Prince ranked number 3.

Below Axel and Mariah ?

Biased much

Really though, just curious what other peoples thoughts on the below ranking list are.

That is interesting, while range is not a competition and it is the song quality and expressiveness and soulfulness counts, I am still fascinated.

Maybe the researchers did not have access to every obscure song, I think the ratings look fair. I was surprised Mariah hit lower notes than Christina Aguilera and it was interesting how Lennon and his one time idol Elvis had the same range, though obviously different singing qualities in their voice.

Maybe somebody could help by checking if they have taken into account Prince doing Damn U, Solo and Scandalous etc.

Otherwise thank you for an interesting graphic. I had heard Axl had the biggest range, but as a Guns n Roses fan (and an Axl fan) I would question how cleanly some of those notes could be hit (which does matter)

Whitney's photo is included, but I don't see her listed on the graph.

I'm kind of surprised that Mariah's lowest point and Prince's are only one step apart. So, I wonder what songs they included overall--for example, going to the original site with the chart (in its interactive form), I find that the E2 comes from Daddy Pop and the B6 from God [go here to check it out:

https://www.concerthotels.com/worlds-greatest-vocal-ranges

The fuller chart does include Whitney Houston--below Lorde and tied with Rod Stewart (they're shown as having exactly the same range). I have no idea how accurate that is. There used to be a few Prince vocal range videos on Youtube. The only one I found just now

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iy37C1pHtDo

makes the claim that a small passage from Temptation ranges from G7 down to G#1 (now, the top is a whistle and the bottom is fry, but still it's pretty a pretty crazy few seconds. I'm not saying either of those notes is really properly part of his range--I mean, I'm ready to accept that Barry White and David Bowie routinely sing in a lower range than Prince, but I'm guessing the limits of quite a few of these ranges are similarly pushing it as far as whether it's still "singing").

206Michelle said:

Whitney's photo is included, but I don't see her listed on the graph.

I actually had the EXACT thought and she should definitely be on that list.

EddieC said:

I'm kind of surprised that Mariah's lowest point and Prince's are only one step apart. So, I wonder what songs they included overall--for example, going to the original site with the chart (in its interactive form), I find that the E2 comes from Daddy Pop and the B6 from God [go here to check it out:

https://www.concerthotels.com/worlds-greatest-vocal-ranges

The fuller chart does include Whitney Houston--below Lorde and tied with Rod Stewart (they're shown as having exactly the same range). I have no idea how accurate that is. There used to be a few Prince vocal range videos on Youtube. The only one I found just now

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iy37C1pHtDo

makes the claim that a small passage from Temptation ranges from G7 down to G#1 (now, the top is a whistle and the bottom is fry, but still it's pretty a pretty crazy few seconds. I'm not saying either of those notes is really properly part of his range--I mean, I'm ready to accept that Barry White and David Bowie routinely sing in a lower range than Prince, but I'm guessing the limits of quite a few of these ranges are similarly pushing it as far as whether it's still "singing").

Thank you, when I clicked on the image I saw I dont think it brought up anything!

I wonder where Damn U would fall, or TMBGITW

Or some of the younger gen singers like Ariana or Ed Sheeran or Sam Smith, though never really thought of Rod Stewart of having a vast vocal RANGE per say (whose music I really enjoy, first ever concert actually ).

And that is a good question about what THEY distinguish as actually 'singing' or not.

Thanks for the links as well for the yt vid, I have enjoyed watching/listening to those in the past.

Vocal range... Not quality.

purplethunder3121 said:

PurpleDiamonds1 said:

purplethunder3121 said:

Vocal range... Not quality.

IMO Axels singing can sound like nails on a chalkboard ... I also prefer a Prince high scream to Mariah's.

My dog has a wide vocal range... Esecially when a fire truck goes by.

I think they short-changed Prince on the low end.

And where the heck is Minnie Riperton? Her range was wider than Mariah's or Xtina's.

purplethunder3121 said:

Vocal range... Not quality.

.

Exactamundo.

.

if you look at the FULL infographic, it has both Lou Reed and Eminem several spots ahead of... Ray Charles (just because they apparently have more range on the low end).

Electrostar said:

Interesting stuff. With technology today both studio and in concert how do we know vocals haven't been tweaked,?

Good question.

There is another thread that discusses this,

and one of our Orgers Baronessa has written a

SUPER COmprehensive document ...

Check it out...its here

http://prince.org/msg/7/436465

[Edited 3/8/17 1:59am]

purplethunder3121 said:

Electrostar said:

Interesting stuff. With technology today both studio and in concert how do we know vocals haven't been tweaked,?

Good question.

The real surprise here to me is that I always considered Freddie Mercury as having a larger range. For instance, he goes really high at the end of Somebody to Love. Makes me wonder if they just sampled select hits? Both Freddie and Prince sounded good at either end of their spectrums.

gandorb said:

purplethunder3121 said:

Good question.

