Towards a self-rating tool of the inability to produce soft voice based on nonlinear events: a preliminary study

The purpose of this preliminary study was to investigate the feasibility of a tool to compare a severity index of nonlinear events and vocal self-rating over a long period of time. One hundred and ninety-seven phonations were analyzed to quantify the severity of instabilities in the voice attributed to nonlinear dynamic phenomena, including voice breaks, subharmonics, and frequency jumps. Instabilities were first counted; then a severity index was calculated for the instabilities in each phonation. The two quantities were compared to the subject's autoperceptual rating. Generally speaking, the measures derived from nonlinear dynamic analysis of the high-pitched, soft phonations followed the subject's own rating of inability to produce soft voice. These preliminary single subject results provide a foundation for future multi-subject studies to formulate acoustic and autoperceptual measures for the fatiguing effects of prolonged speaking in vocally demanding professions. However, given the number of observations, the results are still useful in showing general relationships. While future work should add additional subjects, a study providing preliminary evidence is useful before attempting to undertake a multi-subject study with complex analysis (i.e., individually selecting the nonlinear events) and with a long observation duration (days, weeks, and months) of subject.