Voice synthesizing apparatus capable of adding vibrato effect to synthesized voice

• US 7,389,231 B2
• Filed: 08/30/2002
• Issued: 06/17/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 09/03/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Yamaha Corporation
• Original Assignee: Yamaha Corporation
• Inventors: Yoshioka, Yasuo, Loscos, Alex
• Primary Examiner(s): Edouard; Patrick N.
• Assistant Examiner(s): YEN, ERIC L
• Application Number:
  US10/232,802
• Publication Number:
  US 20030046079A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,118 Days
• Field of Search: 704/268
• US Class Current: 704/268
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 13/10 Prosody rules derived from text; Stress or intonation

Abstract

A voice synthesizing apparatus comprises: a storage device that stores a first database storing a first parameter obtained by analyzing a voice and a second database storing a second parameter obtained by analyzing a voice with vibrato; an input device that inputs information for a voice to be synthesized; a generating device that generates a third parameter based on the first parameter read from the first database and the second parameter read from the second database in accordance with the input information; and a synthesizing device that synthesizes the voice in accordance with the third parameter. A very real vibrato effect can be added to a synthesized voice.

Claims

1. A voice synthesizing apparatus for synthesizing a voice with vibrato in accordance with input information, said apparatus comprising:

a storage device that stores a first database, a second database and a third database, wherein said first database stores a first EpR parameter in each phoneme, which is obtained by resolving a spectrum envelope of harmonic components obtained by analyzing a voice, wherein said a second database stores a second EpR parameter obtained by analyzing a voice with vibrato, wherein said third database stores a template indicative of time sequential changes of an EpR parameter, and wherein each of said first and second EpR parameters includes an envelope of excitation waveform spectrum, excitation resonances, formants and a differential spectrum;

an input device that inputs voice information including information for specifying a pitch, dynamics, and phoneme of an output voice to be synthesized and a control parameter for adding vibrato to the output voice to be synthesized;

a generating device that reads out the first EpR parameter and the template from the storage device in accordance with the input voice information and applies the read-out template to the read-out first EpR parameter in order to generate a third EpR parameter;

a vibrato adding device that reads out the second EpR parameter from the storage device in accordance with the control parameter, calculates an additional value based on the second EpR parameter and adds the calculated additional value to the third EpR parameter; and

a synthesizing device that synthesizes the output voice with vibrato in accordance with the voice information and the third EpR parameter to which the calculated additional value is added.

2. A voice synthesizing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the storage device stores the second EpR parameter for each of attack part and body part.

3. A voice synthesizing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the storage device stores the second EpR parameter for each of attack part, body part and release part.

4. A voice synthesizing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a beginning point or an ending point of the second EpR parameter is a maximum value of the second EpR parameter.

5. A voice synthesizing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the additional value calculated based on the second EpR parameter is a difference value from a predetermined value.

6. A voice synthesizing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the control parameter includes parameters representing a vibrato beginning time, vibrato time length, vibrato rate, vibrato depth and tremolo depth.

7. A voice synthesizing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the second EpR parameter includes parameters relating to a pitch and gain relating to vibrato.

10. A voice synthesizing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said vibrato adding device reads out the second EpR parameter for each of the attack part and the body part from the storage device in accordance with the control parameter, calculates the additional value longer than a duration of the body part of the second EpR parameter by looping the body part of the second EpR parameter.

11. A voice synthesizing apparatus according to claim 10, wherein an offset subtraction process is performed to the body part of the second EpR parameter before the additional value is calculated.

8. A method of synthesizing a voice with vibrato in accordance with voice information, the method comprising:

(a) inputting the voice information including information for specifying a pitch, dynamics, and phoneme of an output voice to be synthesized and a control parameter for adding vibrato to the output voice to be synthesized;

(b) reading, from a storage device that stores a first database, a second database, and a third database, wherein said first database stores a first EpR parameter in each phoneme, which is obtained by resolving a spectrum envelope of harmonic components obtained by analyzing a voice, wherein said second database stores a second EpR parameter obtained by analyzing a voice with vibrato, wherein said third database stores a template indicative of time sequential changes of an EpR parameter, and each of said first and second EpR parameters includes an envelope of excitation waveform spectrum, excitation resonances, formants and differential spectrum;

(c) generating a third EpR parameter by reading out the first EpR parameter and the template from the storage device in accordance with the input voice information and applies the read-out template to the read-out first EpR parameter;

(d) reading out the second EpR parameter from the storage device in accordance with the control parameter, calculating an additional value based on the second EpR parameter and adding the calculated additional value to the third EpR parameter; and

(e) synthesizing the output voice with vibrato in accordance with the input voice information and the third EpR parameter to which the calculated additional value is added.

9. A computer-readable medium having instructions thereon which, when executed, cause a computer to perform a process for synthesizing a voice with vibrato in accordance with voice information, the process comprising:

(a) inputting the voice information including information for specifying a pitch, dynamics, and phoneme of an output voice to be synthesized and a control parameter for adding vibrato to the output voice to be synthesized;

(b) reading, from a storage device that stores a first database, a second database, and a third database, wherein said first database stores a first EpR parameter in each phoneme, which is obtained by resolving a spectrum envelope of harmonic components obtained by analyzing a voice, wherein said second database stores a second EpR parameter obtained by analyzing a voice with vibrato, wherein said third database stores a template indicative of time sequential changes of an EpR parameter, and each of said first and second EpR parameters includes an envelope of excitation waveform spectrum, excitation resonances, formants and differential spectrum;

(c) generating a third EpR parameter by reading out the first EpR parameter and the template from the storage device in accordance with the input voice information and applies the read-out template to the read-out first EpR parameter;

(d) reading out the second EpR parameter from the storage device in accordance with the control parameter, calculating an additional value based on the second EpR parameter and adding the calculated additional value to the third EpR parameter; and

(e) synthesizing the output voice with vibrato in accordance with the input voice information and the third EpR parameter to which the calculated additional value is added.