Speaker individualities in speech spectral envelopes

The aim of the three psychoacoustic experiments described here was to clarify whether there are speaker individualities in the spectral envelopes, in which frequency bands such individualities exist, and how frequency bands having speaker individualities can be manipulated. The LMA analysis-synthesis system was used to prepare stimuli varied specific frequency bands, and the frequency bands having speaker individualities were estimated experimentally. The results indicate that(1)speaker individualities exist in spectral envelopes,(2)these individualities are mainly at frequencies higher than 22 ERB rate(2212 Hz)and vowel characteristics exist from 12 ERB rate(603 Hz)to 22 ERB rate, and(3)the voice quality can be controlled by replacing the higher frequency band of one talker with that of other talkers. The replace point is the adjacent spectral local minimum below the spectral local maximum around 23 ERB rate in the spectral envelopes.