Pure Data External for Reactive HMM-based Speech and Singing Synthesis

In this paper, we present the recent progress in the MAGE project. MAGE is a library for reactive HMM-based speech and singing synthesis. Here, it is integrated as a Pure Data external, called mage~, which provides reactive voice quality, prosody and identity manipulation combined with contextual control. mage~ brings together the high-quality, natural and expressive speech of HMM-based speech synthesis with high flexibility and reactive control over the speech production level. Such an object provides a basis for further research in gesturally-controlled speech synthesis. It is an object that can 'listen' and reactively adjust itself to its environment. Further in this work, based on mage~ we create different interfaces and controllers in order to explore the realtime, expressive and interactive nature of speech.