Same note (pitch), male and female voices - what's different?

[wildetudor]

Say someone plays a note on the piano (an A, 440 Hz), and asks a man and a woman to both sing the same note, at the same pitch. The man will probably have to sing an octave higher (or the woman an octave lower) for them to sound like they're playing exactly the same note (and not just an octave-equivalent note), but once they do that, why is it that, even though the pitch is the same, it still somehow 'feels' like the man's voice is of a lower pitch?

The fundamental frequency from the spectrum of both sounds should, in this case, be the same, so is the difference just in the harmonics (overtones)? Is it that the average of all frequencies in the spectrum of the woman's voice is higher than in the man's, or a similar explanation? I can't think of exactly what acoustic measure would explain this perceived difference.

Anticipated thanks to anyone who's knowledgeable enough in acoustics to be able to help with this!

 

[schip666!]

Presuming they are singing at the same fundamental frequency the difference is in the "formants". You are probably correct that it's the collection of harmonics that's of interest. A human male usually has larger chest and throat cavities which would tend to emphasize the lower harmonics, and the fundamental pitch might be louder in relation to higher partials.

A spectrum analysis might show the difference. But that analysis would have to be of the sustained portion of the singing, and you might be surprised to find that it's not that different. The thing that differentiates many instruments is the "attack"...how you get to the sustain. So another thing to try is to fade-up the sounds and see if you can tell the difference with just the sustain portion.

 

[wildetudor]

I see, thanks very much for your reply!