Analysis and synthesis of strong vocal expressions: Extension and application of audio texture features to singing voice

Realistic reconstruction and manipulation of strong vocal expressions found in singing voices is a challenging and exciting topic. A speech analysis, modification and resynthesis framework based on interference-free power spectral and instantaneous frequency representations for periodic sounds is extended for handling such voices. Strong expressions are typically characterized by rapid variations in excitation timing and strength as well as complex structured excitation. Three types of excitation source extractors are revised and introduced to handle them. Preliminary tests successfully replicated strong vocal expressions. Also, additional attribute representations for modifying excitation and spectral information based on audio texture features are briefly discussed.