Exercise 1

For this exercise, you will download a file of words recorded in my voice. Then you should measure the F1 and F2 of each vowel and describe the first and second formants of my vowels. Hand in the description and the spectrograms for my vowels along with answers to the questions in (6).

1.	Download the file called stonham_vowels.
2.	Edit the file, so that you can examine the spectrogram of each vowel. (Note that the spectrogram window can only show 10 seconds at a time. You should probably only examine two or three vowels at a time or they will be too narrow to see properly.)
3.	Measure the vowel formants (F1 and F2) for each vowel and note the average frequency for each one.
4.	Follow the usual procedure to print out the spectrograms. Make sure that the spectrograms indicate the frequency in 1000s of Hz and the time in 0.1 seconds.
5.	When you are finished, make a table to compare the F1 and F2 frequencies of all the vowels and hand it in with the spectrograms and your answers to the questions in (6).

6.	Question 1: How do the formants of these vowels differ from each other? Compare high vowels with low vowels, front vowels with back vowels and try to determine the general features of different vowels.
	Question 2: Do you notice anything special about the formants of any of these vowels? Discuss.

Using Praat to measure formant frequencies:
	1.	Follow the usual procedure to load the sound files into Praat.
	2.	Go to Edit to see the analysis window.
	3.	Adjust the view using the various spectrum settings to get the best possible spectrograms. (You may want to start with a Dynamic Range of around 55dB and then adjust from there.)
	4.	Once you have your spectrogram looking the way you want it to, go to the Formant menu and select Show formants. This will give you a series of red bars or dots marking the formants in your spectrogram.
	5.	You can use these to help you measure the formant frequencies, but they are not always accurate.
	6.	You can also use the marks on the left side of the spectrogram window that appear if you click on a place on the spectrogram. You can then pick the best place to measure the F1 and F2 of the vowels and note the frequencies.
	7.	You can also place your mouse in a specific place, click and then press the F1 or F2 function keys on your keyboard and this should give you a window with the frequencies. This only works if you turn on the Show Formants.
	8.	Once you have done your measurements you should Extract visible spectrogram as usual. Then go back to the Objects window and create pictures of the spectrograms for the vowels (you may need to make several so they fit well).
	9.	When you have a finished graphic of each spectrogram, make sure it indicates both frequency in 1000s of Hz and the time in 0.1 of a second.
	10.	Go to the File menu and select Write to EPS file ... or one of the other graphic formats and it will ask you to name the file and select a place for it on your disk. Do this and Save.
	11.	You should now have a file that you can print out.
	12.	If EPS doesn't work you can save in a different format, print directly to the printer, or do a screen capture and print.