How long did it take you to synthesize stimuli?

[longforit]

I know there are only a few phoneticians/lab phonologists here. But I would like to ask those who have experience in making acoustic stimuli: how long did it take you (or someone you know) to synthesize stimuli on average?  I specifically refer to the use of Klatt synthesizer to create stop consonant continua like /b/-/d/ or /g/-/d/. My advisors frightened me with the difficulty and  the painstaking process it involves. But I guess I would like to learn some more first hand experiences/opinions. Anyone?

 

(Oh gee didn't notice I've already started so many new topics!)

[LinguisticMystic]

I haven't done it myself (except for one small homework assignment once), but I have seen it take a lot of effort by those in my dept who do synthesize speech. But they were manipulating naturally elicited speech versus lab/read speech. Not sure if that makes a big difference. I would guess vowels are harder than consonants (??), but you still need to deal with formant transitions regardless.

 

Maybe look around for an useful interface to the Klatt synthesizer that might make the process and parameters simpler to control. For example, Klattworks or I also see one for Python. I guess the thing to do would be to try it and see how long it takes you...

[longforit]

Thanks Mystic! Do you know if Praat is a good tool to do Klatt? It seems pretty straightforward from the look of its instruction... But I don't really try it. Also, anyone knows if there are good resources for self-teaching guide for synthesis?