The acoustic theory of speech production

As with any modelling process, we have to reach a compromise between a model that accurately describes the phenomena in question and one that is simple, effective and suited to practical needs. If we tried to capture every aspect of the vocal organs directly, we would have to account for every muscle movement, articulator shape and tissue absorption characteristic directly, and then determine how each of these affected speech production. This would be a huge undertaking, and, even if an accurate description of aU these factors could be determined, the result could be too complicated for useful analysis. We therefore have to make quite a number of simplifying assumptions in order to obtain a usable model. 

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A filter is a mathematically defined system for modifying signals. In signal processing filters are put to many uses as their name might suggest they can filter out some unwanted portion of a signal. In speech synthesis, we are interested in them mainly because of the acoustic theory of speech production, (section 11.1), which states that speech production is a process by which a... 

There are three main techniques which make use of the classical acoustic theory of speech production model ... 

The development of the source-filter model and the general acoustic theory of speech production by Fant and others (see Chapter 11) was a key breakthrough step and allowed the development of the type of formant synthesisers described here. The Parametric... 

Pant, G. Acoustic Theory of Speech Production. The Hague Mouton (1960). 

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