Measured voice · The full range

Ian McKellen

120s segment · male register · 16 benchmarked readings · measured 2026-07-26

Comparisons are based on Resonate's acoustic analysis of publicly available speeches. No endorsement or affiliation is implied.

The read

February 2003: between The Two Towers and The Return of the King, the world’s most famous wizard sits down to talk about his childhood — and barely stops. Three pauses in two minutes, none reaching a third of a second; the storytelling momentum simply never lets go. The melody does the opposite of resting: pitch swinging through nearly eighteen semitones — an octave and a half — with variability above the band. Underneath the theatrics, the anchor is genuine: chest resonance and average pitch both optimal. And warmth and likeability read as the strongest qualities on his page — the knight of the realm measures, above all, approachable.

Pitch contour · every voiced frame

1452423390s60s120sHz

Pitch & melody

Average pitch145Hz
in the zoneoptimal 100150 Hz
Pitch variability6.8st
above the zoneoptimal 36.5 st
Pitch range18.0st
above the zoneoptimal 712 st
Pitch dynamism (PDQ)0.45
above the zoneoptimal 0.150.38

Pacing & pauses

Pause ratio0.68%
below the zoneoptimal 1835 %
Average pause length0.27s
below the zoneoptimal 0.41 s
Syllable rate3.88syl/s
below the zoneoptimal 45.5 syl/s

Dynamics

Volume dynamics24.9dB
above the zoneoptimal 818 dB
Loudness variability7.42dB
in the zoneoptimal 3.58 dB

Voice quality

Voice clarity (HNR)11.6dB
below the zoneoptimal 1230 dB
Pitch steadiness (jitter)2.72%
above the zoneoptimal 02.5 %
Volume steadiness (shimmer)10.9%
above the zoneoptimal 09 %
Vocal fry (creak)0.8%
in the zoneoptimal 08 %

Spectral balance

Presence band (2-4 kHz)3.31%
below the zoneoptimal 620 %
Chest band (0-500 Hz)72.4%
in the zoneoptimal 3575 %
Spectral tilt (alpha ratio)-8.69dB
in the zoneoptimal -22-8 dB

Energy by band

Low (0–500 Hz)72.4%Mid (0.5–2 kHz)21.5%Presence (2–4 kHz)3.3%Brilliance (4 kHz+)2.8%

The presence band (2–4 kHz, red) is what carries a voice to the back of a room.

Steal this

the chest anchor

What the measurements endorse is the anchored warmth under all that movement — chest resonance and average pitch optimal together. Hum down a gentle scale with a hand flat on the sternum until you feel the strongest vibration, then speak from just above that note, keeping a trace of it in the words. The swing above can be as theatrical as you like once the ground floor is real.

From the training library: The chest anchor

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