Development and Validation of a Single-Variable Comparison Stimulus for Matching Strained Voice Quality Using a Psychoacoustic Framework.

Purpose: Acoustic and perceptual quantification of vocal strain has been a vexing problem for years. To increase measurement rigor, a suitable single-variable matching stimulus for strain was developed and validated, based on the matching stimulus used previously for breathy and rough voice qualities.

Method: A set of 21 comparison stimuli for a single-variable matching task (SVMT) was synthesized based on a speech-shaped sawtooth waveform mixed with speech-shaped noise.