Darn these uh's and
and-uh's and so-uh's and
I-uh's and uuuuuuhhhhhh's.

Images of 'Vocal Artifacts'

shown in Audacity


Well, let's get to work
... and edit the uh's
out of these movies.

FE Home Page > FE Videos Page >

This Audio Images Page

! Note !
A few more images or notes or links may be added,
someday --- if I ever re-visit this page.

INTRODUCTION :

It was pointed out on the FE Videos page that, in making demo movies for the FE (Freedom Environment) system, I found that I had to edit out a lot of 'audio artifacts' from the movies.

This page shows what some of those 'artifacts' look like --- as audio wave-forms seen in the GUI of the 'Audacity' audio-file editor.

The artifacts to be edited out include the sounds

  • uh
  • and-uh
  • of-uh
  • this-uh
  • so-uh
  • so
  • I-uh
  • uuuuhhhhhh
  • uhmm
  • a breath intake

Below are images of the wave-forms of these sounds.

We include the waveform of certain words (and letters of the alphabet), such as

  • whoops

  • out
    (esp. the ending hard tee-sound)

  • tools
    (esp. the initial hard tee-sound)

  • character
    (esp. hard cee and tee sounds)

  • directory
    (esp. hard dee and cee and tee sounds ... and soft arrr)

  • ffmpeg
    (ef-ef-em-peg)

  • Q
    (the letter)

some of which are content, not to be edited out.

Enjoy.

(And learn what to look for if you do such audio editing yourself.)

Below is an image of the sound 'UH'. It is about 7 tenths of a second long.

Note that it trails off, but it has a moderately-steep initial 'attack' profile.

 

Below is an image of a LONG 'UH' (in the dark segment). The LONG-UH sound extends over almost 2 seconds.

In the thick red circle is the 'silence' icon that is very useful for 'squashing' audio artifacts that are in a 'low-lighted' (i.e. dark) Audacity selection-segment --- artifacts like the very annoying 'uh'.

I love that 'squash' icon.

Below is an image of the sound 'UHHMMM' (in the dark segment). It is about 5 to 6 tenths of a second long.

Note that the 'MMM' on the end of the 'UHHMMM' sound provides (as you might expect) a relatively long 'tail' to the sound profile.

Below is an image of 'AND-UH' (in the dark segment) ... ZOOMED OUT, to see surrounding words and artifacts (no doubt some more uh's).

The 'AND-UH' sound extends over about 6 to 7 tenths of a second.

Below is an image of 'AND-UH' (in the dark segment) ... ZOOMED IN, to see some details of the wave-forms in the 'AND' and in the 'UH'.

The hard dee sound of 'AND' changes into the start of the 'UH' segment.

Below is an image of 'OF-UH' (about 8 to 9 tenths of a second long), somewhat ZOOMED IN, to see some details of the wave-forms (in the dark segment).

Note that the 'ef' sound of 'OF' tails off, similar to the way that the 'UH' wave form tails off.

Below is an image of 'I-UH' (about 8 tenths of a second long), ZOOMED IN, to see the details of the wave-forms (in the dark segment).

Note that the 'I' and the 'UH' wave forms blend together in this instance.

Below is an image of 'SO-UH' (in the dark segment). It is a little more than 9 tenths of a second long.

Note that there is a 'build-up' of the initial 'es' sound of the word 'SO'.

Below is an image of another 'SO' (in the dark segment), ZOOMED IN pretty close. It is about 4 to 5 tenths of a second long.

Note that you can see the high-frequency sound of the initial 'es' sound in 'SO' --- followed by the less dense 'oh' sound.

Below is an image of 'THIS-UH' (in the dark segment). It is about one second long.

Note that you can see the dense high-frequencies of the 'es' sound in 'THIS'.

Below is an image of a 'BREATH-INTAKE' (in the dark segment). It is about 4 tenths of a second long.

Note its low amplitude compared to the surrounding words and artifacts.

Below is an image of a TONGUE-to-(TEETH/Roof-of-Mouth)-CLICK (in the dark segment).

It is a small fraction of a second long --- about a tenth of a second.

This sound is kind of like a 'tisk' sound ... annoying.

I 'squashed' it.

Below is an image of the word 'WHOOPS' (in the dark segment). It is about 4 to 5 tenths of a second long.

This profile surprised me:   It looks like two separate sounds.

There is a near-complete-silence segment between the 'WHOO' and the 'PS'. There appear to be dense frequencies in the 'PS'.

Below is an image of the word 'OUT' (in the dark segment). It is about 3 to 4 tenths of a second long.

See that little, sharp 'spike' at about 5:15.95.

That provides the 'T' sound of 'OUT'.

It surprises me that that narrow little spike provides the distinct ending of tee-ending words like 'OUT'.

Below is an image of the word 'TOOLS' (in the dark segment). It is about 5 tenths of a second long.

Note the dense frequencies BOTH in the starting 'tuh' sound and in the ending 'es' sound.

Below is an image of the word 'CHARACTER' (in the dark segment). It is about 5 to 6 tenths of a second long.

Like 'WHOOPS', this word surprised me that there is a segment of near-total-silence in the middle of the word.

Note that at the beginning of each of the two sound segments is a sharp, narrow spike.

Those spikes are, I think, the start of a hard-cee sound and a hard-tee sound. (Final determination is left as an exercise for the reader.)

Below is an image of the word 'DIRECTORY' (in the dark segment). It is about 8 tenths of a second long.

The two low, narrow spikes at the start of the two audio-profile-sections of the word seem to be the hard-dee and the hard-tee of 'DIRECTORY'.

The little spike at the end of the 1st section is probably the hard-cee.

Below is an image of the word 'FFMPEG' (pronounced ef-ef-em-peg). It is a little more than 9 tenths of a second long.

The spike at the very end is the hard-gee.

Below is an image of the pronunciation of the letter 'Q' (in the dark segment). It is about 5 to 6 tenths of a second long.

Note the sharp spike at the start of the 'Q' sound, and note the dense frequencies at the start of the pronunciation.

END of the Audio Images

I hope you enjoyed this little visual exploration of the sounds we make with our lungs, throat, tongue, roof-of-mouth, teeth, lips, etc.

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Page was created 2011 Jun 16.

Page was changed 2018 Aug 09.
(Added css and javascript to try to handle text-size for smartphones, esp. in portrait orientation.)