Time-scale modification of speech using an incremental time-frequency approach with waveform structure compensation

Abstract

The authors try to identify the primary sources of distortion in a non-recursive time-scale modification (TSM) algorithm which is based on the short-time Fourier transform (STFT). A simpler version of this TSM algorithm is then proposed for processing speech, where incremental estimators eliminate the need for explicit linear time-scaling operations. Also featured in the design is a waveform structure compensation stage to prevent excessive deterioration of the rate-changed output. A polar (i.e., magnitude-phase) synthesis equation is used for increased efficiency. The TSM method is capable of generating high-quality rate-changed speech at a reasonable computational cost. >