Phase Minimization for Glottal Model Estimation

Abstract

Abstract-In glottal source analysis, the phase minimization criterion has already been proposed to detect excitation instants. As shown in this article, this criterion can also be used to estimate the shape parameter of a glottal model (ex. LiljencrantsFant model) and not only its time position. Additionally, we show that the shape parameter can be estimated independently of the glottal model position. The reliability of the proposed methods is evaluated with synthetic signals and compared to that of the IAIF and minimum/maximum-phase decomposition methods. The results of the methods are evaluated according to the influence of the fundamental frequency and noise. The estimation of a glottal model is useful for the separation of the glottal source and the vocal-tract filter and therefore can be applied in voice transformation, synthesis and also in clinical context or for the study of the voice production.

A uniform phase representation for the harmonic model in speech synthesis applications

“…Nevertheless, using PD, it has been shown that this assumption allows to extract glottal source information which is almost independent of the vocal tract filter [40]. Indeed, this property was critical for estimation of glottal model parameters using phase minimization [25,40]. For the work presented in this article, this same property ensures that the impact of the vocal tract filter on the phase features representing the source is minimal.…”

“…Therefore, in this work, |V i ( f )| encompasses the amplitude spectra of both the glottal source and the vocal tract. Nevertheless, using PD, it has been shown that this assumption allows to extract glottal source information which is almost independent of the vocal tract filter [40]. Indeed, this property was critical for estimation of glottal model parameters using phase minimization [25,40].…”

“…In the particular context of speech analysis, we already used the PD for the estimation of glottal model parameters [25,40] and for emotion valence detection [55]. Moreover, in [40], we have shown that the PD is directly linked to the maximum-phase component of the glottal source. This sole property allows to estimate parameters of glottal models as presented in [25,40].…”

Improved automatic detection of creak

“…Several recent studies in the literature have been devoted to the development of improved methods for modelling aspects of the glottal source and excitation characteristics in speech (e.g., Drugman et al, 2009;Degottex et al, 2011;Kane and Gobl, 2011). Many of these aspects contribute significantly to the perception of voice quality.…”

Joint Source-Filter Optimization for Accurate Vocal Tract Estimation Using Differential Evolution

“…Recently, in [21], the LF model was optimized using a combinatorial search over the entire parameter space consisting of both the glottal parameters and the VT parameters. Degottex et al [22] presented a novel method that minimizes the error in the phase spectrum using a single parameter voice model.…”