Le Pont Mirabeau : Apollinaire

Weird missing speech sounds- Acousical Society of Japan

quote from Autism Diva
"Weirdness isn't [just] confined to vision. Your auditory system is also full of gaps and glitches that the brain cleans up so we can make sense of the world. This is especially true of speech.
In everyday life we encounter lots of situations that obscure or distort people's voices, yet most of the time we understand effortlessly. This is because our brain pastes in the missing sounds, a phenomenon called phonemic restoration. It is so effective that it is sometimes hard to tell that the missing sounds are not there.
A good demonstration of this effect was published last year by Makio Kashino of NTT Communication Science Laboratories in Atsugi, Japan. He recorded a voice saying "Do you understand what I'm trying to say?" then removed short chunks and replaced them with silence. This made the sentence virtually unintelligible. But when he filled the gaps with loud white noise, the sentence miraculously becomes understandable (Acoustic Science and Technology, vol 27, p 318).
"The sounds we hear are not copies of physical sounds," Kashino says. "The brain fills in the gaps, based on the information in the remaining speech signal." The effect is so powerful that you can even record a sentence, chop it into 50-millisecond slices, reverse every single slice and play it back - and it is perfectly intelligible. You can listen to Kashino's sound files at http://asj.gr.jp/2006/data/kashi/index.html."

Kashio's paper
Phonemic Restoration: The brain creates missing speech sounds
by Makio Kashino

Abstract: Under certain conditions, sounds actually missing from a speech signal can be synthesized
by the brain and clearly heard. This illusory phenomenon, known as the phonemic restoration effect,
reveals the sophisticated capability of the brain underlying robust speech perception in noisy situations
often encountered in daily life. In this article, basic aspects of the phonemic restoration effect are
described with audio demonstrations.
Keywords: Speech, Perception, Illusion

Acoustical mapping of the gaps in 'Do you understand what I'm trying to say...' here

robot song sings scatt

this was one of the earliest Vocaloid songs ever 'created'. I still remember that amazed fascination I felt, watching "robots" sing so well...

heres some others- 'Miriam' vocaloid songs

Vocaloid MIRIAM Demos:MIRIAM Demo: "Never Give Up".
(NOTE: All vocals on this demo are sung by Vocaloid MIRIAM). Composed, Programmed and Produced by Andy Power.
MIRIAM Demo: "Is This It?".
(NOTE: All vocals on this demo are sung by Vocaloid MIRIAM). Composed, Programmed and Produced by Anders Sodergren.
MIRIAM Demo: "Under The Moon".
(NOTE: All vocals on this demo are sung by Vocaloid MIRIAM). Composed, Programmed and Produced by Anders Sodergren.
but these are the ones I rea-aly like... scatt'n away

LEON+LOLA Demo: "Dupdah".
(NOTE - All vocals on this demo are by either Vocaloid LOLA or Vocaloid LEON). A humorous piece featuring a kind of non-verbal "scatting", featuring LOLA and LEON singing together. This one illustrates Vocaloid's freedom! You can use any sounds a human could utter, and more! As you can see, rhythmically, harmonically, and melodically speaking, the sky's the limit! Written, programmed and produced by Anders Sodergren.
LEON+LOLA Demo: "Freaky Sheep".
(NOTE - All vocals on this demo are by either Vocaloid LOLA or Vocaloid LEON). An abstract avant garde piece of rhythmic vocal sculpture (or to put it another way, weird) that illustrates how easy it is to explore new sonic territory with Vocaloid. Written, programmed and produced by Joe Hogan. Who did Joe get to sing what? Basically its 50/50 between the two singers. The harmonised stereo delay arpeggio type thing at the start is LOLA on the left and LEON on the right. The offbeat "sha" that comes in is both singers, again panned left and right. The "sar" bassline is Lola (way below her natural range!). The "ah, ah, ah, ah, ah" 4-part block chords figure contains two of each singer. The really high pitched tune that comes in at 0:24s is LEON (way above his range!). The whispered "taka-taka" thing that can be heard clearly at 0:33s is LEON, and that kind of bassy pitched kick-drum type sound that happens at the same time is also LEON. Switching between singers during a sequence is easy with Vocaloid.

more here

dont preeeech that sermon...the sign that it wasnt emotionalism

Speak by Tor Janson

"all other animals use one call for one message as the general principle of communication. this means that the number of possible messages is very restricted. if a new message is to be included in the system, a new sound has to be introduced too. after the first few tens of sounds it becomes difficult to invent new distinctive sounds, and also to remember them for the next time they are needed.

human speech builds on the principle of combining a restricted number of sounds into an unlimited number of messages. in a typical human language there are something like thirty or forty distinctive speech sounds. these sounds can be combined into chains to form a literally unlimited number of words...

in addition to this human languages also allow several words to be combined into an utterance. through this process we are able to create an infinite number of sentences with even a small number of words. this basic property of (human) languages allows them to express ideas that can be as complex and as subtle as anyone wants. the system has no theoretical limits as to what messages can be conveyed. in principle everything can be said."