A novel model-based pitch conversion method for Mandarin speech

In this paper, a novel model-based pitch conversion method for Mandarin is presented and compared with other two conventional conversion methods, i.e. the mean/variance transformation approach and the GMM-based mapping approach. Syllable pitch contour is first quantized by 3 ^rd order orthogonal expansion coefficients; then, the source and target speakers' prosodic models are constructed, respectively. Two mapping methods based on the prosodic model are presented. Objective tests confirmed that one of the proposed methods are superior the conventional methods. Some findings in informal listening tests and objective tests are worthwhile to further investigate.