A New Era in Acoustic Analysis: Use of Smartphones and Readily Accessible Software/Applications for Voice Assessment

Rapid advancements in technology have made the acoustic assessment of voice more convenient and less costly; thus, there are few reasons for speech language pathologists (SLPs) not to use acoustic measures to supplement perceptual ratings. Smartphones have been found to be comparable to external microphones in recording quality, and free software programs are available to download into computers to obtain acoustic analyses results. Suggestions on a protocol for capturing and analyzing voice signals using smartphones and computer freeware or smartphone applications will be provided.