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Vocal Fatigue Detector

This free vocal fatigue detector lets you sustain a comfortable vowel and see how steady your voice is — pitch steadiness, jitter-like period perturbation, and shimmer-like loudness perturbation — combined into a 0–100 score. Capture a baseline at the start of a session and watch whether steadiness drops as you keep singing or speaking.

This is not a medical device and gives no diagnosis. It measures voice steadiness, which is related to but not the same as clinical jitter/shimmer (those need specialised pitch-synchronous analysis). The single most useful signal is change over a session — set a baseline, then watch for a drop — not any absolute number. Many things lower steadiness besides fatigue (technique, a noisy room, your mic, a cold). If you have persistent hoarseness, pain, or voice loss, rest your voice and see an ENT or speech-language pathologist. Your mic is analyzed live and never recorded or uploaded.

Microphone is off. Click “Start microphone”, then sustain a comfortable “ah”.

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How It Works

When you hold a vowel, the tool tracks your pitch with a YIN detector and your loudness frame by frame over a rolling two-second window, then computes three steadiness measures. Pitch steadiness is the standard deviation of your pitch in cents — how much the note drifts. Period perturbation (jitter-like) is the average cycle-to-cycle change in the pitch period, and loudness perturbation (shimmer-like) is the average change in level. A tired or strained voice often becomes less stable — more wobble, more roughness — so these rise. Vocal fold fatigue from prolonged or forceful phonation is one common cause; others include dehydration, muscle tension, and suboptimal breath support. The three measures are blended into a single 0–100 steadiness score (higher is steadier). For a complementary look at the regularity of your pitch oscillations specifically, the voice vibrato analyzer measures vibrato rate, depth, and regularity from the same kind of sustained note.

Absolute values are noisy and depend on your mic, the room, and how you’re phonating, so the tool is built around relative change. Warm up, set a baseline, then keep singing or teaching and re-check: a clear drop from your own baseline is the meaningful signal. This is the same principle used in vocal hygiene self-monitoring — tracking your voice across a session rather than comparing to a population norm. For a singer, singer health monitoring like this can flag accumulated fatigue before it becomes an injury; for a teacher, tracking the teacher voice across a full school day helps identify when to ease back. This complements, but never replaces, how your voice feels and the advice of a professional. Persistent hoarseness, pain, signs of muscle tension dysphonia, or loss of range deserves a real evaluation by an ENT or speech-language pathologist. If you also want to track your usable pitch range across a session, the vocal pitch checker can show your current fundamental frequency in real time.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can this diagnose a voice disorder or strain?
No. It’s not a medical device and gives no diagnosis. It reports acoustic steadiness, which has many causes. For persistent symptoms see an ENT or speech-language pathologist.
Is this the same as clinical jitter and shimmer?
It’s related but not identical. True clinical jitter/shimmer use pitch-synchronous cycle marking; this uses frame-by-frame period and amplitude perturbation, which is a practical approximation — good for tracking change, not for clinical numbers.
How should I use the baseline?
Warm up, sustain a steady “ah”, and press Set baseline. Keep using your voice, then come back and sustain the same vowel — the tool shows how far your score has moved from that baseline.
Is my microphone recorded or uploaded?
No. Audio is analyzed live in your browser and never leaves your device. Stopping the mic releases it immediately.
Why is my score low even when I feel fine?
Background noise, a breathy or very quiet voice, an unsteady held note, or your mic can all lower steadiness. Sing a clear, supported, sustained vowel in a quiet room for the most reliable reading.
How big a drop in steadiness score should concern a singer or teacher?
There is no single clinically validated threshold because this tool is not a medical device. As a practical guide: a drop of 5–10 points from your personal baseline after a session is modest and often recovers with a brief rest; a drop of 15 points or more that persists after warming down is a stronger signal to reduce vocal loading for the rest of the day. If you regularly see large drops before a session is even half over, that pattern — combined with how your voice feels — is worth discussing with a speech-language pathologist specializing in voice or a laryngologist.
Is this useful for teachers and other professional voice users, not just singers?
Yes. Teachers, call-center agents, coaches, clergy, and anyone whose job demands extended phonation can monitor their steadiness across a working day in exactly the same way a singer monitors across a rehearsal. The tool is equally useful for any sustained vowel — you do not have to sing a musical pitch; a steady spoken "ah" works fine. Set your baseline at the start of your working day or shift, then re-check midway and at the end to see how much your voice has changed. This kind of self-monitoring is a core vocal hygiene practice recommended by voice clinics to help professional voice users pace their vocal load and avoid chronic strain.
Can I track vocal fatigue across multiple days, or just within one session?
The baseline resets each time you click "Set baseline," so it is designed for within-session tracking rather than multi-day comparison. To monitor across days, note your steadiness score and the three sub-scores (pitch steadiness in cents, period perturbation, loudness perturbation) at the same point in your warm-up each day — for example, immediately after a five-minute warm-up on a consistent pitch — and keep a simple log. A consistent downward trend over several days may indicate cumulative vocal fold fatigue that a single rest day might not reverse. That kind of pattern warrants voice rest and a professional evaluation.