Controlling the rate of a speech sample

mrb's icon

Dear all,

I'm trying to construct a patch in MacMSP which alters the rate of a recorded speech sentence. What I want to do is to alter the rate of certain elements in the speech signal. For instance, I want to slow down / speed up certain words within a phrase or sentence. In the spoken phrase, "The window is wide open", for example, I want to slow the rate of the speech at the moment "wide" is spoken to give the word greater emphasis. Can anyone suggest any methods of how to do this?

I have been experimenting with sending messages to line~ objects, controlling the tempo by telling the line~ object to change the speed of the sample at certain points, however the changes are to obvious and often change the pitch of the speech (which I want to avoid).

Any advice would be fantastic.

Mr B.

Luke Hall's icon

Check out this awesome granular time-stretching patch and see if it does what you need.

lh

mrb's icon

This is great thanks. Is there any way you can automate things in Max? For example, to automate the tempo over the course of a spoken sentence.

Luke Hall's icon

Have a look at [mtr] which is designed for automation. Using [function] in combination with [line] would be another way to go.

lh

mrb's icon

I will look into the mtr thanks.

I've tried implementing a function/line before to automate the amplitude of my speech sample. When using it with the groove object, is there anyway of getting the automation to loop along with the speech sound? At the moment I have to click the button to get it to automate within the loop.

Also, on another note... Is there away of making the lines between objects/messages to go at right angles (like in the tutorials) instead of straight lines?

Luke Hall's icon

Turn on Options > "Segmented Patch Cords" and you'll be able to route them around and make your patches a bit easier on the eye.

You can use the sync output of [groove~] to send a bang when the loop reaches the end. The method I usually implement is below.

lh

Max Patch
Copy patch and select New From Clipboard in Max.

Jean-Francois Charles's icon

In my "User Page" (see above user pages link), you will find a spectral time stretcher that stretches automatically more the "vowels" than the "consonants". Look at the "play-with-transients" patch. You might be interested.
Jean-Francois.

mrb's icon

thanks!!