Female vocals

 I am a man ... Guess why i am seduced by female vocals ?

If i was a woman it will be different...

But i dont listen to any commercial female singer ... They sound artificial almost all  and each one....

 

 

99%+ audiophiles are males.

Saw Tool on Monday night and they were fabulous. Danny Carey was awesome as usual.

As to female vocalists. 

I absolutely love them. Linda Ronstadt, Joni Mitchell, LP, Chrissie Hynde, Mariah Carey, Christine Perfect, Barbra Streisand, etc.

What can I say. Their voices connect to my soul.

Totally agree that current commercia/pop female vocalists almost all sound unbearably awful in how they are recorded, and that's why I listen to none of them. But jazz female vocalists from the 50s up through Shirley Horne's early 90s recordings are fantastic. Give me Rosemary Clooney any day, and I'm happy.

There’s the sex appeal. Also, male vocals can reveal problems in the lower midrange of speakers and systems. This is a frequency range that can be badly affected by the room. Lately, at least in jazz (what I tend to listen to), there are many more female singers than males.

Personally, I enjoy both male and female singers.

Well recorded vocals are a great way to evaluate the clarity and natural characteristics of your system.  Some of them are also awesome performances.  I love a lot of female vocals, but will listen to plenty of male vocals too.  

Lately I've been jamming to a lot of Alison Krauss, Emmy Lou Harris, Sarah Vaughn, Mark Knopfler, Tracy Chapman, a little Enya, Willie, and even some Harry Connick Jr.  

 

P.S. +1 @bojack on Shirley Horn and Rosemary Clooney. I'd add Carmen McRae, Betty Carter, and Abbey Lincoln. All their voices took on a lot of richness as the singers got older.

Jacintha  something cool

 

Julie London Something cool

 

I like both.

 

I also like young lady called Laufey who has very mature voice .

 

Thomas

The female vocal chords are able to produce a tonal quality, for the most part, that cannot be replicated by the male vocal chords, and it is generally more pleasing to hear.  Opera would be a good example.  The male voice is rough on the ear, whereas the female voice is sublime.   IMHO

Our mother's voice was the first sound we heard.  We could hear it in the womb.

 

Dietrich Fischer Dieskau :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0Rry-ahcHM

 

 

 

The greateast male voices for me are not tenor voices but bass voices, especially basso profundo or oktavists because there is a superpower in these voices , something akin to the sacred divine in a commanding way ...Oktavists voices are supernatural and counter tenor voices too but to a lesser degree they are unnatural and angelic in a feminine way ... My male voice supremum is Diectrich Fisher Dieskau who mastered singing at a level only the supreme female voices can do and staying a bass , a baritone ......

Oktavists :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKWueUXhYzg

The most versatile and moving female voice able to sing anything in any genre, is Marian Anderson :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_E7zjNiz2ZI

And now if you want to know how and where Billie Holiday take the inner power to put "strange fruit" expressive version listen to "crucifixion" by Anderson :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiFEOhZ8Jb4

Then Anderson being a counter alto , it is not the high frequencies mastery that make female voice supreme but something akin to some timbre tonal quality which is yin not yang to be short ...

The voice of our mother and the voice of God... You cannot beat these two  even with an angel voice ...😊

 

I think this is true ...

The female vocal chords are able to produce a tonal quality, for the most part, that cannot be replicated by the male vocal chords, and it is generally more pleasing to hear. Opera would be a good example. The male voice is rough on the ear, whereas the female voice is sublime. IMHO

And this is a fundamental determinative fact for all of us...

Our mother’s voice was the first sound we heard. We could hear it in the womb.

This is another reason I love level controls for individual drivers.

BASIC: Use SPL meter on tripod, test tones: get best balance, individual speaker drivers, then re-adjust when both playing IN THAT SPACE. Do some, go to bed, finish in the morning, not easy but results are outstanding.

Then, using musical content refine Frequency Balance and Imaging looking for 2 basic factors:

You must have LPs done by superior engineers, excellent mic setup, and location of instruments/vocalists

MALE: I listen to Richard Burton; Tony Bennet; John Hiatt; Paul Rodgers, Simply Red... i.e. do they sound correct, clearly: their voice, it is surprising how this easily reveals basically ’wrong’ or ’right’.

FEMALE: Next, I move on to women for imaging. Of course their voice has to be ’right’ like above, but then, as the frequencies vary, low to high, say Cassandra Wilson; Annie Lenox; Barbra Streisand ...

There can be no deviation from center, no specific frequencies wandering slightly left, or slightly right relative to the general center (from speaker drivers), which will weaken Imaging. IF ’right’, then they and every instrument/vocalist will be properly/tightly located left or right without slight wandering. You get awesome imaging.

This is why I choose cartridges wide channel separation and tight center balance as well as frequency linearity.

This can also be important when playing MONO Lps. Proper MONO cartridge produces clear distinction of individual instruments, not imaging, but distinction. IF frequencies wander a bit left to right, a partial/false sense of imaging can occur, unlike stereo, now weakening the distinction.

Example: I have LP with MONO recordings from the 20’s and 30’s. I played it with a Stereo cartridge, it came off as a history lesson. Early Louis Armstrong: where’s Louis? I would never listen to it again.

Then I got my Grado Mono cartridge: now, what I described, there’s Louis, that’s a Trombone, that’s a SAX, the distinction of individual instruments was very enjoyable. Also, noise is reduced, essentially by half when no inadvertent vertical noise is mixed in (warps, scuffs, dust in grooves .....

There are plenty of women singers who do not in the slightest resemble jazz, Norah Jones, or Diana Krall, but who actually ROCK. 

