Edinburgh Speech Tools  2.4-release
tilt_analysis

Produce tilt descriptions from F0 contours

Synopsis

tilt_analysis produces a Tilt or RFC analysis of a F0 contour, given a set label file containing a set of approximate intonational event boundaries.

A detailed description of the Tilt intonation model can be found in the Theoretical Overview section.

Options

Input Intonation Files

A label file containing approximate intonational event boundaries must be given as input. A typical file in xlabel format is shown below:

0.290  146 sil
0.480  146 c
0.620  146 a
0.760  146 c
0.960  146 a
1.480  146 c
1.680  146 a
1.790  146 sil

The set of intonational events can be given on the command line with the -event_names option. The default set is "a rb arb m mrb" and so the above example would not need the -event_names option. The label "c" (connection) is to separate events, in effect giving each event a start time as well as a end time. The silence labels are important also: they specify where phrases should start and end.

Input F0 Files

tilt_analysis can operate on all the F0 file types supported by the EST library. Tilt analysis can only operate on smooth and continuous F0 contours.(i.e. F0 values must be defined during unvoiced regons). If the input contour is not in this format, use the -smooth option. The -w1 and -w2 options can be used to control the amount of smoothing. The smoothed version of the input contour can be examined by saving it using the -sf0 option.

Output Intonation Files

The output will be a label file containing the tilt parameters for the events in feature format. An example, in xlabel format, is shown below:

intonation_style tilt
#
0.29 26     phrase_start ; ev.f0 115.234 ; time 0.29 ; 
0.53 26     a ; int_event 1 ; ev.f0 118.171 ; time 0.53 ; tilt.amp 21.8602 ; 
              tilt.dur 0.26 ; tilt.tilt -0.163727 ; 
0.77 26     a ; int_event 1 ; ev.f0 112.694 ; time 0.77 ; tilt.amp 27.0315 ; 
              tilt.dur 0.32 ; tilt.tilt -0.446791 ; 
1.53 26     a ; int_event 1 ; ev.f0 100.83 ; time 1.53 ; tilt.amp 7.507 ; 
              tilt.dur 0.22 ; tilt.tilt -0.296317 ; 
1.79 26     phrase_end ; ev.f0 92.9785 ; time 1.79 ; 

The -rfc option will make a file containing the RFC parameters instead:

intonation_style rfc
#
0.29 26     phrase_start ; ev.f0 115.234 ; time 0.29 ; 
0.53 26     a ; ev.f0 118.171 ; rfc.rise_amp 8.19178 ; rfc.rise_dur 0.12 ; 
               rfc.fall_amp -13.6684 ; rfc.fall_dur 0.14 ; time 0.53 ;
 0.77 26     a ; ev.f0 112.694 ; rfc.rise_amp 6.50673 ; rfc.rise_dur 0.1 ;
                rfc.fall_amp -20.5248 ; rfc.fall_dur 0.22 ; time 0.77 ; 
1.53 26     a ; ev.f0 100.83 ; rfc.rise_amp 1.55832 ; rfc.rise_dur 0.11 ; 
                rfc.fall_amp -6.09238 ; rfc.fall_dur 0.11 ; time 1.53 ; 
1.79 26     phrase_end ; ev.f0 92.9785 ; time 1.79 ; 

The feature in the header, "intonation_style tilt" or "intonation_style rfc" is needed for the tilt_synthesis program to work.