
Pink Trombone: Speech Synthesis Simulation in JavaScript - glitcher
https://dood.al/pinktrombone/
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blinry
This very cool video demonstrates what you can do with it on a touchscreen:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LGnozlwU1o](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LGnozlwU1o)

Also, if you like this kind of interactive thingies, you might enjoy the
explorables subreddit:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/explorables/](https://www.reddit.com/r/explorables/)

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cprecioso
Thanks a lot for the subreddit!

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undershirt
Would this be a good way to learn a language? Seems like a good way to show
how to pronounce consonants/vowels that we may have trouble discerning from
similar sounds.

for example, I would love to be able to refer to this when watching Erik
Singer describe accents:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvDvESEXcgE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvDvESEXcgE)

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makmanalp
All this needs is keyboard controls, and then it'll be a great substitute for
QWOP.

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djmips
oh you mean like the voder! ;-)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hyI_dM5cGo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hyI_dM5cGo)
The lady playing Auld Lang Syne would probably be an excellent QWOP player.

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andai
I've had the Voder's version of Daisy Bell stuck in my head for years
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41U78QP8nBk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41U78QP8nBk)

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lai
This is hilarious and very good. How do I make it say a word though? Is it
possible?

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skykooler
I figured out "mama" pretty quickly (click in the front of the nasal cavity).
Also, I figured out why it's such an easy word for babies to learn.

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kranner
Not just babies:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_zW6APE1qQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_zW6APE1qQ)

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6stringmerc
Love the tie in with physical science / diagram. Not over the top trying to be
sterile perfect, more a beautiful tool to deliver "conceptual" perspective.
Interactions. So very very cool.

As somebody else noted, wisely so, I'd love this as a free VST DLL. Could fit
right in over at KVR Audio.

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olleromam91
I'll third this!

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bshimmin
Oh wow. The next time I've got a difficult conference call where all sense and
reason has been lost, I know what I'm going to do.

"Ben, do you think we can implement this feature successfully in time for the
client demo?" "Ahhhuhhhuhhahhahuhuhuhhhuh!"

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TheNewAndy
I've done a C port of this code and hooked it up to my own midi controller.
Much fun. Happy to share the code with anyone who wants it.

Funnily enough, the port I did was so brainless that the last bit (the perlin
noise part) was originally in C, then ported by HN's very own josephg. I
didn't notice this, even though Joseph was a friend of mine at uni. Once I
finished the port and went to making sure all the licensing stuff was fine I
noticed this all.

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veli_joza
How difficult would it be to wrap your code in VSTi plug-in and produce a DLL?
This would make it easy to hook up to midi controller and other devices using
any realtime VST-capable host.

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TheNewAndy
I would assume trivial. I'm a linux person, so I've just wrapped it in jack
stuff - but this is what these plugin APIs are designed for.

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veli_joza
I prefer LV2 plugins as they integrate nicely into the rest of system. As I
dabble in sound/music only rarely, Jack's all-or-nothing approach doesn't suit
me at all. Also, it requires 5+ windows just to set everything up.

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brunoluiz
It should be scriptable... It would be a whole other level

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BinaryBullet
I had always wanted to do a webaudio port of:

[http://www.cs.princeton.edu/~prc/SingingSynth.html](http://www.cs.princeton.edu/~prc/SingingSynth.html)

but never got around to it. This is great!

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pbhjpbhj
Amazing, but do they know that pink trombone is a euphemism for the penis
(when performing fellatio)?

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rikkus
That's oboe. You might be thinking of brown?

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DonHopkins
I want a brown trombone that synthesizes farts. ;)

Also you should be able to synthesize a raspberry by dragging the tongue out
between the lips.

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gpetukhov
What a great time to start learning linguistics and phonetics!

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Tokkemon
As a trombonist, I'm thoroughly offended by the name. This is way too silly
for serious trombonists!

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logicallee
Super cool. Is there a gender button somewhere? sounds very male to me but
there's no difference in voice/sound production between genders other than
just the exact pitch, right? Can you get it to make sounds like a woman or
only a man?

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paperpunk
There is (typically) a difference other than pitch. Formants will be in
slightly different locations [1]; the energy in the spectrum is balanced
differently; there is more aspiration noise [2]. You can model the latter
somewhat with this tool by moving the voice source box down.

I've been creating a speech synthesiser recently and it does seem like simple
approaches produce a voice that is more passably 'male' than 'female', even
accounting for the pitch. Aspiration added with white noise sounds better but
doesn't quite get that breathy quality across. I think more sophisticated
techniques may be needed.

[1]:
[https://www.researchgate.net/publication/220531604_Phonetic_...](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/220531604_Phonetic_differences_between_male_and_female_speech)

[2]:
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8653179](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8653179)

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logicallee
Thank you! Super interesting and a lot of info...

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bgammon
I haven't examined how it works, but in the same vein:

[http://www.whalesynth.com/](http://www.whalesynth.com/)

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amelius
How does it compute the frequency response of the various configurations? Is
there an aerodynamics solver at the heart of this?

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whiddershins
When using multitouch interface and turning off "always voice" I was amazed at
how expressive it is.

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stevebmark
Drag over the circle, and while still dragging, move your mouse over the
square. Now you can control both at once.

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jasonjayr
It would be neat if this took some kind of data input in sequence to
manipulate the pieces. It would be neat to decode Speex or Codec 2 data as
input into this to watch the animation ....

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olleromam91
I'm curious, what glottis wave-table are you using? Is it randomized at all?

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olleromam91
I had a lot of fun making deep throat blowjob noises...Thanks!

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ryanmarsh
Isn't a pink trombone...

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midgetjones
A pink oboe is a thing. So is a rusty trombone. Your disgusting brain has
somehow combined the two.

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qbrass
[http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=pink+trombone](http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=pink+trombone)

Since 2005

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z3t4
All sounds sound Asian.

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sbuttgereit
Oh dear....