The real surprise here to me is that I always considered Freddie Mercury as having a larger range. For instance, he goes really high at the end of Somebody to Love. Makes me wonder if they just sampled select hits? Both Freddie and Prince sounded good at either end of their spectrums.

Freddie didn't "tweak" anything. What you heard live is what you got on tape.

New scientific study confirms the obvious: Freddie Mercury had an unparalleled singing voice

A group of Austrian, Czech, and Swedish researchers sought out to examine the Queen singer's incredible vocals

• FACEBOOK
• TWITTER
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• REDDIT

Regardless of what they might think personally about Queen, most rock critics and music fans alike recognize the immense vocal talent that was the great Freddie Mercury. Still, in case there was ever any doubt, new analysis of both Mercury’s singing and speaking voices has shed fresh light on just how special his pipes really were.

.

A group of Austrian, Czech, and Swedish researchers conducted the research, the results of which were published on Friday in Logopedics Phoniatrics Vocology (via AlphaGalileo). While they couldn’t confirm the long-held belief that Mercury’s range spanned four full octaves, they did discover some interesting tidbits about the expanse of his voice. For one, despite being known largely as a tenor, he was more likely a baritone. They based this assumption off analysis of six interviews that revealed a median speaking fundamental frequency of 117.3 Hz. That, coupled with anecdotal evidence that Mercury once turned down an opera duet because he was afraid fans wouldn’t recognize his baritone voice, led the conclusion that the singer was talented enough to jump out of his base range.

.

It’s true that without a living test subject, the researchers’ conclusions are largely unconformable. To get closer to the truth, however, the team brought in professional rock singer Daniel Zangger-Borch to imitate Mercury’s voice. They filmed his larynx at 4,000 frames per second in order to look at exactly how the Queen frontman created those iconic rough growls and jaw-dropping vibratos. What they discovered was that he likely employed subharmonics, a singing style where the ventricular folds vibrate along with the vocal folds. Most humans never speak or sing with their ventricular folds unless they’re Tuvan throat singers, so the fact that this popular rock vocalist was probably dealing with subharmonics is pretty incredible.

.

What’s more, Mercury’s vocal cords just moved faster than other people’s. While a typical vibrato will fluctuate between 5.4 Hz and 6.9 Hz, Mercury’s was 7.04 Hz. To look at that in a more scientific way, a perfect sine wave for vibrato assumes the value of 1, which is pretty close to where famous opera singer Luciano Pavarotti sat. Mercury, on the other hand, averaged a value of 0.57, meaning he was vibrating something in his throat even Pavarotti couldn’t move.

.

There’s a lot of scientific and analytical music terminology in the full study (which can be read here), but the conclusion was clear from the beginning: Freddie Mercury had a voice unlike anyone else in rock ‘n’ roll, and that led to one of the most unique singers and stage performers of all time.

.

As they say, the proof is in the pudding:

.

purplethunder3121 said:

purplethunder3121 said:

gandorb said:

The real surprise here to me is that I always considered Freddie Mercury as having a larger range. For instance, he goes really high at the end of Somebody to Love. Makes me wonder if they just sampled select hits? Both Freddie and Prince sounded good at either end of their spectrums.

Freddie didn't "tweak" anything. What you heard live is what you got on tape.

New scientific study confirms the obvious: Freddie Mercury had an unparalleled singing voice

A group of Austrian, Czech, and Swedish researchers sought out to examine the Queen singer's incredible vocals

BY BEN KAYE

ON APRIL 18, 2016, 7:40PM

95 COMMENTS

• FACEBOOK
• TWITTER
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Regardless of what they might think personally about Queen, most rock critics and music fans alike recognize the immense vocal talent that was the great Freddie Mercury. Still, in case there was ever any doubt, new analysis of both Mercury’s singing and speaking voices has shed fresh light on just how special his pipes really were.

.

A group of Austrian, Czech, and Swedish researchers conducted the research, the results of which were published on Friday in Logopedics Phoniatrics Vocology (via AlphaGalileo). While they couldn’t confirm the long-held belief that Mercury’s range spanned four full octaves, they did discover some interesting tidbits about the expanse of his voice. For one, despite being known largely as a tenor, he was more likely a baritone. They based this assumption off analysis of six interviews that revealed a median speaking fundamental frequency of 117.3 Hz. That, coupled with anecdotal evidence that Mercury once turned down an opera duet because he was afraid fans wouldn’t recognize his baritone voice, led the conclusion that the singer was talented enough to jump out of his base range.

.

It’s true that without a living test subject, the researchers’ conclusions are largely unconformable. To get closer to the truth, however, the team brought in professional rock singer Daniel Zangger-Borch to imitate Mercury’s voice. They filmed his larynx at 4,000 frames per second in order to look at exactly how the Queen frontman created those iconic rough growls and jaw-dropping vibratos. What they discovered was that he likely employed subharmonics, a singing style where the ventricular folds vibrate along with the vocal folds. Most humans never speak or sing with their ventricular folds unless they’re Tuvan throat singers, so the fact that this popular rock vocalist was probably dealing with subharmonics is pretty incredible.

