Adverse Effect of Noise on Voice Perturbation Estimates: A Comparison of Three Voice Analysis Programs

ABS TRACT Ob jec ti ve: The aim of this study is to in ves ti ga te the inf lu en ce of no i se on vo i ce per turba ti on out puts ob ta i ned by thre e dif fe rent vo i ce analy sis prog rams, and to show the soft wa re mo re im mu ne to no i se. Ma te ri al and Met hods: For this pur po se, 10 na tu ral and 10 se mi-synthe tic vo i ce samp les we re re cor ded. They we re mi xed with en vi ron men tal no i se and whi te no i se. The un mi xed and mi xed sig nals we re analy zed by Dr. Spe ech, MDVP and Pra at. Thre e fre qu ency per tur ba ti on out puts (jit ter per cent, relative average perturbation and pitch perturbation quotient) and two amp li tu de per tur ba ti on out puts (shim mer per cent and amplitude perturbation quotient) we re ob ta i ned. The un mi xed and mi xed sig nals we re com pa red. Cor re la ti ons we re cal cu la ted bet we en na tu ral un mi xed and na tu ral mi xed ones. Re sults: The fre qu ency per tur ba ti on out puts ob ta i ned by Dr. Spe ech and Pra at se e med to be less af fec ted by no i se. Ho we ver, the amp li tu de per tur ba ti on va lu es me a su red by thre e systems we re se ve rely af fec ted by no i se, but Pra at’s per for man ce fo und mildly bet ter than the ot hers’. Cor re la ti on analy ses for 10 items (five pa ra me ters x two no i se si tu a ti ons) re ve a led that the re we re per fect cor re la ti ons (r= 1.000) re gar ding six items for Pra at, thre e items for Dr. Spe ech and one item for MDVP. Conc lu si on: As a conc lu si on, it was de ci ded that Pra at was the most immu ne one to no i se among thre e analy sis systems, fol lo wed by Dr. Spe ech and MDVP, res pec ti vely.