Preserving the character of perturbations in scaled pitch contours

The global and fine dynamic components of a pitch contour in voice production, as in the speaking and singing voice, are important for both the meaning and character of an utterance. In speech, for example, slow pitch inflections, rapid pitch accents, and irregular regions all comprise the pitch contour. In applications where all components of a pitch contour are stretched or compressed in the same way, as for example in time-scale modification, an unnatural scaled contour may result. In this paper, we develop a framework for scaling pitch contours, motivated by the goal of maintaining naturalness in time-scale modification of voice. Specifically, we develop a multi-band algorithm to independently modify the slow trajectory and fast perturbation components of a contour for a more natural synthesis, and we present examples where pitch contours representative of speaking and singing voice are lengthened. In the speaking voice, the frequency content of flutter or irregularity is maintain...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2010
• Where: ICASSP
• Authors: Thomas Baran, Nicolas Malyska, Thomas F. Quatieri
• Keywords: ICASSP 2010, Pitch Contours, Pitch Inflection, Signal Processing, Time-scale Modification