Intensity Threshold:

First Color Change Threshold:

Second Color Change Threshold:

Number of Bins:

Range Limit:

Thin Color:

Thick Color:

Very Thick Color:

Say Results Out Loud:

Seconds to Wait before Saying Results:





Thickness / Weight


Time

Legend:
Thin/Light, Voiced
Thick/Heavy, Voiced
Very Thick/Heavy, Unvoiced

Help

Thickness Meter is an app which can be used to roughly gauge the thickness (aka weight) of your voice when talking. For best results, try to avoid background noise. See this video if you're not already familiar with vocal thickness.

TL;DR: Unvoiced sounds (sounds that don't vibrate your vocal cords) will always show up as thick/heavy on the meter. The thinner/lighter your voice is, the more it will show up in the green "thin" band and the thicker/heavier it is, the more it will show up in the red "thick" band but it is normal for your voice to not be perfectly in one band.

When you first start the app, you will be presented with the settings panel and a Start button. Press the Start button to save your settings and begin measuring thickness. Once started, the Start button will be replaced with a Stop button which can be used to stop the meter and return to the settings panel. There is also a Pause button which can be used to pause the app. While paused, the Pause button will change into a Resume button which can be used to resume the app. Next to the Pause button is a record button which can be used to record your voice. Once you have made a recording, a player will appear next to the button which can be used to replay your recording and to see your results on the graph.

While the meter is running, a scrolling graph will be shown. As you speak, the thickness of your voice will be plotted on the graph. The vertical axis corresponds to thickness: lower equals thinner and higher equals thicker. The graph is divided into three color-coded bands with a gap between each band. From bottom to top they are: green for thin voiced sounds, red for thick voiced sounds and blue for unvoiced sounds. Unvoiced sounds (those that don't vibrate the vocal cords) have an "infinite thickness" regardless of how thin your voice otherwise is. In English, the unvoiced sounds include S, F, Sh, C/K, T, Ch, Th, and P. When using a thin voice to say words that include unvoiced sounds, your thickness will pass through the red "thick" band as your voice transitions from between the voiced and unvoiced parts of the word. As such, seeing your voice be partially in the thick band is normal even when you are using a thin voice and seeing your voice partially be in the thin band is normal when using a thick voice. The ratio between the two indicates the thickness of your voice, particularly when saying voiced sounds. Try using the meter with both a thin and a thick voice to see how each looks on the graph for your voice.

The meter may require some calibration for it to work with your voice and microphone. Start the meter and try saying "EEEEEE" for a few seconds with both a thin and thick voice. The line on the graph should be low and green when you are using a thin voice and higher and red when you use a thick voice. Then, try saying "SSSSSS". The line should be almost entirely in the blue "unvoiced" band. The following settings are available from the settings panel:
You can use this app offline by saving a copy of it through your browser (Ctrl + S on most desktop browsers). The source for this app is contained within a single file and this app is open source; see below for licensing details.

License

Copyright (C) 2022

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU Affero General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU Affero General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU Affero General Public License along with this program (see below). If not, see https://www.gnu.org/licenses.