Zeros of Z-transform representation with application to source-filter separation in speech

Abstract

We propose a new spectral representation called the zeros of z-transform (ZZT), which is an all-zero representation of the z-transform of the signal. We show that separate patterns exist in ZZT representations of speech signals for the glottal flow and the vocal tract contributions. A decomposition method for source-tract separation is presented based on ZZT. The ZZT-decomposition consists in grouping the zeros into two sets, according to their location in the z-plane. This type of decomposition leads to separating glottal flow contribution (without a return phase) from vocal tract contribution in the z domain.