Materiality

Amplitude

A recorded signal is a stream of numbers called samples.  Each such sample denotes an instantaneous amplitude, theoretically corresponding to the air pressure (or sometimes velocity […]

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Authenticity

Authenticity refers to ideas of the voice as origin or a faithful correspondence to an ideal original. In this sense, vocal authenticity also refers […]

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Consonant

Consonants are classified as fricatives (generated by moving air turbulently through some part of the vocal apparatus), unvoiced plosives (bursts of air resulting from opening a […]

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Fundamental Frequency

If a recorded audio signal is nearly periodic (as is much voiced speech), it is said to have a fundamental frequency, sometimes denoted “f0” […]

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Grain

A term used by Roland Barthes to describe the materiality of the embodied voice: “The ‘grain’ is the body of the voice as it […]

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Language / writing / text

There is a pervasive tendency in the academy to assume (and theorize) equivalence between language, writing, and text. Despite the strenuous attempts of many […]

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Loudness

Loudness is a perceptual quality of sound that correlates somewhat with the sound’s amplitude or power, but also depends on its short-time spectrum.  The loudness of […]

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Metaphor/ Figure

For many folks who work with voice day in and day out, the persistent use of voice as a figure or metaphor is tiring […]

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Pitch

Pitch is a perceptual quality that, in speech, usually corresponds to fundamental frequency (although unvoiced sounds such as wheezes and some whistles can have […]

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Power

Power is a physical measure of an audio signal, proportional to the square of its amplitude.  One can also specify or measure a physical sound’s […]

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