FORMANT FREQUENCY ADJUSTMENT IN BARBERSHOP QUARTET SINGING
Sten Ternström, Gustaf Kalin · 2007
Four-track recordings were made of the song Paper Moon as sung by an elite Swedish barbershop quartet. Each part was recorded spoken, singing alone, and in quartet. Each singer had a small microphone taped on his nose, giving low crosstalk in ensemble. Three replications were made of each condition. Using inverse filtering, the lowest four formants were measured for the vowels /u/, /i/ and /a/. The results suggested that the singers sought to separate their own formants from the others. Since the intonation in barbershop singing is of utmost importance, it is possible that the singers spread their formants in order to hear themselves better, which facilitates intonation. Half of the measured formant frequencies were on, or very close to, a partial of the current singer. Among the other half of the formants, some were fairly close to a partial, or there appeared to be a particular reason why they could not be close to a partial. Hence, it is also possible that the singers tuned their formants close to their own partials in order to enhance the 'lock-and-ring' effect. The spreading of the formants appeared to be of higher priority than the tuning the formants on partials.