Exploring the Spectral and Temporal Characteristics of Human Beatbox Sounds: A Preliminary Study

Human beatbox is a developing hip-hop branch of music wherein impersonations of the percussion drum are done using manipulations of the oro-laryngopharyngeal structures. This study presents a preliminary attempt of exploration and documentation of the spectral and temporal measures of beatbox sounds produced by a single beatbox performer.

An analytical observational study design was adopted wherein; audio recordings were taken from a professional beatboxer. The participant produced five different types of beatbox sequences consisting of classic kick, inward Ph snare with /ʃ/, throat bass, and uvular oscillation sounds. The recorded beatbox sounds were segmented into preburst and postburst events and were analyzed acoustically.

The scrutiny of the results revealed that the beatbox productions shared characteristic features of linguistic sounds , namely, the following manners of productions, stops, fricatives, and affricates, and further, oro- and laryngopharyngeal regions of the vocal tract as the places of articulation.

It is interesting to note that, the art of betboxing involves wide variety of articulatory configurations and also, the use of resonatory sub-system in the vocal tract.. This knowledge could expand the professional realm of Speech-Language Pathology necessitating the professionals to equip themselves with vocal demands of this relatively budding vocal art form called the beatboxing.