I think at some point, someone said that a female vocal was a good source in “testing” the fidelity of an audio system, and it stuck.  
There seems to be now some weird subculture with audio nerds where vocals by a female are weirdly fetishized. 
There are so many damn threads about “female vocals.”  
I don’t get it.  
I think the frequencies the typical female voice produces may cause one to feel they can more easily dial-in the finer points of their home audio.  
Or something. I don’t know.  
Maybe because the typical male voice produces lower frequencies, it makes analysis of an audio system’s fidelity…messier(?)…than if it was done with a female vocal?  
Kind of just guessing at this point. 
I like the human voice.  
Gender got nuttin’ ta do widdit.

After I heard Margo Timmins/Cowboy Junkies covering "Sweet Jane" on Natural Born Killers, I was hooked.

I've not seen Vanessa Fernandez mentioned. This SACD sounds wonderful on a really good system:

https://youtu.be/3Omy_xI40Bo

And for classic rockers, also in SACD:

https://youtu.be/J-Rl8-tXCf0

BTW, if you want a sampling of the various female artists, this gives quite a variety (double CD) and they are really cheap on the bay.

 

I heard a brand-new song on the radio yesterday (KCRW.com) from a female singer that I had not heard before. I think this song is fantastic. It is available on TIDAL,

Mia Doi Todd - Island in the Storm

roadcykler: I know what you mean. I grew up with heavy metal in the 80’s but evolved into many other genres over time, although heavy metal still hits me in the "soul"! I still go to as many metal concerts as I can. The reason that they play female vocals is to show off the speakers. It’s difficult to discern the subtleties of a speaker with all the distortion and countless effects added to metal music. In reality, the best way, at least for me to tell a good system/speaker from a bad one is to listen to a well recorded piano. It’s very difficult to duplicate a piano and make it sound live. If a system/speaker can do that and fool you, then they’ve got something good there!

In reality, the best way, at least for me to tell a good speaker from a bad one is to listen to a well recorded piano. It's very difficult to duplicate a piano and make it sound live.  If a speaker can do that and fool you, then they've got something good there! 

 Exactly ...

Piano is the best  meter to evaluate timbre experience ....

I somewhat agree with the OP.

When did it happen, that the use of the term, "female vocals" has almost become a genre in the audiophile world?

I love female vocals, but it has become almost synonymous with a sort of 'not quite jazz', lightweight, "safe" form of music. It does not actually mean, serious jazz, classical, avant-garde, female fronted progressive bands*, or even female fronted symphonic-metal bands.

But I disagree with Tool or Opeth being being used for demo purposes. As big of a fan I am of both bands, they are not good for evaluating audio gear.

Just because a form of music is intense, and played loud, does not mean it is hard for audio gear to reproduce.

When it comes down to it, the best recordings for evaluating audio, are recordings of acoustic music, where all the musicians are playing at the same time, in the same acoustic space. With very limited done to the recording after the fact.

It is harder to accurately reproduce acoustic instruments and vocals, than the vast majority of mainstream studio recorded, rock recordings. And it is easier to hear if a system is accurate with acoustic instruments and vocals than electronic instruments.

 

*Listen to the band Renaissance, with Annie Haslam and her 5+ octave voice, with near perfect intonation, and power to spare.

@roadcykler - Don't forget Diana Krall! 🤣

I like many female artists but not female vocalists. There are plenty of female artists who write, play and sing their music. I've mostly not been enamored by a vocalist with a few exceptions. I just enjoy the female pov and they mostly do not tend to write the juvenile songs that some male artists specialize in. 

I guess i must be a minority in the club of dudes sitting around in Bonerville enamored by "female vocals". I can play a couple of instruments, but, i can’t sing....I’ve always envied guys who can sing.

 

Geoff Tate (Queensryche)

(Diana Dumass Krall couldn’t write a song like this in several lifetimes, i bet).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-iIs9mK8VSg

 

Phil Collins

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdTr3m8hXQs

 

Brendan Perry (play this at my funeral)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_u8DswywW7A

 

Vitas (Warning: this could fk with some of ya)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXeSWncoFi8

 

David Coverdale

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uS4VxVFAmvQ

 

etc, etc, etc

oh, here’s more

SOHN (turn on your subs for this one)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xW6BvCrHp0

 

Eddie Vedder (Pearljam)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MH4na8a5b9M

 

etc, etc, etc

Bye

 

More tracks to convey the depth of human emotion through "male vocals" to Bonerville inhabitants.

Bill Callahan

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OtGrh9jiR8

 

Israel Nash

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXW_RLiul7g

 

Roland Orzabal (TFF)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HqdNCCYd0I

 

Big Red Machine

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNjEbLQkeMA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhT7Tophch4

 

Tame Impala

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9bw_VtMUGA

 

etc, etc, etc

Good night

 

 

I like female vocalists as Irena Kral , Or Billie Holiday , or Marie Nakamoto ....Joan Baez ...Etc

But most of the female vocalists i idolize are Persian/Iranian or Indian or classical and as those above mostly in Jazz and Fado ... Save some exceptions i stay in these styles ...

I did not even see names in these styles ...😊😁

 Natural emotions must rules over esthetical commercial constrainsts for me ...

Maria Callas as Billie Holiday are convincing before being  pleasant to listen ...

I dont criticize here , i throw an invitation to enlarge the window ...You will never regret it ...

 

A new style of music has his codes and must be learned by habit to be understood ...

Caroline Polachek

 

 

And Grimes.   Forget the association with Musk....

 

 

I just re-discovered Melissa Etheridge, 1st Album.

All the way thru, awesome ability to write about and project pain, envy, longing, pure emotion.

Music fits the material, musicians great, engineering terrific.

When new artist on David Letterman, he said "Everyone Else Should Quit the Business" (something like that.

 

just found her debut with Dave