Formant Synthesis

A text-to-speech method that generates synthetic speech by modeling the acoustic properties of human vocal production, particularly formants (resonant frequencies of the vocal tract). Rather than using recorded speech segments, formant synthesizers use mathematical rules and parameters to create speech sounds artificially. This approach produces smaller, more computationally efficient systems but typically sounds more robotic than concatenative synthesis. Early screen readers commonly used formant synthesis, and some users still prefer it for its clarity at high speeds.