Robust ARMA analysis as an aid in developing parameter control rules for a pole-zero cascade speech synthesizer

Two methods for deriving synthesizer control rules are discussed. In one approach a trained phonetician interprets the results of a robust autoregressive moving average (RARMA) analysis and makes a separation between spectral events attributable to the source and the vocal tract, respectively, in order to derive rules for controlling the poles and zeros in the tract model. This procedure appears to be fruitful but rather time-consuming. In the other approach an attempt is made to support the procedure as much as possible by automatic enhancement of the analysis results. The experiments indicate that RARMA analysis delivers reliable pole and zero tracks that can be associated with dynamic characteristics of the vocal tract