Effects of subglottal pressure variation on professional baritone singers'voice sources

Five professional operatic baritone singers' voice-source characteristics w ere analyzed by means of inverse filtering of the flow signal as captured b y a flow mask. The subjects sang a long sustained diminuendo, from loudest to softest, three times on the vowels [ae] and [ae:] at fundamental frequen cies representing 25%, 50%, and 75% of their total pitch range as measured in semitones. During the diminuendos, they repeatedly inserted the consonan t Spl so that associated subglottal pressures could be estimated from the o ral pressure during the p-occlusions. Pooling the three takes of each condi tion, ten subglottal pressures, equidistantly spaced between highest and lo west, were selected for analysis. Sound-pressure levels (SPL), peak-to-peak glottal airflow, maximum flow declination rate, closed quotient, glottal d e flow, and the level difference between the two lowest partials of the sou rce spectrum (H1-H2) were determined. All parameters except the glottal de flow showed a systematic variation with subglottal pressure or the fraction al excess pressure over. threshold. The results are given in terms of equat ions representing the average across subjects for the relation between subg lottal pressure and each of the mentioned voice-source parameters. (C) 1999 Acoustical Society of America. [S0001-4966(99)06303-1].