Emotional & Expressive Synthesized Speech

From this page you can hear the output of the Affect Editor program, which generates instructions for a DECtalk3 speech synthesizer.

You can also download my master's thesis: Generating Expression in Synthesized Speech (Janet Cahn, M.I.T. Media Laboratory, May 1989).

3 sentences, synthesized for 10 different Affect Editor parameter value configurations. Examples, synthesized for 10 different configurations of the 17 Affect Editor parameters.
INTRO (DECtalk's default parameters). .AU (91K) .WAV (183K)
You've asked me that question a thousand times, and my answer has always been the same. .AU (1.3Mb) .WAV (2.6Mb)
I thought you really meant it. .AU (337K) .WAV (674K)
Look at that picture. .AU (264K) .WAV (527K)

Examples of the 17 Affect Editor parameters. The 17 Affect Editor parameters. Examples synthesized using the sentence, "I thought you really meant it."
DESCRIPTIONS Pitch Timing Voice Quality Articulation
.AU (98K) .AU (400K) .AU (361K) .AU (457K) .AU (225K)
.WAV (197K) .WAV (804K) .WAV (722K) .WAV (915K) .WAV (450K)

Experimental stimuli by emotion. Experiment: Chapter 6 of thesis.
Stimuli: 5 sentences x 6 emotions.
Stimuli by sentence
INTRO .AU (325K) .WAV (325K)
I'm almost finished. .AU (668K) .WAV (668K)
I'm going to the city. .AU (728K) .WAV (728K)
I saw your name in the paper. .AU (730K) .WAV (730K)
I thought you really meant it. .AU (868K) .WAV (868K)
Look at that picture. .AU (818K) .WAV (818K)
Stimuli by emotion
INTRO .AU (522K) .WAV (522K)
Anger .AU (378K) .WAV (378K)
Disgust .AU (578K) .WAV (578K)
Gladness .AU (485K) .WAV (485K)
Sadness .AU (864K) .WAV (864K)
Fear .AU (446K) .WAV (446K)
Surprise .AU (431K) .WAV (431K)

Janet Cahn
M.I.T. Media Laboratory
Cambridge, MA
Late 20th century
cahn@media.mit.edu