Development of an F0 control model based on F0 dynamic characteristics for singing-voice synthesis

A fundamental frequency (F0) control model, which can cope with F0 dynamic characteristics related to singing-voice perception, is required to construct natural singing-voice synthesis systems. This paper discusses importance of F0 dynamic characteristics in singing-voices and demonstrates how strongly they influence singing-voice perception through psychoacoustic experiments. This paper, then, proposes an F0 control model that can generate F0 contours of singing-voices based on these considerations, and a singing-voice synthesis system. The results show that several types of F0 fluctuation—overshoot, vibrato, preparation, and fine fluctuation—affect the perception and quality of a singing-voice, and that overshoot has the greatest effect. Moreover, the results show that the proposed F0 control model can control F0 fluctuations, generate F0 contours of singing-voices, and can be applied to natural singing-voice synthesis.