Datasets:

Harmonic-Frontier-Audio
/

Subharmonic_Phonation_Vocal_Fry_Preview

pretty_name: Subharmonic Phonation / Vocal Fry (Preview)
license: cc-by-nc-4.0
size_categories:
  - n<1K
tags:
  - audio
  - music
  - dataset
  - vocals
  - subharmonic_phonation
  - vocal_fry
  - extended_vocal_techniques
  - overtone_singing
  - world_music
  - folk_vocals
  - acoustic_voice
  - ethnomusicology
  - sound_design
  - sampling_96khz
  - bitdepth_24bit
  - mono
task_categories:
  - other
language:
  - und
thumbnail: thumbnail.png
description: >-
  A high-fidelity vocal dataset demonstrating subharmonic phonation — a complex
  extended vocal technique used across multiple world singing traditions —
  designed for AI training, music research, and creative audio development.

Harmonic Frontier Audio – Subharmonic Phonation / Vocal Fry, Preview (v0.9)

A high-fidelity vocal dataset designed for AI training, music research, and creative sound development.

Subharmonic Phonation / Vocal Fry, a preview dataset, created by Harmonic Frontier Audio.
It provides researchers, developers, and musicians with a compact reference set demonstrating the quality, formatting, and metadata conventions used in the Harmonic Frontier Audio Extended Vocal Techniques Series.

🎶 About Subharmonic Phonation

Subharmonic phonation (commonly referred to as vocal fry when produced at low frequencies) is a complex vocal technique in which the vocal folds oscillate at frequencies that are integer divisions of the fundamental pitch, creating a characteristic growling, overtone-rich sound. This technique produces a lower pitch, most commonly an octave below the sung pitch, by allowing the lower frequency to occur alongside the primary one.

This form of voicing is present in numerous world singing traditions — including Tuvan and Mongolian throat singing, Tibetan Buddhist chant, and various forms of overtone or harmonic singing.
It is also occasionally employed in Western vocal performance, experimental music, and cinematic sound design for its unique texture and resonance.

This dataset presents a neutral, non-traditional representation of the technique — recorded as a general-purpose study of subharmonic phonation rather than as an emulation of any specific cultural or regional style.
The intention is to provide AI researchers and sound designers with clean, controlled examples of this complex human sound source for analysis, synthesis, and expressive modeling.

If you find this dataset useful, please consider giving it a 🤍 on Hugging Face to help others discover it.

📂 Contents

Audio Files (.wav)

Recorded at 96 kHz / 24-bit WAV format
Exported as mono
Fade-ins and fade-outs of 3–5 ms applied for transient consistency
DC offset minimized and normalized to maintain consistent loudness
No compression, normalization, or external processing applied
High-pass filtered at ~40 Hz to remove subsonic rumble

Categories in this Preview

Sustained Phonation
- Sustained subharmonic tones across varying registers, sustained tone demonstrating the transition between subharmonic phonation and standard phonation
Scales
- Scales demonstrating transitions between pitches
Consonants
- Sustained pitches with repeated consonant sounds
Short Melodic Exercise
- A simple original phrase demonstrating controlled transitions between pitches emphasizing the subharmonic registers

Metadata (.csv)
Includes structured fields for file name, category, content, note pitch (when applicable), IPA vowel/consonant symbol, microphone, channel configuration, sample rate, bit depth, recording chain, and dataset version.

🎤 Recording Notes

Recorded in a treated studio environment using a single-mic setup:
- Microphone: Rode NT1-A dynamic microphone
- Recording chain: Rode NT1-A → Zoom F8n Pro
Recorded at 96 kHz / 32-bit float, rendered as 96 kHz / 24-bit mono WAV for release.
Room tone, breath noise, and subtle resonant shifts were preserved to maintain natural realism.

🌈 Spectrogram Preview

Below is a spectrogram showing the layered harmonic structure and subharmonic content characteristic of this technique:

🎧 Listen – Demonstration Track

Below is a short mixed and mastered music example featuring this dataset in context.
It illustrates how Subharmonic Phonation / Vocal Fry can be integrated into a musical arrangement, demonstrating both the expressive timbre and harmonic richness of the technique.

🎵 Track: “Subharmonic Example”
🎚️ Composer / Producer: Blake Pullen
📦 Source: Harmonic Frontier Audio – Subharmonic Phonation / Vocal Fry (Preview)

📜 This track is provided for demonstration purposes only and is not part of the dataset.
It may not be used for AI training, redistribution, or derivative works.

🪶 The instrumental accompaniment was generated using Suno’s Pro plan under a commercial license.
All vocal material and featured dataset sounds were performed, recorded, and produced by Blake Pullen for Harmonic Frontier Audio.

⚡ Usage

This preview pack is designed for:

Evaluation of Harmonic Frontier Audio dataset structure and fidelity
Testing AI and DSP systems that model or classify vocal timbres
Creative sound design and extended voice synthesis research

👉 Note: This is not a full dataset.
The complete Harmonic Frontier Audio dataset for Subharmonic Phonation / Vocal Fry will include:

Broader pitch range and dynamic envelopes
Additional vowel shapes and harmonic ratios
Extended glissando and resonance control examples

💡 Full Dataset Availability

This is a preview pack of the Subharmonic Phonation / Vocal Fry dataset.
The complete dataset — with extended dynamic, vowel, and resonance variations — will be available for licensing.

For licensing inquiries:
📩 [email protected]

📥 How to Use This Dataset in Python

You can load the Parquet-converted version of this dataset directly with the datasets library:

from datasets import load_dataset

dataset = load_dataset(
    "Harmonic-Frontier-Audio/Subharmonic_Phonation_Vocal_Fry_Preview",
    split="train"
)

print(dataset)

📜 License

Released under CC BY-NC 4.0.

Free for non-commercial use, testing, and research.
Commercial licensing available via Harmonic Frontier Audio.
A formal rights declaration is included in this dataset bundle.

📧 Contact

Harmonic Frontier Audio
📩 [email protected]
🌐 https://harmonicfrontieraudio.com/

🔮 Future Roadmap

This preview release is part of the Harmonic Frontier Audio – Extended Vocal Techniques Series.
Upcoming planned datasets include:

Overtone Singing
Whisper Phonation
Falsetto
Vocal Percussion
Growl / Metal Vocals

Over time, Harmonic Frontier Audio will expand the Extended Vocal Techniques Series alongside its Folk and World Instrument catalogs — creating the first unified library of ethical, rights-cleared world and human vocal datasets for AI training, synthesis, and sound design.

🗒️ Release Notes

Version 0.9 (Nov. 2025) – Initial Preview Pack release for Subharmonic Phonation / Vocal Fry.
See CHANGELOG.md for detailed version history.

Citation

If you use this dataset in your research, please cite:

Pullen, B. (2025). Subharmonic Phonation / Vocal Fry Dataset (Preview) [Data set]. Harmonic Frontier Audio. Zenodo.
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17526976

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0003-4527-0178

BibTeX

@dataset{pullen_2025_subharmonic_preview,
  author       = {Blake Pullen},
  title        = {Subharmonic Phonation / Vocal Fry Dataset (Preview)},
  year         = {2025},
  publisher    = {Harmonic Frontier Audio},
  version      = {0.9},
  doi          = {10.5281/zenodo.17526976},
  url          = {https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17526976}
}