Syllable Synthesizer for Research on Speech
Wilkison W. Meeks, John M. Borst, Franklin S. Cooper · The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · 1954
A highly flexible synthesizer, designed primarily to permit rapid and convenient exploration of certain aspects of speech synthesis will be described. It utilizes three variable tuned filters, whose inputs may be either buzz or hiss signals (or both) and whose resonant frequencies are independently controllable by signal voltages. The device was designed to facilitate the investigations of the effects of such spectrographic variants as the extent and duration of formant transitions. It is especially suited to studies in which the isolation of the significant speech cues requires the generation of long series of comparatively simple syllabic sounds which differ from one to the next only in small changes of a single pattern element.