TY - JOUR
T1 - Effects of noise suppression and envelope dynamic range compression on the intelligibility of vocoded sentences for a tonal language
AU - Chen, Fei
AU - Zheng, Dingchang
AU - Tsao, Yu
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PY - 2017/9/1
Y1 - 2017/9/1
N2 - Vocoder simulation studies have suggested that the carrier signal type employed affects the intelligibility of vocoded speech. The present work further assessed how carrier signal type interacts with additional signal processing, namely, single-channel noise suppression and envelope dynamic range compression, in determining the intelligibility of vocoder simulations. In Experiment 1, Mandarin sentences that had been corrupted by speech spectrum-shaped noise (SSN) or two-talker babble (2TB) were processed by one of four single-channel noise-suppression algorithms before undergoing tone-vocoded (TV) or noise-vocoded (NV) processing. In Experiment 2, dynamic ranges of multiband envelope waveforms were compressed by scaling of the mean-removed envelope waveforms with a compression factor before undergoing TV or NV processing. TV Mandarin sentences yielded higher intelligibility scores with normal-hearing (NH) listeners than did noise-vocoded sentences. The intelligibility advantage of noise-suppressed vocoded speech depended on the masker type (SSN vs 2TB). NV speech was more negatively influenced by envelope dynamic range compression than was TV speech. These findings suggest that an interactional effect exists between the carrier signal type employed in the vocoding process and envelope distortion caused by signal processing.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
AB - Vocoder simulation studies have suggested that the carrier signal type employed affects the intelligibility of vocoded speech. The present work further assessed how carrier signal type interacts with additional signal processing, namely, single-channel noise suppression and envelope dynamic range compression, in determining the intelligibility of vocoder simulations. In Experiment 1, Mandarin sentences that had been corrupted by speech spectrum-shaped noise (SSN) or two-talker babble (2TB) were processed by one of four single-channel noise-suppression algorithms before undergoing tone-vocoded (TV) or noise-vocoded (NV) processing. In Experiment 2, dynamic ranges of multiband envelope waveforms were compressed by scaling of the mean-removed envelope waveforms with a compression factor before undergoing TV or NV processing. TV Mandarin sentences yielded higher intelligibility scores with normal-hearing (NH) listeners than did noise-vocoded sentences. The intelligibility advantage of noise-suppressed vocoded speech depended on the masker type (SSN vs 2TB). NV speech was more negatively influenced by envelope dynamic range compression than was TV speech. These findings suggest that an interactional effect exists between the carrier signal type employed in the vocoding process and envelope distortion caused by signal processing.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-85028754516&partnerID=MN8TOARS
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85028754516
U2 - 10.1121/1.5000164
DO - 10.1121/1.5000164
M3 - Article
SN - 0001-4966
VL - 142
JO - The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America
JF - The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America
IS - 3
M1 - 1157
ER -