DavidMHoward

    Professional engineer, academic, organist, pianist, choral director, singer
Outputs - YouTube videos
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YouTube videos    Books    Papers

David has a number of outputs relating to the singing voice including YouTube videos, books, recent events and other more general material relating to human voice production. David has been active in public engagement work and is always happy to be asked about giving external lectures, workshops and other events for societies, choirs, schools and the public. He was an Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Senior Media Fellow for which he was heavily involved with the media as well as public engagement activities. A paper describing his acoustic and voice experiments was published in a special issue on acoustics education of the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.  He has created a summary of his public engagement activities.

YouTube videos (doctordmh) ...
David's YouTube channel is doctordmh where you will find his videos. There are a few from other sites that show David lecturing. Individual links are available below.

Vocal tract organ accompanies 'O mio babbino caro' (Puccini):
YouTube video 22: "O mio babbino caro" (Puccini) arranged by David for the Vocal Tract Organ and soprano (score) and here performed in the Picture Gallery at royal Holloway, University of London. The soprano is 3rd year Music Student Esme Smith. This is David's first public event in his new job as Founding Head of the new Department of Electronic Engineering at Royal Holloway as alluded to in the introduction to this video by the Dean of Science, Professor Paul Hogg.

Lecture at Gresham College, London:
YouTube video 21: David gave a lecture at Gresham College in London titled 'The Science of Singing' as part of the 2014 City of London Festival on 30th June 2014. This lecture brings together much of David's thinking and work on the human singing voice in a practical manner that is relevant to performing singers.

Arduino board to control a synthesiser:
YouTube video 20: The arduino board has many possibilities and here I am using it to generate four MIDI control signals via two X-Y joysticks (pitch, volume, vibrato rate, vibrato depth OR pitch, volume, 1st formant, 2nd formant) to control a Pure Data (PD) voice synthesiser. In this demonstration only one voice is synthesised but the arduino allows 16 inputs enabling a four part choir (soprano, alto, tenor, bass or SATB) to be controlled for performance.  

Can't sing won't sing:

YouTube video 19: As part of the UK's EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council) funded CREST (Creative Speech Technology) Network, a number of public displays were created and demonstrated at different venues. "Can't sing won't sing" allows some of the main aspects of singing (pitch, vowel, vibrato rate and depth and volume) to be explored using a game controller for a single voice, then as a fourth voice in a chord that can be changed and finally in karaoke mode to sing a song!
 
Vocal tract organ accompanies 'O mio babbino caro' (Puccini):

YouTube video 18: "O mio babbino caro" (Puccini) arranged by David for the Vocal Tract Organ and soprano (score) and sung by Dr Helena Daffern. This video was made at the University of York's 50th Anniversary Graduands' Dinner at the Merchant Adventurers' Hall on 11th July 2013, after the first performance in front of HRH Princess Anne at the 2013 Soiree Dinner of the Royal Academy of Engineering at the University of York on 27th June 2013.

Singing in Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir 4:
Youtube video 17: Following the success of his previous 3 virtual choirs, Eric Whitacre wrote a piece to be performed at Buckingham Palace in July 2013 as part of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrations. The piece "Fly to paradise" is performed by his "Virtual Choir 4"; an international internet-based choir with 5905 singers who submitted 8409 videos (some singers, including me, sang more than one part).

Vocal Vision II (David Howard) for Tenor, Bass and two-part vocal tract organ - first performance:
YouTube video 16: This piece shows off the vocal tract organ in a 4-part male voice piece where 2 parts are human and 2 are plastic tracts (score). The first performance was in York's National Centre for Early Music in "From south to north: A vocal pi" in the 2013 Festival of Ideas. Each 3-D printed vocal tract is attached to a loudspeaker over which is played a larynx sound generated using Pure Data (PD) and  played via a MIDI keyboard.

Vocal Vision I (David Howard) for 2 sopranos and computer - second performance:
YouTube video 15: Originally written as part of the CREST (creative speech technology) network's final concert performed in Woodend Creative, Scarborough on 26th January 2013 (see YouTube video 12 below), the second performance was given for the 2013 World Voice Day on 16th April 2013 in the Sir Jack Lyon's Concert Hall, Music Department, University of York with sopranos Clare Steele-King and Annie Howard. This video is of the rehearsal (better audio track than during the performance). It is a vocalise for Vocal Tract Organ and two sopranos (score) and has since been performed at the Festival of Ideas 2013 in the National Centre for Early Music in my concert: 'From South to North; a Vocal Pi'.

Vocal Vision 1 for 2 sopranos and computer - first performance:
YouTube video 14: I wrote this piece for 2 sopranos (Maria Bovino and Lisa J Coates) and computer vocalise synthesised quartet (score) as part of the CREST (creative speech technology) network's final concert performed in Woodend Creative, Scarborough on 26th January 2013. It explores fundamental differences between human and computer synthesised singing and for that reason, is in vocalise. It has since been performed at World Voice Day (April 2013) in the Sir Jack Lyon's Concert Hall at the University of York (see YouTube video 13 above) and in the Festival of Ideas 2013 in the National Centre for Early Music in my concert: 'From South to North; a Vocal Pi'.

