ISCA Archive SSPR 2003
ISCA Archive SSPR 2003

Using a non-spontaneous speech synthesiser as a driver for a spontaneous speech synthesiser

Nick Campbell, Parham Mokhiari

This paper describes a method by which the synthesis of spontaneous-sounding speech can be generated using a current speech synthesizer as a driver for unit selection from a spontaneous speech database. The driver is used to generate acoustic targets, which are then used for pre-selection of synthesis units, with the final candidates selected according to further acoustic constraints to ensure the selection of units having appropriate voice and speaking style characteristics.