History

In 1964, after completing post-graduate study and performing professionally in Europe, I joined Syracuse University (SU) as a voice instructor, later becoming Professor of Voice. This position offered unique opportunities, including access to Tri-Cities Opera in nearby Binghamton and involvement with SU’s Voice Foundation initiative, which provided cutting-edge technology for research in laryngology and voice science.

My early interest in phonetics had already led me to explore acoustics and voice science, and at SU we had the rare opportunity to observe vocal folds during singing using videostroboscopy. Through the Voice Foundation initiative I collaborated with singing teacher Jo Estill and speech scientist Ray Colton, gradually becoming involved in the Voice Foundation symposia in New York City.

In the late 1970s, a chance meeting with Richard Miller of Oberlin Conservatory led me to connect with Harm Schutte, an otolaryngologist and voice researcher in Groningen, the Netherlands. This connection proved pivotal: Groningen was where voice pedagogue William Vennard had worked with voice scientist Janwillem van den Berg on the myoelastic-aerodynamic theory of voice production.

In 1984 I spent a sabbatical with Dr. Schutte, conducting groundbreaking research on sub- and supra-glottic pressures in the singing voice. Our experiments yielded significant findings that contradicted common scientific understanding: the pressure data showed that the basic acoustic impulse was negative, producing a wave of rarefaction rather than compression. Harm Schutte and I continued our investigations for the next 25 years, contributing regularly to Voice Foundation symposia and publishing in peer-reviewed journals. In 1987 I moved to Groningen to focus full-time on scientific research, particularly how modern technology could enhance practical studio instruction.

In the 1990s, personal computers had evolved to the point where they could perform real-time spectrum analysis, providing immediate evidence of formant-tuning effects on voice harmonics. With support from Groningen University Hospital, we developed an MS-DOS program that could simultaneously display the microphone signal, spectrum analysis, and electroglottograph (EGG) signal. While our initial presentations at Voice Foundation symposia generated limited interest, the technology showed great promise in practical teaching.

A breakthrough came when Jim Doing, an American tenor teaching at the University of Missouri, became the first professional singer to successfully implement visual formant-tuning feedback in lessons. The software’s development accelerated through collaborations with key figures: Garyth Nair, a choral conductor at Drew University, helped make it more user-friendly; engineer Richard Horne integrated both acoustic and EGG signals into the first Windows version; and Dutch engineer Gerrie Goeree created an affordable EGG device, making the technology accessible to singers and teachers.

Richard Horne’s integration of spectrogram software enabled real-time visualization of singers’ resonance adjustments. This led to the first “wired master class” in 2007 with pedagogue Scott McCoy, and presentations at the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) conference in 2008, coinciding with the publication of Resonance in Singing, a comprehensive manual for using VoceVista. The acoustic analysis software with EGG capability became known as VoceVista Pro, establishing itself as an important tool for singing teachers worldwide. Its effectiveness has been validated through academic research, including Stephen Robertson’s doctoral dissertation at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

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While the VoceVista journey was unfolding in Groningen, another path toward voice analysis was taking shape in Germany. In 2003, two individuals with distinct but complementary backgrounds came together to create Sygyt Software. The company’s name, chosen from the Tuvan word for a throat-singing technique that produces pronounced overtones, reflected its founders’ deep connection to overtone singing.

Bodo Maass’s path began at Oxford University, where he studied Cognitive Science. His early career took him to Washington, D.C., where he worked on voice-based human-machine interfaces at MicroStrategy. Returning to Oxford, he became the first employee of NaturalMotion, serving as lead developer for their “endorphin” software, a system that used artificial-intelligence principles to synthesize human movement. Introduced to overtone singing in 1994, he found qualified teachers scarce; that experience fueled his desire to build better tools for learning the technique. His search led him to Wolfgang Saus, with whom he enrolled in a year-long training program.

Saus brought a unique combination of scientific training and classical singing expertise, with decades of performance and teaching giving him a deep understanding of how the voice works and how the brain processes sound. He had trained hundreds of students and developed innovative methods for improving choir intonation through overtone control: his “Choral Phonetics” method. The creation of Overtone Analyzer emerged from their shared recognition of a critical gap: the lack of effective software tools for teaching overtone singing. Their software made overtones visible and understandable, valuable not just for overtone singing but for voice pedagogy in general.

In 2008, the parallel paths began to converge. Bodo Maass and Donald Miller recognized the potential in combining their distinct approaches and agreed to work together on a new product, “VoceVista Video,” built on the established voice-science methodology of VoceVista and the advanced visualization of Overtone Analyzer. They chose Overtone Analyzer’s platform as the foundation but planned a complete rewrite to support multiple platforms, not just PC and Mac, but eventually iOS and Android.

The software needed to serve both the practical needs of voice teachers and the rigorous requirements of voice scientists. In 2017 these efforts culminated in the first cross-platform release of VoceVista Video for Mac and PC. The merger brought together two distinct approaches: VoceVista’s traditional scientific format, rooted in classical voice pedagogy and formant analysis, and Overtone Analyzer’s more musical perspective, designed to highlight harmonic overtones as building blocks of music.

This complementary combination of scientific rigor and musical accessibility proved particularly valuable in bridging voice science and practical pedagogy. The evolution continues today, with ongoing development aimed at expanding the software’s capabilities while keeping it accessible to voice teachers and students.