Introduction
Contents
VoceVista Video is a tool that helps you you understand the phenomenon of harmonic overtones of sounds intuitively and in a musical context. The program was originally developed for musicians, composers and singers who work with overtones in performance, education and musical theory. However, it should excite anyone who wants to analyze sound in a musical context.
There are several good software applications for analyzing sound on the market, but we could not find any that help visualize the musical interpretation of the sound. Most spectrum analyzers are optimized for experts with a background in the physics of sound. Musicians and voice teachers are not normally trained to read physical data. Hence it is useful for musicians to relate the physical representation of the sound to the musical terms that they are familiar with.
Therefore we started to add visual aids to the spectrum analyzer that make the visual representation of frequencies accessible to musicians directly and intuitively. The addition of a musical staff and a piano keyboard already simplified things greatly. A further step to enhance the understandability of spectrograms was to switch from the linear frequency scale that is common in physics to the logarithmic scale that is more familiar to musicians (because it more closely models how the ear perceives pitch). The overtone sliders highlight the relationship between a fundamental and its overtones in a direct and intuitive way and helps simplify the understanding of the sometimes very complex spectrograms.
Many other programs are also not very practical to use. VoceVista Video has been refined through much feedback from people who use it daily to record their voice students or their instruments. It is not simply a tool for analyzing sounds: it also helps to collect and manage a large set of recordings.
As a software application for recording and exploring sound, especially the sound of the voice and of musical instruments, VoceVista Video helps visualize, measure and understand various aspects of your sound:
- Pitch
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What pitch am I singing or playing?
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Am I in tune?
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How is my vibrato?
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- Timbre
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How strong are the different harmonics / overtones in my sound?
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How is my resonance?
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What is the relationship between the physiology of the voice, the physics of sound and the theory of music?
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- Change
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How does my sound change over time?
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How does my voice develop and what progress have I made?
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How do different recordings look and sound in comparison?
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While the previous list includes most functions of VoceVista Video, it may not yet be obvious how this relates to specific tasks that you can perform with the program. Here are some more specific examples of things you can do with VoceVista Video:
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Record your voice, visualize it and listen to it.
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Measure the pitch of an instrument. Practice holding the pitch over an entire note.
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Analyze the harmonic structure of an instrument.
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Listen to and learn the harmonic series. Identify the overtones belonging to a specific fundamental. Practice singing the overtone scale.
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Transcribe the notes in a musical recording.
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Construct a musical scale through relating the constituent tones by their overtones.
Singing teachers can use VoceVista Video like a mirror for the voice to explain to the student what he or she is doing.
Singers can use the program as a visual feedback aid to practice pitch and to support the development of vibrato and formants as well as other aspects of their vocal technique.
Voice therapists can use the program to monitor the progress of their client, and as another sensory feedback channel for certain exercises.
Instrument builders and tuners can easily measure and analyze their instruments with extreme precision and detail.
Instrument vendors can document the sound characteristics of their wares. This is especially useful for handmade instruments where each item is highly unique.
Overtone musicians can use VoceVista Video to study and improve their vocal or instrumental technique and to create or rehearse complex compositions, assisted by the visualization of their own overtones and by listening to changing fundamentals and harmonics.
Musical theorists find in VoceVista Video a new visual aid to illustrate the development of tuning systems and the interplay of natural overtones in classical harmony theory.
Choir conductors can recognize the role of overtones in chords and can use this knowledge to improve the brilliance of their choir and to achieve pure intonation. Recordings can be analyzed in order to systematically optimize the sound of specific passages. The timbre of individual passages can be adjusted to their current chord, which enables even amateur choirs to achieve a professional sound.
Composers that want to understand the role of overtones in their compositions can use VoceVista Video to learn the necessary background knowledge about overtone music. Very few professional musicians are familiar with the phenomenon of overtone singing, since this is not yet taught in most music schools. The software supports composers in relating ambitus (vocal range), vocal technique, and harmony of the singable overtones. Analyzing existing recordings gives insights into the sound and the expressive abilities of individual artists.
These are just a few examples of possible applications of VoceVista Video. Of course there are no limits to one’s imagination (for example, the author analyzed the sound of dolphins to sing them as overtones).
This manual can be used in several ways. If you already know what you want to do and simply need to know how certain things work, have a look through the Reference Guide. When you are using the program and need help with a settings page that is currently open, click on its button or press to bring up the online help for this settings page.
To simply get yourself started, go to the Quickstart Guide and at the User Interface Overview.
A menu choice is indicated with an arrow. → means: select New from the File menu.
User Interface Buttons are indicated like this: Press to continue.
Keyboard commands look like this: press to open help.
The Glossary at the end contains definitions for many subject-specific terms used in this document.für
This section explains the minimum system requirements that you need to install and use VoceVista Video.
- macOS
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VoceVista Video requires OS X 10.10 or later. We recommend macOS High Sierra 10.13.
- Windows
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VoceVista Video requires Microsoft Windows 7 or later. We recommend Windows 10. The program requires a 64 bit edition of Windows.
We recommend a recent computer with at least 4GB RAM and an Intel Core CPU. If you buy a new computer for audio work, select a model that operates as quietly as possible. A Solid State Drive (SSD) is highly recommended, as it eliminates hard drive noise.
Although not essential, an external mouse with a scroll wheel can be helpful for using the program. If you use a laptop, you can use two-finger gestures on your touchpad for zooming in and out of the frequency and time range.
Zooming and scrolling can also be done with the and keys on your keyboard. When the mouse pointer is pointing at a scale or at the spectrogram, try tapping the 1 or 2 key to see what happens.
To get started, the internal microphone of your computer is totally fine. If you want something better, get a USB microphone. The models from Samson are good for beginners and are inexpensive. For even better sound quality get an external USB audio interface together with a professional condenser microphone.
Another interesting option is a mobile recorder that can be used as a USB audio interface. These devices can provide excellent performance for their price category when used as a microphone and have the added benefit of being a stand-alone mobile recorder that is always at hand.
Position the microphone as far away from the computer as possible to minimize the pick up of noise from the computer, or get a silent computer. Be aware that many monitors also emit some sound, especially at lower brightness levels. Most of these ambient noises can be seen in the recording and should be avoided as much as possible.