Simultaneous plural-voice text-to-speech synthesizer

Abstract

A multiple-voice instructing unit (17) instructs pitch deforming ratio and mixing ratio to a multiple-voice synthesis unit (16). The multiple voice synthesis unit (16) generates a standard voice signal by means of waveform superimposition based on voice element data read from a voice element database (15) and prosodic information from a voice element selecting unit (14), expands/contracts the time base of the above standard voice signal based on the prosodic information and instruction information from the multiple-voice instructing unit (17) to change a voice pitch, and mixes the standard voice signal with an expansion/contraction voice signal for outputting via an output terminal (18). Accordingly, a concurrent vocalization by multiple speakers based on the same text can be implemented without the need of time-division, parallel text analyzing and prosody generating and of adding pitch converting as post-processing.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.