Spectral Analysis of Strohbass

A special welcome to my friends from Vocalist! The following is a graphical analysis of my singing E2 (0" to 6") and then C#2 (6" to 9") in the Strohbass (German for "straw bass") register. The sound file itself may be downloaded as a wav file. Sorry about the poor recording/singing quality - I'm a countertenor, and haven't sung in this register for years... Still, I hope it is helpful.

It is a very buzzy sound, yet lacks to fullness of a true Schwarzbass (think Sparafucile or Sarastro) singing these notes with a legitimate open chest phonation. Notice the singer's formant (the frequency band from 2500 - 3500) is somewhat present, though the spectrum is not very rich, probably due to the lowered position of the larynx. Curiously, the spectrum seems to rise by a sixth when the pitch falls by a third (the inversion). As the resonating chambers become too small to accomodate the lower note, the higher partials become proportionally stronger in relation to the fundamental.

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last revised 6/19/00 by Tako Oda
copyright 2000 Takeshi Oda
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