Category: Om rösten

AN INCLUSIVE APPROACH TO CREATING A PALETTE OF SYNTHETIC VOICES FOR GENDER DIVERSITY

Éva Székely,
biträdande professor, Tal, Musik och Hörsel, KTH, Stockholm

Nonbinary individuals who use speech-generating devices to communicate often face challenges in finding a synthetic voice that suits their gender identity and expression and also facilitates their communicative needs.

This talk on Världsröstdagen April 14th describes a research prototype of a system developed to create a variety of synthetic voices based on recordings of gender-expansive speakers, that can be modified along various dimensions, such as the perceived vocal tract length.

To ensure that the voices resonate more authentically with users’ identities and expressions, we take an inclusive approach, where participants from the gender-expansive community contribute to the design and evaluation of the voices.

Världsröstdagen 2024. 14 april 2024 kl 13.00–16.30.
Kungl Musikhögskolan, Valhallavägen 105, Stockholm.
Fri entré.

SEX HORMONES – FEMALES’ FRIENDS OR FOES

Filipa M.B. Lã 
associate professor, National University of Distance Learning Education (UNED), Madrid

Sex steroid hormones (i.e., oestrogens, progesterone and testosterone) affect the function of several body organs, the human larynx being no exception. Due to the complexity of the female endocrine reproductive system, female voices are particularly affected: besides puberty, vocal function may change also in association with variations in concentrations of these hormones during the menstrual cycle, pregnancy and menopause.

The talk on Världsröstdagen on April, 14th demonstrates examples of such changes and discusses possible copying strategies for those singers who are particularly affected.

Världsröstdagen 2024. 14 april 2024 kl 13.00–16.30.
Kungl Musikhögskolan, Valhallavägen 105, Stockholm.
Fri entré.