Estimation of speech synthesizer parameters from acoustic waveforms

✍ Scribed by W.A. Ainsworth

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1970
• Weight: 475 KB
• Volume: 2
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0020-7373
• DOI: 10.1016/s0020-7373(70)80011-6

✦ Synopsis

Several methods of estimating speech synthesizer parameters (formant frequencies and amplitudes) have been evaluated. The technique employed was to analyse the speech waveform by means of a filter bank, and to store the resulting spectra in a computer. The parameters were estimated by program. They were used to control a parallel formant terminal analogue speech synthesizer. The intelligibility of the resulting sounds was measured by audition.

It was found that tracking the parameters outwards from the centre of syllables led to slightly more intelligible synthetic speech than tracking the parameters continuously forwards or backwards in time. When a method of parameter estimation was employed which was designed to give priority to reliable extraction of the second formant frequency, the overall intelligibility of the resynthesized speech was not significantly different from that produced by more conventional methods. The pattern of errors, however, was slightly different.