.

What’s more, Mercury’s vocal cords just moved faster than other people’s. While a typical vibrato will fluctuate between 5.4 Hz and 6.9 Hz, Mercury’s was 7.04 Hz. To look at that in a more scientific way, a perfect sine wave for vibrato assumes the value of 1, which is pretty close to where famous opera singer Luciano Pavarotti sat. Mercury, on the other hand, averaged a value of 0.57, meaning he was vibrating something in his throat even Pavarotti couldn’t move.

.

There’s a lot of scientific and analytical music terminology in the full study (which can be read here), but the conclusion was clear from the beginning: Freddie Mercury had a voice unlike anyone else in rock ‘n’ roll, and that led to one of the most unique singers and stage performers of all time.

.

As they say, the proof is in the pudding:

.

Hey, you are handy to have around Purplethunder. It's the first time I offerred some random opinion and then someone backs it up with emprirical evidence .

gandorb said:

purplethunder3121 said:

Freddie didn't "tweak" anything. What you heard live is what you got on tape.

New scientific study confirms the obvious: Freddie Mercury had an unparalleled singing voice

A group of Austrian, Czech, and Swedish researchers sought out to examine the Queen singer's incredible vocals

BY BEN KAYE

ON APRIL 18, 2016, 7:40PM

95 COMMENTS

• FACEBOOK
• TWITTER
• TUMBLR
• REDDIT

Regardless of what they might think personally about Queen, most rock critics and music fans alike recognize the immense vocal talent that was the great Freddie Mercury. Still, in case there was ever any doubt, new analysis of both Mercury’s singing and speaking voices has shed fresh light on just how special his pipes really were.

.

A group of Austrian, Czech, and Swedish researchers conducted the research, the results of which were published on Friday in Logopedics Phoniatrics Vocology (via AlphaGalileo). While they couldn’t confirm the long-held belief that Mercury’s range spanned four full octaves, they did discover some interesting tidbits about the expanse of his voice. For one, despite being known largely as a tenor, he was more likely a baritone. They based this assumption off analysis of six interviews that revealed a median speaking fundamental frequency of 117.3 Hz. That, coupled with anecdotal evidence that Mercury once turned down an opera duet because he was afraid fans wouldn’t recognize his baritone voice, led the conclusion that the singer was talented enough to jump out of his base range.

.

It’s true that without a living test subject, the researchers’ conclusions are largely unconformable. To get closer to the truth, however, the team brought in professional rock singer Daniel Zangger-Borch to imitate Mercury’s voice. They filmed his larynx at 4,000 frames per second in order to look at exactly how the Queen frontman created those iconic rough growls and jaw-dropping vibratos. What they discovered was that he likely employed subharmonics, a singing style where the ventricular folds vibrate along with the vocal folds. Most humans never speak or sing with their ventricular folds unless they’re Tuvan throat singers, so the fact that this popular rock vocalist was probably dealing with subharmonics is pretty incredible.

.

What’s more, Mercury’s vocal cords just moved faster than other people’s. While a typical vibrato will fluctuate between 5.4 Hz and 6.9 Hz, Mercury’s was 7.04 Hz. To look at that in a more scientific way, a perfect sine wave for vibrato assumes the value of 1, which is pretty close to where famous opera singer Luciano Pavarotti sat. Mercury, on the other hand, averaged a value of 0.57, meaning he was vibrating something in his throat even Pavarotti couldn’t move.

.

There’s a lot of scientific and analytical music terminology in the full study (which can be read here), but the conclusion was clear from the beginning: Freddie Mercury had a voice unlike anyone else in rock ‘n’ roll, and that led to one of the most unique singers and stage performers of all time.

.

As they say, the proof is in the pudding:

.

Hey, you are handy to have around Purplethunder. It's the first time I offerred some random opinion and then someone backs it up with emprirical evidence .

Freddie's voice is empirical evidence in and of itself.

ForeverPaisley said:

melissadance4ever said:

ForeverPaisley said:

Prince ranked number 3.

Below Axel and Mariah ?

Biased much

Really though, just curious what other peoples thoughts on the below ranking list are.

Whitney Houston is in the photo above but is not listed in the chart below. Beyonce's picture is also pictured and not included on the graph below. They really should be as their voices are the most powerful of the group. The vocal ranges of the singers are interesting to know. I would have written about how powerful the vocal ranges are of each singer and how their voices posses the able to capture the attention of the audience and keep it as well.

Whitney and Beyonce are both included on the full chart--go the via this link

https://www.concerthotels.com/worlds-greatest-vocal-ranges