SPPA 6010 Lab Activity

SPPA 4030 Lab Activity Name: ______Topic: Measuring Fundamental Frequency

DUE DATE: THURSDAY NOVEMBER 1, 2012 IN CLASS

To complete these and other assignments you first have to download your file from the course website. This only works with PC computers so if you use a Mac, use one of the WMU systems. Log onto the class website and go to “Assignments.” You will see a link titled “Speech Analysis Software and Student Files (zip).” This is a zip file that contains the software you will be using all the student audio files for the class. You will only need to use your own files. Right click the mouse on the link to and select the option that says “save link as” or something close to that. This will allow you to download the file to your local computer or jump drive. If you have a computer that you always use for your speech analysis activities, direct it to a folder there. I strongly suggest making a folder off the main ‘c’ drive called sppa4030 or something similar. If you don’t have a standard computer you use, save it to a jump drive as you would any other kind of file. When you use TF32, you can then look for it on the jump drive.

PART I: Manual measurement of fundamental frequency using time and frequency domain analysis

Learning Objectives: 1. Learn to measure fundamental frequency of a signal from a sound pressure waveform 2. Learn to measure fundamental frequency and other harmonic frequencies in an amplitude spectrum

Learning Aids: You really need to look over the following Youtube tutorials before and during the completion of this activity. Links are in the Course Materials section of the course webpage. TF32 Acoustic Analysis Tool Part 1 (Youtube) TF32 Acoustic Analysis Tool Part 2 (Youtube) TF32 Spectrum Display Part 1 (Youtube) TF32 Spectrum Display Part 2 (Youtube)

Required Files: Yourname_words.wav

Activity Instructions:

1. Start the program called tf32.exe (see Youtube video for details) 2. Open ‘yourname_words.wav in tf32.exe. 3. Your job is to measure the fundamental frequency at the midpoint of each of the four corner vowels (i.e. hawed, who’d, heed, had) using (1) time and (2) frequency domain methods. a. Identify your target word (e.g. ‘heed’) b. Time expand a region near the middle of the vowel sample so that the individual oscillation cycles can be discerned and measured. Using the cursors measure the fundamental period of 5 consecutive cycles. Calculate the fundamental frequency of each cycle and record your results in the table below. c. Place the left cursor at the midpoint of the vowel. Make sure your right cursor is at least a second to the right of the left cursor. Open an amplitude spectrum window (see video demo). Measure the frequency of the first harmonic and record your response in the table below. If you have a hard time seeing the first harmonic, you can equivalently measure the frequency of two successive harmonics and use that approach to derive fundamental frequency. Vowel Cycle 1 Cycle 2 Cycle 3 Cycle 4 Cycle 5 Mean of H1 Frequency (or harmonic (Hz) (Hz) (Hz) (Hz) (Hz) 5 cycles difference) (Hz) Hawed Heed Who’d Had

PART II: Automated Measurement of Fundamental Frequency

Learning Objective: Learn to use and evaluate automated measures of speaking fundamental frequency and fundamental frequency variability

Learning Aids: TF32 Acoustic Analysis Tool Part 1 (Youtube) TF32 Acoustic Analysis Tool Part 2 (Youtube) Speaking F0 Measurement (Youtube)

Required Files: yourname_sents.wav

Activity Instructions: 1. Start the program called tf32.exe (see Youtube video for details) 2. Open your yourname_sents.wav in TF32. 3. Using the approach outlined in the Youtube tutorial “Speaking F0 Measurement”, determine the speaking F0 mean, F0 standard deviation (SD F0), minimum F0 and maximum F0 for the test sentence. It is important to point out that the statistical summary of fundamental frequency is based on the audio sample between the left and right cursor, or when there are no cursors placed, over the timespan on the computer screen. Therefore, you will need to place cursors around the task of interest to ensure your measures will be on the appropriate task.

Mean F0 (Hz): ______

SD F0 (Hz): ______

Min F0 (Hz): ______

Max F0 (Hz): ______

Compare your F0 measures from the individual words to the mean F0 from the sentence level task? Are they different and, if so, how?