Acoustic Characteristics of Modern Chinese Folk Singing at Different Vocal Efforts.

Abstract

Objectives: Modern Chinese folk singing is developed by fusing regionally specific traditional Chinese singing with Western scientific training techniques. The purpose of this research is to contribute to the exploration of the acoustic characteristics of Chinese folk songs and the efficient resonance space for the performance.

Method: Seven tenors and seven sopranos were invited to sing three songs and read the lyrics in an anechoic chamber. The vocal outputs were meticulously recorded and subjected to a comprehensive acoustic analysis. Overall equivalent sound level, long-term average spectrum (LTAS), gain factors, and other acoustic parameters were analyzed for different vocal efforts (soft, normal, and loud), genders, and vocal modes (singing and speaking).

Results: Male singers have singer's formant at 3 kHz in LTAS, a characteristic not found in other country singers or Chinese opera singers, but slightly higher than the frequency of Western Classical singers. Female singers do not have singer's formant and their LTAS curves are much flatter. The α, spectral balance, and singing power ratio all increased with increasing vocal effort, and they are higher for singing than for speaking. Finally, there is a significant gain factor at 3 kHz, with a maximum value of 1.85 for men and 1.68 for women.

Conclusions: Male singers in Chinese folk singing have a singer's formant, a phenomenon not consistently observed in their female singers. The intricate acoustic characteristics of this singing style have been extensively examined and can contribute to the existing literature on the spectral properties of diverse vocal genres. Furthermore, this analysis offers foundational data essential for the optimization of room acoustics tailored to vocal performance.