One-delayed-mass model for efficient synthesis of glottal flow

A lumped physical model of the glottal source is presented. Vocal folds are described as single masses, but vertical phase differences between upper and lower margins of the folds are taken into account by appropriately describing the non-linear interaction of the mechanical model with aerodynamics. This results in a modified one-mass model, or a “one-delayed-mass model”. Analysis on numerical simulations shows that the system behaves qualitatively as higher-dimensional models (such as the two-mass model by Ishizaka and Flanagan); in particular, control over flow skewness is guaranteed, allowing for synthesis of realistic glottal flow waveforms. As only one degree of freedom (one mass) is needed in the model, structure and number of parameters are drastically reduced, thus making it suitable for real-time synthesis applications.