Acoustic Analysis Assignment

In this assignment, you'll download a free speech analysis software package from the internet and examine speech samples from four different speakers. This assignment is due at the beginning of class on Monday, October 9.

• Download the program WASP from the internet at http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/resource/sfs/wasp.htm. (See bottom of page for Mac software)
• Install the program on your computer.
• Copy the sound files below to the desktop area of your computer (right-click on the file name and use the command "Save target as" to save the files to the desktop
  • s1kuh
  • s1sent
  • s2kuh
  • s2sent
  • s3sent
  • s4kuh
• Open the WASP program and use the file menu to open the first sound file
  • Click on the waveform and wideband spectrogram buttons to view an aligned waveform and spectrogram
  • Click on the pitchtrack button if you want to view the fundamental frequency
• Produce a typed report containing the following information
  • For the three examples of AMRs
    • Calculate the number of syllables produced per second
    • Record your impression of rate, rhythm, articulatory precision, and sequencing
    • Determine if the speaker is likely to be a normal speaker or a speaker with dysarthria
    • If the speaker seems to have dysarthria, what type do they have and why do you think that?
  • For the three sentences
    • Calculate the number of syllables per second
    • Calculate the number of phonemes per second
    • Calculate the amount of pause time (pauses longer than 50 ms that do not appear to be related to articulatory gestures)
    • Determine the range of fundamental frequency (highest f0 - lowest f0)
    • Record your impression of respiration, phonation, articulation, resonance, and prosody
      • Include rate, rhythm, articulatory precision, sequencing, etc.
    • Determine if the speaker is likely to be a normal speaker or a speaker with dysarthria
    • If the speaker seems to have dysarthria, what type do they have and why do you think that?

 

• For Mac users, try Wavesurfer. You can download it here: http://sourceforge.net/projects/wavesurfer/
  • Here are some helpful hints for using Wavesurfer: http://www.linguistics.ucla.edu/people/hayes/103/WaveSurferHints/