[mary-users] PRAAT_TEXTGRID - first test and problem with times

[Ingmar Steiner]

Dear Brigitte,

the PRAAT_TEXTGRID output type is essentially a conversion from REALISED_ACOUSTPARAMS to a format convenient for import into Praat. Specifically, the duration information present in MaryXML is formatted as a TextGrid with one or more IntervalTiers. As mentioned in previous messages, the Praat TextGrid support should still be considered experimental.

You do not mention which voice you (or the anonymous "curious user") used, but your example sounds very much like the de7 female MBROLA voice. MBROLA is a diphone synthesizer, and furthermore does not permit close inspection of its internal processing. The MaryXML is converted to MBROLA format, and passed to the MBROLA binary, which uses the requested voice to generate AUDIO. It is not unlikely that the durations specified in MaryXML (which form the basis of the Praat TextGrid format, as explained above) do not match the phone boundaries in the waveform generated by MBROLA. If you discover that there are systematic mismatches reproducible under certain conditions, it may be a problem with the MBROLA voice data, or possibly a bug in the PraatTextGridGenerator code. Please provide all of the details to me once you have determined that the problem is indeed not with the voice.

The second and third tiers in the three-tier TextGrid format about which you inquire contain information particular to unit-selection synthesis, viz. the diphone unit boundaries, and the intervals of consecutive units from the same source recording, respectively. These tiers are useful for the analysis of unit-selection itself and debugging. They are only generated by the UnitSelectionSynthesizer, i.e. when using a unit-selection voice.

Best wishes,

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On 5 Sep 2010, at 07:53, Brigitte Endres-Niggemeyer wrote:

> Dear all and dear Ingmar,
> 
> the very curious user of the text grid tested the new Mary TTS version, specifically the PRAAT_TEXTGRID. And she found that phone limits may be misplaced.
> In my very simple test phrase, the glottal stop is too early. I send the png, the text grid and the sound file, hoping that this is enough for a check. 
> My obvious question is how the start of the exemplary glottal stop can be adjusted. Doing this by hand editing is not the final option!
> 
> Next question: The website Mary demo now produces a three-layer grid with phones, units, and sources. Great, for what applications do you propose this version? Please explain this to me and to others!
> 
> Cheers from Hannover
> 
> Brigitte
> 
> 
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