FAQ · measured answers
Frequently asked questions.
Every number on this page comes from the same benchmark bands and measurements the product runs on — nothing rounded up to sound better.
What is a good speaking pace?
A good speaking pace is 140–160 words per minute, measured with pauses included; 115–190 wpm still reads as normal. Treat the bands as calibration, not law — Walter Cronkite, who anchored the CBS evening news for nineteen years, measures 112 wpm in Resonate’s voice library, below even the acceptable band. Rushing past 190 wpm costs listeners processing time, and the fix is pausing at full stops, not clipping words. Full benchmark bands: resonatevoice.io/methodology.
More: The speaking-pace guide · Every benchmark band · Cronkite, measured
How much of a speech should be silence?
18–35% of it — great speakers pause deliberately for around a fifth to a third of the time, and anything from 8% to 50% is still acceptable. Measured example: Barack Obama’s 2016 Weekly Address is 21% silence — 58 deliberate pauses in a 194-second address, roughly one every three seconds. Too little pausing reads as rushing; too much reads as losing your place. The address, broken down: resonatevoice.io/voices/obama.
How do I know if my voice sounds authoritative?
Measure it: Resonate’s free twenty-second reading returns six perception scores — conversational, public speaking, authority, warmth, likeability and vocal attractiveness — each scored 0–10 from the acoustics of your recording. Authority tracks perceived command: depth, steadiness and unhurried pauses. There’s no signup, and the scores are never blurred or inflated. Record at resonatevoice.io/reading.
More: The authority guide · The free reading
How does Resonate measure a voice?
19 acoustic metrics across 6 dimensions — melody, cut-through, pace and silence, control, warmth, and words — each read against research-derived benchmark bands with published optimal and acceptable ranges. The metrics roll up into the six perception scores, and every verdict is honest: a reading is optimal, low or high against its band, never nudged for flattery. The full method and every band are public at resonatevoice.io/methodology.
More: The method, in full
Is Resonate free?
The reading is free and stays free: about twenty seconds of speech gets you all six perception scores, unblurred, with no signup and no card. Everyone can also claim one free in-depth report by email — the full metric-by-metric breakdown of that one reading, limited to one per person. The paid plan adds unlimited deep analysis, progress tracking over time and comparison to measured famous voices, at £79/year or £9/month in the UK · $99/year or $12/month in the US · €89/year or €10/month in the eurozone.
More: What’s free, what’s paid
Does Resonate keep my voice recording?
Zero recordings are kept from free readings: the audio is analysed in memory and deleted — never written to storage, with no account or identity attached. What remains is anonymous statistics only — individual metric values with no recording, no account, no IP address and no session attached — plus a salted, one-way-hashed rate-limit counter that expires within the hour and, for US readings only, a record that biometric consent was given, kept because US law expects proof it happened. Signed-in recordings are stored deliberately, because tracking progress over months is the product, and deleting a recording deletes the audio and its analysis. The full ledger: resonatevoice.io/privacy.
How long does my recording need to be?
About twenty seconds of natural speech is enough; uploads are read up to 90 seconds, with a 16 MB file limit. WAV, MP3, M4A and most other audio formats work. If a recording doesn’t contain enough voiced audio to score honestly, Resonate says so rather than inventing a number.
Which famous voices has Resonate measured?
30 voices so far, measured 2026-07-26 — including Barack Obama, Maya Angelou, Winston Churchill, Morgan Freeman, Oprah Winfrey and Judi Dench — all run through the same pipeline and scored against the same bands as any user recording. Every page documents its source recording and its condition, and nobody is graded on a curve. Browse the library: resonatevoice.io/voices.
More: The voice library
Can I compare my voice to a famous speaker’s?
Two ways. Paid members get the greats: a measured gap table, metric by metric, between your delivery and a reference voice, with an editorial breakdown of what each voice is mechanically doing — and you can upload any speaker you admire as your own reference (analysed once, then deleted; only the derived measurements are kept). Free, the public voice pages publish every measured number, so you can hold your own free reading beside Obama’s 21% pause ratio. Comparisons are based on Resonate’s acoustic analysis of publicly available speeches; no endorsement or affiliation is implied.
What makes a voice attractive?
Vocal attractiveness is one of Resonate’s six perception scores, and it tracks what listeners rate appealing in perception studies: depth and smoothness in male voices, melody and clarity in female voices. Those are ordinary, measurable acoustics — which also makes them trainable. The full guide: resonatevoice.io/guides/attractive-voice.
What can Resonate measure that a speaking coach can’t?
19 numbers a human ear can only approximate: pause ratio to the percentage point, pitch variability in semitones, the energy share in the 2–4 kHz presence band that decides whether a voice cuts through a room. A coach hears that something is off; the instrument reports which metric, by how much, and against which published band. That’s a complement to coaching, not a replacement — Resonate does the measurement half.
Keep reading
- Methodology — every metric, band and threshold we measure against.
- Pricing — what stays free, what the paid plan adds.
- The voice library — 30 famous voices, measured and documented.
- Guides — speaking pace, pauses and silence, sounding authoritative and what makes a voice attractive.