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Google open-sources the Lyra audio codec

opensource.googleblog.com

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Re: Google open-sources the Lyra audio codec

#31

Post by chrisshroba »

dqv wrote: post #26
pjc50 wrote: post #14

One thing I'm slightly worried about "machine learning" in compression rather than conventional everything-is-sines mathematical approaches is the possibility of odd nonlinear errors. Remember the photocopier that worked by OCR and would occasionally mis-transcribe numbers? I don't mind compressing a phoneme to as much as I would mind it compressing it to a clearly audible different phoneme.

This already happens with existing compression algorithms. Certain vowel sounds get collapsed, so someone will say, for example, "66" and it will come out on the other side as "6". Very annoying because you can't exactly coach a layperson on how to talk "the right way" to not trigger this vowel collapse.

I'm having a little trouble following this, could you explain a bit more? It seems to me like "66" would be pronounced "SIKSIKS", so for that to become "SIKS" would mean the "KS" (consonants) would be collapsed, no? (Not trying to refute you or anything, just understand :) )

Re: Google open-sources the Lyra audio codec

#32

Post by howinteresting »

chrisshroba wrote: post #31
dqv wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This already happens with existing compression algorithms. Certain vowel sounds get collapsed, so someone will say, for example, "66" and it will come out on the other side as "6". Very annoying because you can't exactly coach a layperson on how to talk "the right way" to not trigger this vowel collapse.

I'm having a little trouble following this, could you explain a bit more? It seems to me like "66" would be pronounced "SIKSIKS", so for that to become "SIKS" would mean the "KS" (consonants) would be collapsed, no? (Not trying to refute you or anything, just understand :) )

Probably turn into something like SIIIIKS.

Re: Google open-sources the Lyra audio codec

#33

Post by beaconstudios »

PaulHoule wrote: post #30
whoisburbansky wrote: post #23

Since this is explicitly targeted at "the next billion users," do we have any sense of how well-optimized this is on non-English audio corpuses? I can't imagine that a model trained primarily on English/Western phonemes would perform as well on the rest of the world.

They say they tested it on 70+ languages.

which is less than the number of spoken languages in India alone.

Re: Google open-sources the Lyra audio codec

#37

Post by gopalv »

chrisshroba wrote: post #31
dqv wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This already happens with existing compression algorithms. Certain vowel sounds get collapsed, so someone will say, for example, "66" and it will come out on the other side as "6". Very annoying because you can't exactly coach a layperson on how to talk "the right way" to not trigger this vowel collapse.

I'm having a little trouble following this, could you explain a bit more? It seems to me like "66" would be pronounced "SIKSIKS", so for that to become "SIKS" would mean the "KS" (consonants) would be collapsed, no? (Not trying to refute you or anything, just understand :) )

As someone with a weird sibilant that doesn't seem to compress well, I want to say that it goes across as "sɪkɪks" and I got used to saying "double six" on the phone.

So I would say "seven nine double six", which is another problem if I'm talking to an American.

This applies to GSM digitization and other "regular phone" compression, the newer computer calls have been better at taking the words.

Re: Google open-sources the Lyra audio codec

#38

Post by dqv »

howinteresting wrote: post #32
chrisshroba wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm having a little trouble following this, could you explain a bit more? It seems to me like "66" would be pronounced "SIKSIKS", so for that to become "SIKS" would mean the "KS" (consonants) would be collapsed, no? (Not trying to refute you or anything, just understand :) )

Probably turn into something like SIIIIKS.

Exactly, but sometimes it's so subtle you can't even tell it's the compression taking over.

Re: Google open-sources the Lyra audio codec

#39

Post by bobthechef »

dqv wrote: post #26
pjc50 wrote: post #14

One thing I'm slightly worried about "machine learning" in compression rather than conventional everything-is-sines mathematical approaches is the possibility of odd nonlinear errors. Remember the photocopier that worked by OCR and would occasionally mis-transcribe numbers? I don't mind compressing a phoneme to as much as I would mind it compressing it to a clearly audible different phoneme.

This already happens with existing compression algorithms. Certain vowel sounds get collapsed, so someone will say, for example, "66" and it will come out on the other side as "6". Very annoying because you can't exactly coach a layperson on how to talk "the right way" to not trigger this vowel collapse.

> you can't exactly coach a layperson on how to talk "the right way" to not trigger this vowel collapse

I've never noticed. At any rate, we should not coach people to adapt to technology in this way. It is Procrustean and anti-human and unnecessarily places a burden on people that belongs to the software and the developer.

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