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Perception and Vocal Adaptation in Virtual Choir Singing
Time: Fri 2026-10-23 10.00
Location: F3, Lindstedtvägen 26
Language: English
Subject area: Speech and Music Communication
Doctoral student: Kajornsak Kittimathaveenan , Tal, musik och hörsel
Opponent: Prof Helena Daffern, University of York, UK
Supervisor: Professor Sten Ternström, Tal, musik och hörsel; Docent Kjetil Falkenberg, Medieteknik och interaktionsdesign; A/Prof Munhum Park, King Mongkut's Institute of Technology Ladkrabang, Thailand
QC 20261002
Abstract
Choir sound emerges from individual singers, yet each singer also hears and responds to the collective sound of the ensemble from within it. Studying this relationship under controlled conditions is challenging in live choir experiments, where the singer’s own voice, the surrounding voices, the room response, and the ongoing adaptations of performers are all present in the sound field. Consequently, the singer’s own voice (Self) and the surrounding ensemble (Other) are difficult to isolate and control independently under repeatable conditions. This thesis aimed to establish a controlled experimental framework for investigating choir acoustics at the level of the individual singer and to examine how such a framework can be used to study singers’ perception, Self–Other balance, and vocal adaptation.
Across the included studies, controlled interaction with reproduced Other, spatial rendering, and the representation of Self informed an integrated virtual choir framework that kept the singer actively performing. The framework was applied in a within-singer choir-spacing experiment with 39 experienced choir singers performing one at a time with spatialised virtual-choir playback under three spacing conditions. Perceptual responses were analysed alongside separated, calibrated, system-referenced measures of Self level, Other level, and Self-to-Other Ratio (SOR).
Wider spacing increased perceived audibility of Self and was associated with greater perceived ease of tuning, whereas the audibility of different parts of Other showed no uniform improvement. Most singers favoured wider spacing for concert performance. Other changed substantially more than Self, so the Self–Other balance shifted across conditions rather than being restored. The Self–Other relationship became more apparent at phrase level, and perceived self-hearing was more clearly associated with SOR than with Self level alone. These findings demonstrate the feasibility of investigating singer–ensemble interaction with controlled virtual acoustics during active singing.