Synthesis of male and female voices: Control of voice quality based on source characteristics
P. J. Price · The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · 1984
Voice quality can serve to distinguish individuals, social classes, and linguistic groups. It can mark the difference between male and female voices and between “normal” and pathological or synthetic voices. The goal of this study is a better understanding of these differences in order to synthesize more natural and more varied voices, in particular, female voices. Inverse filtering was used to retrieve the glottal waveform from isolated monosyllables produced by four women and four men. The resulting waveforms were examined at onset, at their midpoints, and at offset. Analysis included temporal and spectral measures. Significant differences were found between the male and female groups. The results of the analysis were used to develop a set of parameters to characterize the glottal cycle and its changes within an utterance. A tape will be played demonstrating the effects of varying these parameters.