Semi realistic consonants synthesis in Zebra ?

[FastTriggerFish]

Question for the synthesis wizards:
How would you go about creating a patch that sounds vaguely like "ta-daaa" when you play a single note ?
I have a feeling it should be possible using the formant filter + some clever use of MSEG and noise but I couldn't get anywhere near there.
So far all I've managed to create is something that sounds somewhat like "dwaaaahhhhh"
I'm also finding it difficult to keep the vowels clearly audible especially after applying effects (like chorus / phaser ) - maybe it would work better to put the formant after the effects rather than before ?
Many thanks !

[Urs]

I find it very difficult too. One thing that can be done is using a very low tuned oscillator as a wavetable, with a short envelope on it. From then on it's all about the wavetable...

[Howard]

It's difficult. One simple example is "HS I am Zebra" in the Two Point Five folder.

[FastTriggerFish]

Thanks Urs and Howard for your answers !
I had completely forgotten about that patch, thanks for reminding me I will have a look at it.

[hakey]

Fwiw, here's my patch upon which HS I Am Zebra is based:

I Am Zebra.h2p

It took an awful lot of slowly repeating the phrase to myself listening very hard and paying close attention to what was going (and even in the simplest words there's much more happening than first meets the ears!).

The theory I picked up from somewhere is that a voice can be thought of as comprising three elements - the vocal chords (~ for which a saw or narrow pulse oscillator/s is a fair approximation), noise due to various turbulent air flows (~ white noise), and the enhancement/resonance and damping of various frequencies because of changes in the shape of the vocal tract (~ formant filter/filter for noise).

So in the above patch there's an oscillator going into a formant filter and, running in parallel, white noise into another filter. The MSEGs are doing the really complicated stuff!

Tips - work out where the vocal chords are engaged/disengaged, where the air flow stops and starts, where there are sudden releases of pressure. Also listen carefully for small vowel shifts, or where an unwritten vowel sound makes a contribution (ta-da sounds more like tuh-da to my ears).

Have fun!

[FastTriggerFish]

Wow that is stunning ! Thanks a lot for posting this.
Between this one and Howard's I should be able to pick up a lot of tricks.

[leggie]

Windows since 3.1 has tada.wav as standard ..

[hakey]

Wow that is stunning ! Thanks a lot for doing this.
Between this one and Howard's I should be able to pick up a lot of tricks.

They're more-or-less the same patch - check out the msegs.

Howard took my original and put his own spin on it.

[Howard]

Howard took my original and put his own spin on it.

I was considering using the prefix HH (for Hakey & Howard) for that one, but it would have destroyed the alphabetical order of patches. As that/those patch(es) was/were too interesting/different to leave out of the collection, you'll have to make do with your bit of fame in the Info box, Hakey...

High Five!

[desafinado]

Hi Howard!

I love all of your patches and Zebra really is the ultimate synth in a lot of respects.


Have you and Urs ever heard of Voder?




This is an incredible device from 1939 -> a playable speech synth!


I always loved VocalWriter on the Mac - although I've never used it...

I just love the demos. FL Studio has a speech synth built in that you can program to some degree.

Basically - you can put the semitone offset in brackets after each word or syllable and it sort of sings your phrase.

The only problem is that you can do much with the note lengths.

I think Urs would clean up if he wrote a singing speech synth.

[desafinado]

Here is another old classic speech synth!

[hakey]

you'll have to make do with your bit of fame in the Info box, Hakey...

Aye, that'll do me.

[hakey]

..and HS I Am Zebra is the better polished patch - certainly sounds more HS than HK or Mr Wobble or whatever...

[FastTriggerFish]

DELETED : sorry double post