Can a human sing with an unseen artificial partner? Coordination dynamics when singing with an unseen human or artificial partner.

Abstract

This study investigated whether a singer's coordination patterns differ when singing with an unseen human partner versus an unseen artificial partner (VOCALOID 6 voice synthesis software). We used cross-correlation analysis to compare the correlation of the amplitude envelope time series between the partner's and the participant's singing voices. We also conducted a Granger causality test to determine whether the past amplitude envelope of the partner helps predict the future amplitude envelope of the participants, or if the reverse is true. We found more pronounced characteristics of anticipatory synchronization and increased similarity in the unfolding dynamics of the amplitude envelopes in the human-partner condition compared to the artificial-partner condition, despite the tempo fluctuations in the human-partner condition. The results suggested that subtle qualities of the human singing voice, possibly stemming from intrinsic dynamics of the human body, may contain information that enables human agents to align their singing behavior dynamics with a human partner.