[Multiparametric description of voice quality for normal male and female voices]

Abstract

The present study examines the relevance of the voice parameters of two commercially available voice analysis programs (MDVP and EGG Program from Kay Elemetrics) for the acoustic and electroglottographic definition of normal voice profiles for men and women. Vowel productions of 300 adult speakers (150 male and 150 female speakers) without any known voice pathology were analyzed. In a first step, gender-differentiated mean normal voice profiles are presented for each of the two analysis programs. The significant differences between the male and female speakers indicate the necessity for the separate treatment of the two groups. In a second step, a clustering technique differentiates two numerically substantial subgroups within each gender on the basis of the MDVP parameters. The EGG parameters do not achieve the same degree of subgroup differentiation. In a factor analysis, the relative weighting of the MDVP parameters within the factors also indicates their better suitability for normal voice differentiation than the EGG parameters as they are defined at present.