Winsingad

WinSinad is "Microsoft Windows" based software for singing training.

WinSingad

Singing is a skill that many want to learn, and it turns out that computers can be pressed into service to help in the learning process for singing.

WinSinad is software for singing training. It started life as SINGAD, which stands for "SINGing Assessment and Development", running on a "BBC micro" [ Howard, D.M., and Welch, G.F. (1989). "Microcomputer-based singing ability assessment and development", "Applied Acoustics", 27, (2), 89-102. ] and it was designed for use in the "primary school" to develop and assess children's singing pitching skills.

It was later ported to the "Atari" range of computers [ Howard, D.M., and Welch, G.F. (1993). "Visual displays for the assessment of vocal pitch matching development", "Applied Acoustics", 39, 235-252. ] to take advantage of "MIDI" and more recently to Windows [ Howard, D.M., Brereton, J., Welch, G.F., Himonides, E., DeCosta, M., Williams, J., and Howard, A.W. (2007). "Are Real-Time Displays of Benefit in the Singing Studio? An Exploratory Study", "Journal of Voice", 21, (1), 20-34.] SINGAD enabled the pitching strategies used by children to be explored and compared with adult singers [ Howard, D.M., and Angus, J.A.S. (1998). "A comparison between singing pitching strategies of 8 to 11 year olds and trained adult singers", "Logopedics Phoniatrics Vocology", 22, (4), 169-176 ] and its use for real-time visual feedback in singing training was beneficial [ Welch, G.F., Howard, D.M., and Rush, C. (1989). "Real-time visual feedback in the development of vocal pitch accuracy in singing", "Psychology of Music", 17, 146-157 ]

WinSingad displays

WinSingad offers displays of:
* Input "sound" "waveform" against "time"
* "Fundamental frequency" against time
* Short-term "spectrum"
* Narrow band "spectrogram"
* Spectral ratio against time
* "Vocal tract" area
* Mean/min vocal tract area against time.

In addition, a "web camera" window is often placed on screen with the camera positioned at the singer's side to provide a side view to enable posture to be viewed. In effect, this is a 90 degree mirror which gives a clear indication of spine alignment.

Notes

References

# Howard, D.M., and Welch, G.F. (1989). "Microcomputer-based singing ability assessment and development", "Applied Acoustics", 27, (2), 89-102.
# Howard, D.M., and Welch, G.F. (1993). "Visual displays for the assessment of vocal pitch matching development", "Applied Acoustics", 39, 235-252.
# Howard, D.M., Brereton, J., Welch, G.F., Himonides, E., DeCosta, M., Williams, J., and Howard, A.W. (2007). "Are Real-Time Displays of Benefit in the Singing Studio? An Exploratory Study", "Journal of Voice", 21, (1), 20-34.
# Howard, D.M., and Angus, J.A.S. (1998). "A comparison between singing pitching strategies of 8 to 11 year olds and trained adult singers", "Logopedics Phoniatrics Vocology", 22, (4), 169-176.
# Welch, G.F., Howard, D.M., and Rush, C. (1989). "Real-time visual feedback in the development of vocal pitch accuracy in singing", "Psychology of Music", 17, 146-157.

External Links

* [http://www.winsingad.org website]