Paper Info
Title
Mixed source model and its adapted vocal tract filter estimate for voice transformation and synthesis
Abstract
In current methods for voice transformation and speech synthesis, the vocal tract filter is usually assumed to be excited by a flat amplitude spectrum. In this article, we present a method using a mixed source model defined as a mixture of the Liljencrants-Fant (LF) model and Gaussian noise. Using the LF model, the base approach used in this presented work is therefore close to a vocoder using exogenous input like ARX-based methods or the Glottal Spectral Separation (GSS) method. Such approaches are therefore dedicated to voice processing promising an improved naturalness compared to generic signal models. To estimate the Vocal Tract Filter (VTF), using spectral division like in GSS, we show that a glottal source model can be used with any envelope estimation method conversely to ARX approach where a least square AR solution is used. We therefore derive a VTF estimate which takes into account the amplitude spectra of both deterministic and random components of the glottal source. The proposed mixed source model is controlled by a small set of intuitive and independent parameters. The relevance of this voice production model is evaluated, through listening tests, in the context of resynthesis, HMM-based speech synthesis, breathiness modification and pitch transposition.
Year
DOI
Venue
2013
10.1016/j.specom.2012.08.010
Speech Communication
Keywords
Field
DocType
glottal source,proposed mixed source model,mixed source model,voice transformation,vocal tract filter estimate,generic signal model,glottal source model,arx-based method,lf model,current method,voice production model,vocal tract filter,speech synthesis,voice quality
Least squares,Speech synthesis,Computer science,Naturalness,Speech recognition,Hidden Markov model,Small set,Gaussian noise,Amplitude,Vocal tract
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
55
2
0167-6393
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
11
0.65
29
Authors
4
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Gilles Degottex120314.84
Pierre Lanchantin214713.59
Axel Roebel311816.84
Xavier Rodet4627107.87