Decision Tree Based Context Clustering with Cross Likelihood Ratio for HMM-based TTS

Abstract

This paper proposes a decision tree based context clustering algorithm for HMM-based speech synthesis systems using the cross likelihood ratio with a hierarchical prior (CLRHP). Conventional algorithms tie the context-dependent HMM states that have similar statistical characteristics, but they do not consider the statistical similarity of split child nodes, which does not guarantee the statistical difference between the final leaf nodes. The proposed CLRHP algorithm improves the reliability of model parameters by taking a criterion of minimizing the statistical similarity of split child nodes. Experimental results verify the superiority of the proposed approach to conventional ones.