The paper presents a tutorial, based on HTML and Java applets, which describes the human speech production.
The excitation and articulation, are realised (simulated) by a technical system, known as Linear Predictive Vocoder (LPC vocoder). Its principle and analogy to the human speech organs is explained. The main emphasis is put on the control parameters of the system - above all the pitch frequency and the vocal tract parameters (prediction coefficients) and the effect when they are manipulated. These manipulations are visually presented as changes of the time signal, pitch sequence and the spectrum and they are also audible.
As a speciality, the student can record his or her own voice and can manipulate the above mentioned characteristics.
There is no need for a special equipment, an Internet-connected PC completed with a standard microphone and a Soundblaster board is sufficient.
The core components of the tutorial were firstly introduced during a conference in Bergen (September 1998), but the tutorial, which will be presented and demonstrated here, is a completely revised and extended version.