Tools for Speech Analysis

1
Tools for Speech Analysis
2
How do we choose?

• What kind of data?
• Which task?

3
Data

• Speech content (noise, multivoice,)
• Data File
• Sound/Transcription/PitchContour
• Sampling/Quantization
• 16k 12k 8k 4k 8bit
• Size how much data?
• Format
• Sound wav, wma, mp3, ogg, aiff, aifc, au, vox,
  raw, sd, CSL, Ogg/Vorbis, NIST/Sphere
• Transcription types

4
What tasks do we want to perform ?

• Visualization and Editing
• Record, play, edit, mix, add effects
• Analysis
• spectral, pitch, intensity
• Speech manipulation
• Filtering, mixing, adding effects, prosodic
  manipulation
• Annotation
• segmentation, labeling
• Scripting
• Batch, communication with outside

5
Sample Tasks

• Create stimuli for an experiment (i.e.
  hybridization)
• Create a database for TTS
• Create a prosodic database
• Analyze a speech corpus from experiment or real
  recordings
• Verify/correct an automatic segmentation or pitch
  track

6
No Unique Speech Tool

• No piece of software does everything
• There are usually many ways of doing the thing
  you want to do

7
Features to Look For

• Visualization/Edition
• Analysis
• Speech manipulation
• Annotation
• Scripting
• Plotting

• Supported formats
• Platform/installation
• Evolution/community
• Accessibility
• Price

8
Possible Options

• Goldwave (audio editor)
• Esps Xwaves (routines visual.)
• Praat (speech analysis)
• Wavesurfer (speech editor)
• Transcriber (annotation tool)
• Matlab (general purpose soft)
• OGI speech tools (routines app. dev.)
• winpitch, pitchworks, phonedit, cooledit..

9
Links

• www.goldwave.com
• www.speech.kth.se/software/esps
• www.praat.org
• www.speech.kth.se/software/wavesurfer
• www.cse.ogi.edu/toolkit
• www.mathworks.com (Matlab)
• www.lpl.univ-aix.fr/sqlab/ (phonedit)
• www.sciconrd.com/pworks.htm (PitchWorks)
• www.winpitch.com (WinPitch)
• www.adobe.com (CoolEdit gt Audition)

10
Praat

• Developed by Paul Boersma and David Weenink at
  the Institute of Phonetic Sciences, University of
  Amsterdam
• General purpose speech tool editing,
  segmentation and labeling, prosodic manipulation

11
(No Transcript)
12
Praat

• Pros designed for speech analysis (not only
  sound edition or spectrogram visualization), nice
  GUI, scripting, active development and community,
  prosodic manipulation
• Cons limited scripting language, native format
  of transcription and pitch files

13
File Management

• Recording files and saving them
• New menu
• Opening files
• Read menu
• Long and short sound files
• Other file types
• Write menu

14
Editing Options from Objects Window

• View
• Navigation
• Spectrum spectral slice, spectrogram
• Pitch settings, pitch information
• Intensity settings, intensity information
• Formant display controls, information

15
Modifying the Data

• Stylizing the pitch contour
• From Praat objects, Go to manipulation
• Edit (the new object)
• Pitch ? stylize pitch (2st)
• Then .
• Modifying pitch
• Modifying duration

16
Annotation Textgrids

• From objects
• Annotate ? To textgrid
• Labeling
• Point vs. interval tiers
• NB remember to select the interval or point
  first in the waveform or spectrogram before
  trying to insert a label

17
Scripting

• Automatic, from history
• Ctrl ? new Praatscript ? Edit ? Paste history
• NB you can run all or part of the script
• Writing scripts

18
Help

• Online help, FAQ, manual
• Links from http//www.praat.org
• Additional tutorials, scripts, resources, user
  groups

19
Files to Play With

• http//www.cs.columbia.edu/julia/cs4706/sounds