# Objective Measurements of Voice Quality

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.09578 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.09578/

## Key facts

- Cited by 2 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 12 Oct 2024.

## Built on by (most cited first, 2 of 2)

- [Voice Quality Dimensions as Interpretable Primitives for Speaking Style for Atypical Speech and Affect](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.21809/) (2025)
- [LISE : Listenable Interpretable Speaker Embeddings](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.21305/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

The quality of human voice plays an important role across various fields like music, speech therapy, and communication, yet it lacks a universally accepted, objective definition. Instead, voice quality is referred to using subjective descriptors like "rough", "breathy" etc. Despite this subjectivity, extensive research across disciplines has linked these voice qualities to specific information about the speaker, such as health, physiological traits, and others. Current machine learning approaches for voice profiling rely on data-driven analysis without fully incorporating these established correlations, due to their qualitative nature. This paper aims to objectively quantify voice quality by synthesizing formulaic representations from past findings that correlate voice qualities to signal-processing metrics. We introduce formulae for 24 voice sub-qualities based on 25 signal properties, grounded in scientific literature. These formulae are tested against datasets with subjectively labeled voice qualities, demonstrating their validity.