voice with recording software. I don't know which is actually more accurate or if both are somewhat different from my natural voice.

The only way I can think of to test it is to have another person listen to you in person while you're recording and then listen to the recording. We sound too different when we hear ourselves talk to really get an accurate idea on our own.

[Guest Kaze]

Time for another update.

This time I'm pretty sure it sounds better, or at least has a bigger difference than my previous one had over the original. I did this one a bit differently than my previous ones too, I'm not reading something, but rather talking more normally.

I also found a new site that should be a lot more convenient for people to listen to it. The site offers streaming playing from the link provided with no waits or anything annoying like that. It does seem to auto-play, so make sure your volume isn't turned up all the way beforehand, although the file itself isn't too loud. Downloading is also possible from the link, so it seems like a much better choice than megaupload or similar sites.

If you get a bunch of SQL errors and it says something along the lines of the file not being available, try refreshing the page and it should work. The site seems to occassionally be a bit slow so I think that error is related to the server being temporarily overloaded.

http://www.supload.com/listen?s=vkJNrx

[Guest mynw]

good work Kaze:

for me I think first pitch,is better,,

when you read from book.

trying to be naturally,as you before,,

I like that first one it is surprise me ,,

sweet deep you reach at that time 85-90% at my scale what scale!!!!

keep going honey as first one,,

<<hugs>>

[Guest LightNebula]

You're getting better. It seems pretty much in the middle (androgynous) to me now, but with hints/bits of both a male and female voice in it.

[Guest Kaze]

good work Kaze:

for me I think first pitch,is better,,

when you read from book.

trying to be naturally,as you before,,

I like that first one it is surprise me ,,

sweet deep you reach at that time 85-90% at my scale what scale!!!!

keep going honey as first one,,

<<hugs>>

I'm not really sure what you mean by scale. I'm not really good with music(?) terms like that. The pitch in my first sample didn't really change much, in the second the top pitch was similar to the first, but mainly went lower and back, but not really any higher.

My third one is higher pitched, but without much variation in pitch. I think my voice may end up somewhat inbetween the first and third samples as I get a better hang of inflection, at least that's where it currently seems to be heading.

You're getting better. It seems pretty much in the middle (androgynous) to me now, but with hints/bits of both a male and female voice in it.

Thanks. I think part of the problem with that sample was there wasn't really too much variation in pitch. Before I decided to go with that sample I tried to work on that, but I kept ending up messing up my voice in some way that sounded really bad. After more pratice I am starting to get it a bit, but I still have a ways to go. I'm also not sure if I'm using a "head voice" or not.

I'm probably going to try my first online test soon to see if I can get my voice to pass as female in vent. I decided to renew WoW since I was bored not having an MMO to play and am going to get the last few levels on my Paladin, who only my friends know of (isn't in same guild as my old main), and try some pickup raids. It'll probably end up being a week or two from now by the time I finish leveling and get some entry level gear, so I'll (hopefully) have improved by then. I don't plan on staying in WoW more than a month, so even if it does turn out bad and is questionable/seen through, it won't really matter and would provide valuable feedback.

[Guest mynw]

what I see ,if you practise all day,like what you did at samples,,

you will get permanent result,,

till will be as nature sound what you like,

trying to not jumping between two sounds,

hope will be easy for you Kaze

love ya,,

[Guest LightNebula]

Thanks. I think part of the problem with that sample was there wasn't really too much variation in pitch. Before I decided to go with that sample I tried to work on that, but I kept ending up messing up my voice in some way that sounded really bad. After more pratice I am starting to get it a bit, but I still have a ways to go. I'm also not sure if I'm using a "head voice" or not.

I'm probably going to try my first online test soon to see if I can get my voice to pass as female in vent. I decided to renew WoW since I was bored not having an MMO to play and am going to get the last few levels on my Paladin, who only my friends know of (isn't in same guild as my old main), and try some pickup raids. It'll probably end up being a week or two from now by the time I finish leveling and get some entry level gear, so I'll (hopefully) have improved by then. I don't plan on staying in WoW more than a month, so even if it does turn out bad and is questionable/seen through, it won't really matter and would provide valuable feedback.

You're welcome. Yeah, I think pitch is part of the problem. Good idea with the WoW thing.