Vocal Quality: Perceptual Evaluation

Voice quality is usually defined as a listener’s perceptual response to an acoustic voice signal or as the attribute of auditory sensation that allows listeners to judge that two sounds are different, even when they have the equal loudness and pitch and are presented in the same way, according to the American National Standards Institute definition. Quality has been called the speaker’s auditory face since it conveys a range of information about the speaker to the listeners, including personal identity, emotional state, sex, age, health status, level of attention, and of course the spoken message. Because voice plays a critical role in human communication, disorders of voice can be devastating, both professionally and socially. For this reason, evaluation of voice quality is an important part ...