Trained singers project an extra formant near 2800 Hz that cuts through orchestral sound

Evidence

How is a single voice to be perceived over an entire orchestra? In the 1970s, voice scientist Johann Sundberg analyzed the famous tenor Jussi Bjoerling and found that his average frequency spectrum when singing with loud orchestral accompaniment had a pronounced peak around 2800 Hz, with a Q of 3 or 4. The hump is now known as the singer’s formant, and it produces a distinct ringing tone to the voice. The purpose of the formant becomes clear when the voice is compared to the spectrum of the orchestra (figure 17.7), which peaks at much lower frequencies around 500 Hz, so the audience can freely assign the higher frequency range to the voice. — Eric J. Heller, Why You Hear What You Hear- An…, 1683

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the singer’s formant as a spectral peak around 2800 Hz with Q of 3-4.
• CANDY: A neat bar-trivia fact: singers literally shape their vocal tract to add a 2800 Hz spike so you can hear them over a whole orchestra.
• XREF: connects to: A singer’s formant near 3 kHz lets trained voices cut through orchestra sound — David Howard, Jamie Angus, coustics and Psychoacoustics, 1380; A tenor’s singer’s formant appears as boosted energy between 2.4 and 3.5 kHz. — David Howard, Jamie Angus, coustics and Psychoacoustics, 1491