This article deals on pitch, pitch-range and play-during properties you will usually encounter when you browse or design you pages that utilizes aural media. The properties are among the most significant because they specify the quality and playing aspects of an aural file. Like the other posts, explanations are provided to you for increased understanding.

Pitch property

This property designates the average pitch (a frequency) of the speaking voice. The average pitch of a voice depends on the voice family. For example, the average pitch for a standard male voice is around 120Hz, but for a female voice, it’s around 210Hz. The possible values are: FREQUENCY, which specifies the average pitch of the speaking voice in hertz (Hz); X-LOW, LOW MEDIUM, HIGH AND X-HIGH. They do not map to absolute frequencies since these values depend on the voice family.

Pitch-range property

This property specifies variation in average pitch. The possible value is number, which is a value between ‘0′ and ‘100′. A pitch range of ‘0′ produces a flat, monotonic voice. A pitch range of 50 produces normal inflection. Pitch ranges greater than 50 produce animated voices.
It is highly suggested that you should anticipate the most appropriate settings when you assign values to give optimum and effective results.

Play-during property

This property specifies a sound to be played as a background while an element’s content is spoken. Possible values could be: URI, MIX, REPEAT, AUTO and NONE.

• URI or <uri> is played as a background while the element’s content is spoken.
• mix: means that the sound inherited from the parent element’s play-during property continues to play and the sound designated by the uri is mixed with it. If mix is not specified, the element’s background sound replaces the parent’s.
• repeat: means that the sound will repeat if it is too short to fill the entire duration of the element.
• auto: The sound of the parent element continues to play.
• none: no file is played.
Here is the example:

<style tyle=”text/css”>
<!–
blockquote.sad { play-during: url(”violins.aiff”) }
blockquote q { play-during: url(”harp.wav”) mix }
span.quiet { play-during: none }
–>
</style>

Tags: Aural Media: pitch, pitch-range and play-during properties