Speech synthesis using deep neural networks

A system comprising:

• one or more processors;
• memory;
• and
• machine-readable instructions stored in the memory, that upon execution by the one or more processors cause the system to carry out operations comprising:
• training a neural network implemented by the system to map one or more training-time sequences of phonetic-context descriptors received by the neural network into training-time predicted feature vectors that correspond to acoustic properties of predefined speech waveforms, wherein the one or more training-time sequences of phonetic-context descriptors correspond to phonetic transcriptions of training-time text strings, and the training-time text strings correspond to written transcriptions of speech carried in the predefined speech waveforms,
• receiving, by a text analysis module implemented by the system, a run-time text string,
• processing the received run-time text string with the text analysis module to generate a run-time sequence of phonetic-context descriptors that corresponds to a phonetic transcription of the run-time text string, wherein each phonetic-context descriptor of the run-time sequence includes a respective label identifying a phonetic speech unit of a plurality of phonetic speech units, data indicating phonetic context of the identified phonetic speech unit, and data indicating time duration of the identified phonetic speech unit,
• processing the run-time sequence of the phonetic-context descriptors with the trained neural network in a corresponding sequence of neural network time steps to generate one or more run-time predicted feature vectors, and
• processing the one or more run-time predicted feature vectors with a signal generation module to produce and output a run-time speech waveform corresponding to a spoken rendering of the received run-time text string,
• wherein processing the received run-time text string with the text analysis module to generate the run-time sequence of phonetic-context descriptors comprises:
• generating a run-time transcription sequence of phonetic speech units that corresponds to the phonetic transcription of the run-time text string;
• and
• determining a respective number of consecutive phonetic-context descriptors to generate for each of the phonetic speech units of the run-time transcription sequence.

An article of manufacture including a computer-readable storage medium, having stored thereon program instructions that, upon execution by one or more processors of a system, cause the system to perform operations comprising:

• training a neural network implemented by the system to map one or more training-time sequences of phonetic-context descriptors received by the neural network into training-time predicted feature vectors that correspond to acoustic properties of predefined speech waveforms, wherein the one or more training-time sequences of phonetic-context descriptors correspond to phonetic transcriptions of training-time text strings, and the training-time text strings correspond to written transcriptions of speech carried in the predefined speech waveforms;
• receiving, by a text analysis module implemented by the system, a run-time text string;
• processing the received run-time text string with the text analysis module to generate a run-time sequence of phonetic-context descriptors that corresponds to a phonetic transcription of the run-time text string, wherein each phonetic-context descriptor of the run-time sequence includes a respective label identifying a phonetic speech unit of a plurality of phonetic speech units, data indicating phonetic context of the identified phonetic speech unit, and data indicating time duration of the identified phonetic speech unit;
• processing the run-time sequence of the phonetic-context descriptors with the trained neural network in a corresponding sequence of neural network time steps to generate one or more run-time predicted feature vectors;
• and
• processing the one or more run-time predicted feature vectors with a signal generation module to produce and output a run-time speech waveform corresponding to a spoken rendering of the received run-time text string;
• wherein processing the received run-time text string with the text analysis module to generate the run-time sequence of phonetic-context descriptors comprises:
• generating a run-time transcription sequence of phonetic speech units that corresponds to the phonetic transcription of the run-time text string;
• and
• determining a respective number of consecutive phonetic-context descriptors to generate for each of the phonetic speech units of the run-time transcription sequence.