Organ Pedals iPhone App:
YouTube video 13: This is a brief video describing the OrganPedals App and showing it in action after a Christmas Service. It accompanies myself playing the organ in St. Luke's Burtonstone Lane in York, UK which has two manuals and pedals (Ped: 16 8; Gt: 88842; Sw: 888428) - there is no pedal reed stop!

Larynx simulator 'virtual choir':
YouTube video 12: This circuit build exercise at Cardiff University to encourage more undergraduates to read for electronics degrees. The circuit uses a 555 timer chip to create an audio oscillator in the singing range which has a frequency control and a 'play' button. The video shows the 'Virtual Choir' finale which involved 40 players in a harmonised rendering of a song. Biggest issue was tuning the 40 boards to the required notes (ultimately these were rather approximate!) of the scale!

Beatboxing lecture at the Queen Elizabeth Hall Foyer, London:
Youtube video 11: I gave a lecture on the 4th of July 2010 at the Queen Elizabeth Hall Foyer for the 350th anniversary of the Royal Society in their Festival of Science and the Arts. It was on beatboxing working with 2 of the UK's top beatboxers: Gracious B and Schlomo.

The von Kempelen speaking machine:
Youtube video 10: This is a demonstration of a (circa 1793 - yes the date is correct!) replica von Kempelin speaking machine which was made by Principal Pipe organs of York.

Electrolarynx demonstration:
Youtube video 9: This is a demonstration of an electrolarynx which might be provided to replace your larynx if you loose its functionality due perhaps to larynx cancer.

Acrylic vocal tract tubes demonstration:
Youtube video 8: This is a demonstration of acrylic vocal tract tubes from Japan which are machine-shaped to produce vowels.

Singing in Eric Whitacre's 'Sleep' virtual choir:
Youtube video 7: This piece called 'sleep' was composed by Eric Whitacre (choral composer) and he set up an international internet-based choir for this, his second "Virtual Choir". Over 2000 singers from all around the world took part and it was all recorded remotely via the internet. This is me singing the tenor part.

Virtual cocoon show reel:
Youtube video 6: This show reel was made for our 'virtual cocoon' project to demonstrate what life might be like if one could experience being somewhere else.

"The babe is sleeping":
Youtube video 5: Written for choir (The Beningbrough Singers sing with David Howard conducting) and Stuart Rimmel's "Cymatic" (which he plays in the video), this demonstrates how computer-based physical modelling functions. Notice that energy is put into the system using the computer mouse rather like the bowing of a stringed instrument.

Cymatic:
Youtube video 4: This is a physical modelling system to enable music to be created using a computer. It was written by Stuart Rimmel as part of a UK EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council)  research project (Principal Investigator: David Howard) to explore such synthesis techniques.

How an MP3 player works:
Youtube video 3: Here I describe how an MP3 player works - did you know that when you buy an MP3 track you only get 10% of the equivalent CD data?

Shrouds parting on a flying fifteen sailing dinghy:
Youtube video 2: For another aspect of the virtual cocoon project (see YouTube video 4 above) we needed sailing footage. Here I am with Christopher Moir sailing his flying fifteen in quite a blow and the port shroud came adrift - not a common everyday experience and not one you would wish for! You can see it detach and what we did to save the mast!

The whistle from the Flying Scotsman:
Youtube video 1: Here I talk about the whistles on the famous Flying Scotsman steam locomotive at the National Railway Museum (NRM) in York, UK. This opportunity to hold the actual whistles arose when I presented a stand called "Warning sounds of the railway" for National Science and Engineering Week from 13th to 15th March 2008. Flying Scotsman was in pieces in the NRM's workshop at that time and the whistle was loaned to my stand for the event.
Recent events ...
2013 (5th Oct): David gave an Invited Lecture for the Combined British Voice Association (BVA) and Association of British Choir Directors (ABCD) Meeting: Voice Science for Choirs, Royal Academy of Music, London: The sound of the choir singer.

2013 (29th Sept): David gave an Invited Lecture with Ballatrix (World Female Beatboxing Champion) for the British Voice Association (BVA) Meeting: Interactive Rock and Pop Day, George IVth Pub, Chiswick, London: The science of beatboxing.

2013 (30th June): David was  invited to give a lecture at the British Voice Association Meeting: Lend me your ears, Baden Powell House, London on The influence of room acoustics on voice: Perception and adaption.

2013 (30th June): David was invited to give the Annual Gunnar Rugheimer Lecture for the British Voice Association Meeting at the personal invitation of the President: Lend me your ears,
Baden Powell House, London: The singing voice in performance – the shape of the vocal tract and its acoustics.

      email david on david at david m howard dot com

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