The perception of 'forward' and 'backward placement' of the singing voice.

Singing teachers sometimes characterize voice quality in terms of 'forward' and 'backward placement'. In view of traditional knowledge about voice production, it is hard to explain any possible acoustic or articulatory differences between the voices so 'placed'. We have synthesized a number of three-tone melodic excerpts performed by the singing voice. Formant frequencies, and the level and frequency of the singer's formant were varied across the stimuli. Results of a listening test show that the stimuli which were perceived as 'placed forward', correlated not only with higher frequencies of the first and second formants, but also with the higher frequency and level of the singer's formant.