About a year ago, someone sent a poem to me, and I tailored it into lyrics and sent them back my rendition. It was catchy, sounded nice; and with the release of X2, I suddenly had R-MIX SONAR. At that time I looked at this track and there were 3 very distinct tonals coming from my voice. It struck me as odd, and I assumed the overtones were from my nasal cavity, etc., but could not really analyze this further. Now that I have Melodyne (from X3), I have looked at this same track again. First, I was happy that I sang this acapella and hit F major almost perfectly by simply grabbing a microphone. But now I can see the notes... and in many areas there are 3 distinct notes (root, perfect octave, and 5th above the octave). In other cases, it is the root and the octave (a couple are root and 7th), and others simply the root. But as I look at this track it is highly polyphonic.
 
Does anyone know a good place to read on the "mechanics" of voice? I once had a friend who studied music say, "You can sing a tone, hum the fifth an get an implied 3rd, and hence chord." So I assume I am doing something similarly, but not sure exactly what (or perhaps my nasal cavity creates the octave and my beak is making the 5th above that!). The fifths above the octave are so far out of my vocal range it is not funny, yet if I remove these the voice track sounds "dead."
 
So bottom line... where are the harmonics in the voice generated?
 
Michael
 

An octave above, and the up a fifth, are the first notes in the harmonic series.

Whenever we make a pitched sound (either sung, or played on an instrument), the note contains many overtones that follow the harmonic series (except possibly a perfect sine wave). The relative amplitude of these are what give an instrument or voice it's timbre.

I suggest google-ing Harmonic Series. It is fascinating stuff. I never thought of using Melodyne to look at this. It may be useful to use it with my students. Thank you for the thought.
 
edited to correct stupid iPad spell checker - grrrrr

mettelus
So bottom line... where are the harmonics in the voice generated?
 

As jb101 pointed out, 1st-Octave-5th is a harmonic series, so I would say 'resonant chamber' which in the case of humans would be the larynx.  The throat, tongue, mouth etc. would apply filtering and envelope control to the set of partials generated in the larynx, creating recognisable sounds (words).
 
That's my best guess anyhow :-) 

Ston is absolutely right. The harmonic content of a tone is controlled by the filtering and envelope of the control. In this case, the face, lips, throat, tongue, etc. The human voice is the hardest instrument in the world to perform with. Think about all the components in your body it takes to sing just a simple line with complete control. Figure also the emotional state you are in while trying to sing.

mettelus
 
 
So bottom line... where are the harmonics in the voice generated?
 
Michael
 

The harmonics are generated along with the primary tone by the vocal cords/vocal folds. They are modified, resonated, filtered etc. by the volume and shape of the larynx, oropharynx, nasopharynx, laryngopharyx and even the more outward aspects of the oral and nasal cavities.
 
As stated a very complex process. Like having a bunch of plugins that don't just chain, but constantly interact with each other to modify sound.
All we have to do is indulge in the joy of expression. Of course vocal training and precision are great, but we're doing art here, not photography.
If you want to put Dylan through melodyne, fine.
 
But I don't want to hear it.

Dylan with the TPain effect! Glorious! LMAO!

Can't wait for Dylan's version of Cher's "Believe"!
 

If you get a chance watch the Groove3 vid EQ Explained. There is a very good section explaining "fundamental tones" and "harmonics". All naturally occurring sounds (like your voice) will have a fundamental tone and harmonics surrounding that tone. If you only had the pure fundamental tone it would sound like a simple beeeeeeeep that you'd hear a TV channel play at the end of the broadcast day. The harmonics give sounds their "timbre". Usually a musical sound like a piano note or your voice holding a note will have the fundamental tone and then harmonics that spike at specific points in the frequency spectrum. The highest harmonic spikes will typically be where the 4th or 5th of that note appear as well as the octaves. That is likely what you witnessed when analyzing the recording.

Fascinating topic!

In a related question, what harmonic is generated if I thumb-pick my vocal chords while holding my index finger over the 7th fret??? Oh, sorry. I see I'm not in the coffee house.