[mod.music.gaffa] Vocal ranges

Love-Hounds-request@EDDIE.MIT.EDU.UUCP (01/07/87)

Really-From: seismo!hplabs!weitek!sci!daver (Dave Rickel)


I'm not too sure that i understand all this stuff about vocal ranges.
When you state that <x> has a range of 8 octaves, are you saying that
<x> has a range larger than that of a piano?  That he can sing lower
than a piano and higher than a piano?  This seems a bit unreasonable to
me.  My max range seems to span about three octaves, going from growl
to screech (it might be greater than that, but i'm at work and don't
want to embarass myself too awfully much).  My useful range might be
about an octave, for what it's worth.

Anyway, i listened a bit last night to _The Whole Story_, trying to
get an idea of Kate Bush's vocal range.  As far as i can tell, she seems
pretty suited to the soprano cleft.  The ranges i have marked are from
a G3 (the G below middle C) on The Dreaming to an A5 flat (the A flat
above the A flat above middle C) on Wuthering Heights (that's a bit
debatable--she scooped up to somewhere around there, or maybe a bit past).
She gets up to a G5 on some other songs (Breathing, Wow, Sat in Your
Lap).

The comparisons of Kate's voice to a Stradivarious are interesting.  Her
low seems to be about the same as a violin, although the violin can
get perhaps an octave higher (actually, it can get quite a bit higher,
but stops being musical at about that point).

Anyway, her vocal range seems to be a bit more than two octaves.


david rickel
cae780!weitek!sci!daver

Love-Hounds-request@EDDIE.MIT.EDU.UUCP (01/09/87)

Really-From: Laura Frank Clifford <lcliffor@ccm.bbn.com>


I've always been under the impression that a 5 octave range was
the highest ever achieved.  Minnie Ripperton had a 5 octave range.
I have read or heard (I forget from where, but believed it was a
very reliable source at the time) that Kate has a 4 octave range,
which is considered quite incredible.

Laura Clifford

Love-Hounds-request@EDDIE.MIT.EDU.UUCP (01/10/87)

Really-From: "ROSSI J.A." <rossi@nusc.ARPA>


It is clear that people can make some pretty dumb claims that are more or less
taken as true by unthinking people.  I'm glad that someone finally has reacted
to the absurdity of 8 octave vocal ranges.  This, of course, applies to
usable singing range, only.  Just for the hell of it I tried to see how 
how quick a rise time I could get out of a vocal 'click'.  After examining
the envelope of what I feel is the best click I could mouth, I have determined
that I can get a a slew rate of under 10ms out.  Now, for practical 'click'
purposes a click with a rise time of 4 or so ms is not a very good click, as
far as clicks go.  But for musical use, it's good enough for government work.
Now to my main point.  Let's look at this from two standpoints.  The first one
being the most absurd, is also the one which should prove most interesting
to the brain dead people who will believe that David Bowie has an 8 octave
range.  Lets say that (ignoring harmonic content) that I can accurately
click using my voice.  This would give me a low end of anything I choose as
far as frequency goes.  For instance if I choose to click once every 10 sec
then my effective lower end is 0.10 Hz, however If I choose to click only
once every 1000sec I get my low end down to about 0.0010 Hz.  Notice that
between these two low ends there are about 7 octaves of range.  Now to be
valid, we are assuming that I am clicking periodically and consistently for
a duration long enough to be considered cotinuous and periodic.  Also
notice that this clicking is musically useable (John Cage would approve of
such things, however, IED limited musical imagination is stuck in thinking
about violins and banjos so he would not accept the proposition that
a 7 octave range between .1 and .001 Hz is musically valid).  If we run
this absurd argument to its limit we come up with a musically valic vocal 
range which approaches infinity and is limited only by lifespan and
accuracy of the timing between clicks.  Now, if we look at another argument
which incorporates perceptual psychoacoustics, we find that an 8 ms click
can be no shorter than 8 ms, and imposes on itself a frequency limit of
its length and whatever periodic interval is needed (say 2 ms for argument).
If it were possible to mouth clicks as fast and accurately as one wanted
we come up with a bottom range of about 100 Hz (this isn,t very low and
if you count larnyx stuttering the click duration can be easily shortened to
less than 5 ms.  Wait !! What am I thinking about, what am I writing?
This is not real.  You are only dreaming that you have read this.  Does
anyone know a good piano? I mean personally.  Has anyone played Zoom,
Schwartz an Pathagliano?  What is the meaning of the messages I have been
receiving from Doug Traynor?  Are all these questions related?  Does Doug
Traynor know the effective span of Frank Sinatra's voice?  What happened
at the cabin near the cool lake before everyone started to hallucinate
these colored objects?  What is the meaning of the term Experiment V?
What does Wicinski thinlk the color and shape of the objects are? Do these
colored shapes occur only in the DC area?  Why is Doug Traynor's mail
address in UCLA's computer?  Is whatever it is that caused the people in
the cabin by the lake to see the correct shapes and colors available
for general consumption?  Dis the toaster pop or was it unpluged?  Help?!?

'Do not remove this tag'
John (Acting Director)
------

Love-Hounds-request@EDDIE.MIT.EDU (01/13/87)

Really-From: lum@osupyr.UUCP (Lum Johnson)

Actually, anything over 4 octaves is remarkable; 4 1/2 is about the most for
anyone who has actually been recorded.  This talk about 8 is just hyperbole.
However, I agree that Kate's voice is extraordinary, though more for timbre
than range.  I immediately found her voice excellent, listenable, and quite
pleasant.  I don't understand this great gripe some of you seem to have.

My introduction to Kate Bush (_The_Dreaming_ or _Babooshka_, if I recall
correctly) was made by WOSR, our college radio station, remarkable itself
and largely responsible for what little music "scene" Columbus has.  This is
a non-broadcast station, available only on a 540AM carrier on the line
current in the dorms and on 99.9FM on a certain TV cable.  The cable company
doesn't really provide decent equipment for this signal (sounds like a
weak/distant AM signal), so they have very few off-campus listeners.
However, because they are unavailable "over-the-air", they are _not_
FCC-regulated and can and do play anything anyone considers "new music",
regardless of how "rude" anyone considers it.  And they have an MTV/Top-40
_anti-playlist_!  Their greatest handicap is their budget, which means they
have to use mostly promotional disks, but sometimes people like me loan them
disks (eg, my Residents library) for special segments.

Lum Johnson  lum@ohio-state.arpa  ..!cbosgd!osu-eddie!lum

"Razzle dazzle dazzle drone, time for this one to come home." -- Replacements
(Anyone remember the Jay Ward cartoon they borrowed this line from?)