Why fry? An exploration of the lowest vocal register in amplified and unamplified singing

Vocal fry is the lowest register in human vocal production. It can be defined on a psycho-acoustical basis as vocalization at fundamental frequencies below the perceptual threshold for discrete events, which occurs at approximately 70 Hz. Vocal fry has become more commonplace in conversational speech and amplified singing styles such as popular and country, but it is typically unused in non-amplified accompanied performances of most Western Classical music. The author’s presentation will include the results of a survey of listener preferences of performances of popular and country performances with and without vocal fry, and the results of an experiment to examine what acoustical information is being transmitted to listeners during the fry portions of performances.