I don't understand all this technical stuff at all

[Guest Lizzie McTrucker]

I've been trying to develop a female voice. I'm not exactly sure if what I'm currently doing is working. I've been reading a few threads here about voice analysis and how the typical male voice is around 100hz and the female is around 200hz.

So here's my problem. I've downloaded voice software. I've downloaded spectrogram software.

..I don't know what I'm looking at.

I don't see anything that involves hz. I see lots of graphs regarding db but I have no idea what I'm looking for as far as knowing if I'm in the right ball park or whatever.

I've tried the Mickey Mouse trick. I actually have some decent range as far as my voice goes but it all sounds really cheesy to my ears and I'll record a few samples and then run them through a spectrograph software but then I have no idea what I'm looking at with the analysis.

So if any of you could be so kind as to write out some simple how-to's on all of this, I would greatly appreciate it. Heck you can start at square one. "Go here, download this voice recording software." Step two "Go here, download this voice analysis software" (or the more technical term for it). Step 3.....

[Guest LittleKaitlyn]

I wholeheartedly agree. Please do this...

[VickySGV]

Without seeing the actual display, I can only give an approximation of what you could be looking at, but here is a quick look at what it could be most likely. You have a bunch of lines going along a graph bar and pointing up like pine tree tops. How close the pine tree tops are together is your HZ or frequency. How tall they are are your db, or how danged loud you are. They get real loud and you can substitute for your own air horn!:

Edited March 22, 2012 by VickySGV
attempt at sketch did not work

[KathrynJulia]

Hi Lizzie

I downloaded shareware called the Chromatia Vocal Tuner onto my laptop. It's free to try for 30 days and can be downloaded at and costs $20.00 to buy and it’s really easy to use.

http://www.fmjsoft.com/chromatia.html You need a microphone that plugs into your laptop. I have a headset microphone and ear phones from Dragon Natural Speaking that I'm using. Why this software? It shows Hertz as well as musical notes. Most women speak at 220 hertz or around an A3 musical note and men speak at around 110 hertz, one who octave lower. I could hit an A3 occasionally when I first started. Basically I couldn't carry a tune in a tin bucket. No musical ability at all. And a crappy sounding to me female voice. I tried to do it on my own, when will I ever learn. I try to do everything first on my own and then wind up buying it afterword’s and just wasting a lot of time that I could have spent getting it right the first time.

I also ordered a 3 CD Rom set from Kathy Perez, a Speech Language Pathologist whose specializes in working with TG or TS woman to develop your feminine voice. Google her website. You will do practice exercises until you can tune your voice pitch to an A3 in your sleep. I do my voice warm-ups on my way to work every morning in the car, about 15 minutes worth and again on my way home. Kathy’s technics were awesome and in no time, I was fooling my secretary when she calls my office. She wanted to know who the woman was answering the phone in my office. Yes….. Nailed it. To consistently stay in the A3 range or feminine range takes practice and more practice warming up your voice every day. Otherwise you will begin to irritate and develop hoarseness. Singing, Lizzie every time Lonestar came on radio in the car, and when other high pitched country singers came on, my voice would break on me everytime trying to sing along. The song Mr Mom came on one day a couple weeks ago and to my amazement I sang the entire song in the car and my voice never broke once. Warming up my voice every day and staying properly hydrated is allowing me to do some amazing things with my feminine voice. You can try and do it on your own like I always do or you can get some professional help for $30.00 on CD Rom from a Professional Voice Language Pathologist who has been helping TG woman for many years develop their feminine voice. I’ve got $50.00 invested and I can do some amazing things with my voice now. If I can fool another woman over the phone with a voice like mine used to be. Well, let’s just say I’m very pleased with my progress so far. PM me if you have any questions. Kathryn

[Guest Lizzie McTrucker]

Alrighty peeps and peepettes who could use some help with all this technical stuff, I ventured into the wilds of the internet (via Google) and while I didn't find Dr. Livingston, I did find some help and was able to see my voice, where it was, where it went and where it needed to be. Once I saw where my voice was I could work on raising and lowering while holding a note and then going up and down, up and down, up and a little down and then a little down and then a little up.

So without further ado, let me provide you two links that will make it all much easier to figure out what you're doing.

First go to this website: http://www.genderlife.com/products-page/voicetutor

Scroll a tiny bit down to where you see Setting up the Spectrogram

Do step 1 and follow the second "here" link to download the little Spectrogram program (it's a compressed folder)

Skip to step 3 for the quick start set up tutorial. I suggest the non-flash version. Here I'll just link it.

http://www.genderlife.com/products-page/setting-up-the-spectrogram/no-flash

Follow what's described in the first picture. (you can click on the picture to make it larger)

Follow what's described in the second picture (again, click on the picture to make it larger. I suggest doing this and doing a side-by-side comparison between the picture and the program you have opened.

Now, when you click "Ok" it's going to start analyzing input. Don't worry about that yet, you still have one more step to do in the third picture. Since the program is currently analyzing the voice input, on the right side you'll see a stop button. Just click that.

Move on to picture 3 to set up scope markers.

Then look at picture 4 so you know what two lines your voice needs to be between.

Hit the F3 button once again to Scan Input. Since the settings were saved from when you just did it a minute ago you don't have to worry about changing anything so just click "Okay". Now start talking and watch for a bright blue line. If you don't see it using a lower male voice, switch to a higher tone and hold a note until you can see that bright blue line.

Now you can play around with changing the tone up and down and try to find a comfortable spot somewhere between those two lines.

My comfy speaking voice is just at the bottom line or just a tad below it. I can go up to the top line but it doesn't feel comfortable so I'm not going to force it.

Anyway, hope this helps! I'll self-title this reply my "Spectrograph Set Up for Dummies". Besides, I wrote it and I was a dummy until I figured it out, now I'm just passing the savings along to you.

[Guest Jo-88]

this needs to be stickied

[Guest LizMarie]

Using this voice program I can easily get into the 220 range but as I've noted elsewhere, because of a paralyzed vocal cord that has a static implant in it, I may require surgery to alter or replace that implant. There's a clear dual tone trace in the lower frequencies due to the implant, hence my interest in voice surgery. Of course I could easily get by without a full voice surgery solution, just replacement of that implant with one intended to make the cord tighter or to slightly shorten that cord to raise the base tone.

Thank you, Lizzie, for the excellent information!