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Voice transformation at Ircam

Voice transformation at Ircam


Introduction

The following sound examples were made while I worked for Ircam and were presented at the 35th International AES Conference (Audio for Games) in London, UK, Feb 2009.

Signal transformation

Using a phase vocoder, time and frequency aspects of the signal may be modified nearly independently. It has been improved in a number of ways to make modification with no or little loss of quality and naturalness. From an original recording, we can make a number of elementary modifications:

  • original recording
  • decreasing the pitch
  • increasing the pitch
  • modifying the vocal tract: timbre 1 and timbre 2
  • voiced contents
  • noise contents and
  • glottal source

Transformation of sex and age

See also demo below.

Transformations of voice quality and speech style

  • original
  • breathy
  • whispering
  • creaky
  • softer voice
  • trembling
  • dull and eager speech
  • drunk

Video demonstration of voice transformation

The video below shows the effect of applying four different voice transformations (man, old woman, little girl, and young man) to a single voice and assigned each to a cartoon character. Play the video first, then listen to the original: .

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© 2008. Characters by Cantoche and voices by Ircam. Flash player by LongTail Video