A beautiful or not-so-beautiful voice can be made more beautiful by sticking Carpi’s voice rectifier in one’s mouth, perhaps. The well-more-than-century-old device is enshrined in a patent: “Voice Rectifier,” US patent 527235, granted to Vittorio Carpi, 1894. Carpi explains: Be it known that I, VITTORIO CARPI, of Chicago, in the county of Cook and State […]
Tag: voice
Secrets of an ugly voice
What are the secrets of an ‘ugly’ voice? Steps towards answers were provided in 2006 by Professor Johan Sundberg, (personal Chair (Emeritus) in Music Acoustics at the department of Speech Music and Hearing KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm), in his paper for Advances in Cognitive Psychology, 2006 • volume 2 • no 2-3 • […]
A bra that falls off when you clap your hands (new patent)
Inventor (and IP / patent lawyer) Michael Mansour Ahmadshahi Ph.D., Esq. has just been granted a US patent for his ‘Signal-activated lingerie’ which incorporates a remotely activated (un)fastener “causing the lingerie to fall off from the wearer’s body” when it receives the appropriate signal. The patent document explains : “Lingerie, such as bras which are […]
As the Voice Cracks [research study]
“Effect of Voice Change on Singing Pitch Accuracy in Young Male Singers,” Elizabeth C. Willis and Dianna T. Kenny, Journal of Interdisciplinary Music Studies, vol. 2, nos. 1 and 2, Spring/Fall 2008, pp. 111-119. (Thanks to Martin Gardiner for bringing this to our attention.) The authors, at the Australian Centre for Applied Research in Music […]
Helium-voice singer dangers (report)
Are you a singer? Are you endeavouring to reach ever higher notes? With the assistance of helium inhalations? Maybe think again. “A 23-year-old singer inhaled helium from a high-pressure tank to produce a change in his voice. The last of the eight inspiratory efforts was accidentally done without pressure reduction. As described by his colleagues, […]
Are People Bad Singers?
“Are People Bad Singers?”, in the special Music issue of the Annals of Improbable Research, gathers research about that high-pitched question. Read the article free (PDF). Then, if you dare, purchase the issue, or subscribe to the magazine.
Can Sopranos Be Understood?
“Can Sopranos Be Understood—Are high-voiced good singers necessarily hard to understand?”, in the special Music issue of the Annals of Improbable Research, gathers research about that high-pitched question. Read the article free (PDF). Then, if you dare, purchase the issue, or subscribe to the magazine.
Relative Finger Lengths and The Voices of Bankers [research study]
Comes yet another discovery about relative finger lengths. The new study is: “Prenatal exposure to testosterone (2D:4D) and social hierarchy together predict voice behavior in bankers,” Erik Bijleveld, Joost Baalbergen, PLoS ONE, vol. 12, no. 6, June 28, 2017, e0180008. The authors, at Radboud University and Utrecht University, The Netherlands, explain: “Prohibitive voice behaviors are […]
Do Frogs in Helium Get Squeaky Voices? (Podcast #94)
Do frogs get all high-voiced when they breathe in some helium, the way people do? A research study explores that very question, and we explore that study, in this week’s Improbable Research podcast. SUBSCRIBE on Play.it, iTunes, or Spotify to get a new episode every week, free. This week, Marc Abrahams discusses a published helium-filled study, with dramatic readings from Dany Adams, a biology professor at Tufts University […]
Animal squawks squeaks and songs (with helium)
Although a considerable body of scholarly work has examined the effects of Helium (2He) on human voice production [see, for example (Helium-assisted) High note research] we are by no means the only animals to have been investigated in this respect – here is a (non-exhaustive) list of examples of other creatures who have squawked, croaked, […]