Integrating voice evaluation: correlation between acoustic and audio-perceptual measures.

OBJECTIVES/HYPOTHESIS: This article aims to establish correlations between acoustic and audio-perceptual measures using the GRBAS scale with respect to four different voice analysis software programs.

STUDY

DESIGN

Exploratory, transversal.

METHODS

A total of 90 voice records were collected and analyzed with the Dr. Speech (Tiger Electronics, Seattle, WA), Multidimensional Voice Program (Kay Elemetrics, NJ, USA), PRAAT (University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands), and Voice Studio (Seegnal, Oporto, Portugal) software programs. The acoustic measures were correlated to the audio-perceptual parameters of the GRBAS and rated by 10 experts.

RESULTS

The predictive value of the acoustic measurements related to the audio-perceptual parameters exhibited magnitudes ranging from weak (R(2)a=0.17) to moderate (R(2)a=0.71). The parameter exhibiting the highest correlation magnitude is B (Breathiness), whereas the weaker correlation magnitudes were found to be for A (Asthenia) and S (Strain). The acoustic measures with stronger predictive values were local Shimmer, harmonics-to-noise ratio, APQ5 shimmer, and PPQ5 jitter, with different magnitudes for each one of the studied software programs.

CONCLUSIONS

Some acoustic measures are pointed as significant predictors of GRBAS parameters, but they differ among software programs. B (Breathiness) was the parameter exhibiting the highest correlation magnitude.