Speech-Material and Talker Effects in Speech Band Importance

Band-importance functions created using the compound method [Apoux and Healy (2012). J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 132, 1078–1087] provide more detail than those generated using the ANSI technique, necessitating and allowing a re-examination of the influences of speech material and talker on the shape of the band-importance function. More specifically, the detailed functions may reflect, to a larger extent, acoustic idiosyncrasies of the individual talker\u27s voice. Twenty-one band functions were created using standard speech materials and recordings by different talkers. The band-importance functions representing the same speech-material type produced by different talkers were found to be more similar to one another than functions representing the same talker producing different speech-material types. Thus, the primary finding was the relative strength of a speech-material effect and weakness of a talker effect. This speech-material effect extended to other materials in the same broad class (different sentence corpora) despite considerable differences in the specific materials. Characteristics of individual talkers\u27 voices were not readily apparent in the functions, and the talker effect was restricted to more global aspects of talker (i.e., gender). Finally, the use of multiple talkers diminished any residual effect of the talker