INTRODUCTION TO THE ACOUSTICS OF SPEECH PRODUCTION

Richard M. Stern
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and School of Computer Science Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213 Telephone: (412) 268-2535 FAX: (412) 268-3890 INTERNET: rms@cs.cmu.edu
January 15, 2004

INTRODUCTION

n Will talk about how speech is produced

The source-filter theory Aspects of acoustics The wave equation Approximate solutions to wave equation

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SOME ADDITIONAL READING

n Speech Communications: Human and Machine by D.

OShaughnessy, Chapter 3, Wiley 1999

n Digital Processing of Speech Signals by L. R. Rabiner and R.

W. Schafer, Chapter 3, Prentice-Hall 1978

n Speech Analysis, Synthesis, and Perception by J. L. Flanagan,

Springer-Verlag (out of print but in E&S Library)

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THE SOURCE-FILTER MODEL FOR SPEECH

A useful model for representing the generation of speech sounds:

Pitch Pulse train source

Amplitude

p[n] Vocal tract model Noise source

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THE SPEECH SPECTROGRAM

5000

4000

Frequency

3000

2000

1000

0 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 Time 0.8 1 1.2

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SEPARATING THE VOCAL-TRACT EXCITATION FROM THE FILTER

Original speech: Speech with 75-Hz excitation: Speech with 150-Hz excitation: Speech with noise excitation:

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WHY IS ACOUSTICAL ANALYSIS DIFFICULT?

n Methods of signal analysis depend on size of wavelengths
compared to size of objects
Long wavelengths: lumped-parameter analysis Short wavelengths: distributed-parameter analysis

n Sound waves are long compared to objects at low frequencies

but short compared to objects at high frequencies

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THE ACOUSTIC THEORY OF SPEECH PRODUCTION: MODELING THE VOCAL TRACT

n The pressure at a distance r is Pr (w ) = S(w )T(w )R(w )

where
S(w ) = UG (w ) T(w ) = U L (w ) / UG (w ) R(w ) = Pr (w ) / UL (w )
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UNVOICED SPEECH SOURCE

n Turbulent voicing sources are approximately flat in frequency:

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VOICED SPEECH SOURCE

n Glottal pulses have a spectrum that decreases with the square
of frequency:

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DERIVATION OF THE WAVE EQUATION

n Consider sound propagating along a 1-dimensional tube (with
area A much less than a wavelength)

n Define:

u(x, t) particle velocity

(U = uA)
p(x,t) sound pressure variation (P = P0 + p)

U(x, t) volume velocity

r density of air
c velocity of sound

n Comment: sound pressure variation and volume velocity play

same role in acoustical analysis that voltage and current play in electrical circuit analysis
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DERIVATION OF THE WAVE EQUATION

n Assuming plane-wave propagation, it can be shown that:
-

p u =r x t

(Newtons second law)

and

u 1 p = 2 x rc t

(from the universal gas law)

where

rc 2 = gP

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SOLUTIONS TO THE WAVE EQUATION

n From Newtons law and the universal gas law we obtain the
wave equation:

2u

1 2u = 2 2 x 2 c t

n Solutions to the wave equation (in one dimension) are of the

form:
x x u(x, t) = u + (t - ) - u - (t + ) c c + x x p(x,t) = rc u (t - ) + u - (t + ) c c

n Comments:

Travelling-wave solutions We frequently evaluate for the sinusoidal steady state

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THE SINUSOIDAL STEADY STATE: COMPLEX AMPLITUDE

n Recall that
e jx = cos(x) + j sin(x) cos(x) = Re[e jx ]; sin(x) = Im[e jx ]

n Let u + ( x, t) be of the form Re[U + e jw (t- x / c) ] n Then

x x u(x, t) = u + (t - ) - u - (t + ) c c = Re[U + e jw (t -x / c) - [U - e jw (t + x / c) ] = Re[(U + e - jwx / c - U - e + jwx / c )e jwt ] Re[U(x, w )e jwt ]

n U(x, w ) is referred to as the complex amplitude

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COMPLEX AMPLITUDES OF GENERAL SOLUTIONS TO THE WAVE EQUATION

n In the sinusoidal steady state we have
p(x,t) = Re[P( x, w )e jwt ] u(x, t) = Re[U(x, w )e jwt ]

where
P(x, w ) = rc U + e - jwx / c - U - e + jwx / c U(x, w ) = U + e - jwx / c + U - e + jwx / c

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SOUND PROPAGATION IN A UNIFORM TUBE

x = -l Glottis

x=0 Lips

n Boundary conditions:
p(0, t) = 0 U + = U u(-l,t) = U 0 cos(w 0t) U + = U0 2 cos(w 0 l /c)

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SOUND PROPAGATION IN A UNIFORM TUBE

x = -l x=0 Glottis Lips n With boundary conditions solved, we obtain:

U cos(w 0t) u(0,t) = 0 cos(w 0 l /c)

n Comments:
Resonant frequencies occur when w 0 l /c = (p /2),(3p /2),(5 p /2)K
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UNIFORM TUBES RESONANT FREQUENCIES

50

45

40

35

Amplitude

30

25

20

15

10

100

200

300

400

n Comments:

Frequency

500

600

700

800

900

1000

UL (w )/U G (w ) is of the form A /cos(wl /c) With nonideal absorptive walls, response is not infinite at resonant frequencies
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SOUND PROPAGATION IN A MORE REALISTIC UNIFORM TUBE

x = -l Glottis

x=0 Lips

n Comment: Resonant frequencies now non-uniform

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VOWEL PRODUCTION IN THE VOCAL TRACT

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SOME EXAMPLE VOWELS

5000

4000

Frequency

3000

2000

1000

0 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 Time 2.5 3 3.5 4

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VOWEL PERCEPTION AND FORMANT FREQUENCIES

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RADIATION IMPEDIANCE THE FINAL STEP

n Radiation impedance models the effect of the air load on the
output pressure wave: R(w ) = Pr (w ) /U L (w )

n At most frequencies of interest, radiation impedance has the

form of:
R(w ) = Pr (w ) /U L (w ) jw

n Effects of air loading are typically absorbed into the filter

effects of the vocal tract

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SUMMARY
n We have discussed very superficially the production of speech
sounds
Source-filter model Vocal tract transfer functions Impact on perception Some attributes of acoustical analysis

n The source filter model is used

As a way to model how we produce speech sounds As a way to reduce the number of parameters needed to characterize speech sounds As a way of extracting features that are used by speech recognition systems

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