Pitch Accuracy and Interaction in Unaccompanied Duet Singing

The aim of this paper is to investigate factors influencing singing interaction by analysis of the pitch accuracy of unaccompanied duet singers. Although previous studies have found the relevance of audio feedback to singing accuracy, the interaction of a singer with a live partner still need further research.
In this experiment, 7 pairs of singers sang two excerpts in four repetitions. For each trials, two participants sang unison or duet under 3 listening conditions according to able or unable to hear their partners.
After semi-automatic pitch-tracking and manual checking, we calculated the pitch error and interval error, modelled the factors of influence with a linear regression model and tested the factor of influence by one-way ANOVA.
The results indicates that 1) Singing with same vocal part is more accurate in pitch error than singing with different vocal part.
2) Sing solo has less pitch error but more interval error than sing with a partner.
3) In the listening condition that only one singer can hear her partner, pitch error of independent singers has a weak positive influence on pitch error of dependent singers.
4) Many factors influencing the pitch accuracy such as: nominal pitch, nominal harmonic interval, vocal parts and so on.