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[oona raisanen]

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Speech to birdsong conversion

by Oona Raisanen (Oona Raisanen) Monday, March 29, 2021

I had a dream one night where a blackbird was talking in human
language. When I woke up there was actually a blackbird singing
outside the window. Its inflections were curiously speech-like. The
dreaming mind only needed to imagine a bunch of additional harmonics
to form phonemes and words. One was left wondering if speech could be
transformed into a blackbird song by isolating one of the
harmonics...

One way to do this would be to:

  * Find the instantaneous fundamental frequency and amplitude of the
    speech. For example, filter the harmonics out and use an FM
    demodulator to find the frequency. Then find the signal envelope
    amplitude by AM demodulation.
  * Generate a new wave with similar amplitude variations but greatly
    multiplied in frequency.

[Image: Signal path diagram.]

A proof-of-concept script using the Perl-SoX-csdr command-line
toolchain is available (source code here). The result sounds
surprisingly blackbird-like. Even the little trills are there,
probably as a result of FM noise or maybe vocal fry at the end of
sentences. I got the best results by speaking slowly and using
exaggerated inflection.

Here, a noise gate and reverb has been added to the result to improve
it a little:

And finally, a piece of sound art where this synthetic blackbird song
is mixed with a subtle chord and a forest ambience:

Think of the possibilities: A simultaneous interpreter for talking to
birds. A tool for dubbing talking birds in animation or live theatre.
Entertainment for cats.

What other birds could be done with a voice changer like this? What
about croaky birds like a duck or a crow?

Labels: computer art, signals
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Author

Oona Raisanen (windytan)

A programmer, geek, signals enthusiast. I'm interested in radio, DSP,
sounds, visualizations, mysteries, music and sound art, and vintage
tech.

Absorptions is my personal hobby diary. I write about my research and
adventures in the world of signals, and fun things I do with the
computer.

See the FAQ.

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