Method and apparatus for designating a soundalike voice to a target voice from a database of voices

A speech synthesis system comprising:

• a text-to-speech (TTS) system;
• a database that stores a collection of voices;
• and
• a processor configured to:
• perform training on each voice among the collection of voices stored in the database by building a mathematical model of each voice among the collection of voices stored in the database,
• cluster each voice among the collection of voices stored in the database into a voice cluster among a plurality of voice clusters based on similarities between voice characteristics of each voice among the collection of voices stored in the database,
• calculate an i-vector for each voice cluster among the plurality of voice clusters, the i-vector for each voice cluster among the plurality of voice clusters representing a mathematical model of each voice cluster among the plurality of voice clusters;
• calculate a target i-vector for a target voice,
• identify a matching voice cluster among the plurality of voice clusters having an i-vector among the i-vectors for each voice cluster among the plurality of voice clusters that most closely matches the target i-vector for the target voice,
• calculate i-vectors of each voice within the matching voice cluster,
• identify a soundalike voice that most closely matches the target voice among each voice in the matching voice cluster having an i-vector among the i-vectors for each voice in the matching voice cluster that most closely matches the target i-vector for the target voice, and
• build a TTS voice from the soundalike voice for training the TTS.