| SynSIG | Speech Synthesis Special Interest Group |
*NEW* Online seminars
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SSW (Speech Synthesis Workshop)
The Speech Synthesis Workshop or SSW is a satellite workshop to Interspeech. It used to be held every three years, but after 2019 it was decided to organize it every two years due to the fast pace of technological innovations. Typically, there will be a call for bids to organize SSW on the mailing list about 3 years ahead of time, and if there is more than one bid, there will be a voting round to pick the next one.
Upcoming SSW
- SSW14, September 6-8, 2027, Maceió, Brazil
List of Past SSW
(Full papers are available on-line at the ISCA Archive, links provided)
- SSW13, August 24-26, 2025, Leeuwarden, The Netherlands
- SSW12, August 26-28, 2023, Grenoble, France
- SSW11, August 26-28, 2021, Budapest, Hungary
- SSW10, September 20-22, 2019, Vienna, Austria
- SSW9, September 13-15, 2016, Sunnyvale, CA, USA
- SSW8, August 31 - September 2, 2013, Barcelona, Spain
- SSW7, September 22-24, 2010, Kyoto, Japan
- SSW6, August 22-24, 2007, Bonn , Germany
- SSW5, June 14-16, 2004, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
- SSW4, August 29 - September 1, 2001, Atholl Palace Hotel, Pitlochry, Perthshire, Scotland
- SSW3, November 26-29, 1998, Jenolan Caves House, Blue Mountains, Australia (Dedicated to the memory of Christian Benoît)
- SSW2, September 12-15, 1994, Mohonk Mountain House, New Paltz, NY, USA
- SSW1, September 25-28, 1990, Autrans, France
Blizzard Challenge
The Blizzard Challenge has been devised in order to better understand and compare research techniques in building corpus-based speech synthesizers on the same data. The basic challenge is to take the released speech database, build a synthetic voice from the data and synthesize a prescribed set of test sentences. The sentences from each synthesizer will then be evaluated through listening tests.
The Blizzard Challenge used to be an annual event, but now it is colocated with SSW. The SSW organizers will also organize the Blizzard Challenge, but they should connect with Simon King from CSTR in Edinburgh to develop the challenge and figure out the data set and evaluation tests used.
There is a Google group for discussion and announcements of the challenge:
https://groups.google.com/g/blizzard-challenge-discuss/
Tools and Data
The tools for running your own Blizzard-style listening test and the submissions and listening test results from several previous Challenges are available for your own research. Please remember to acknowledge Blizzard whenever you publish work that makes use of these tools or data. The corpora used in a few of the previous Challenges are also available.
Upcoming Blizzard Challenge
- Blizzard Challenge, September 9, 2027, Maceió, Brazil
List of past Blizzard Challenges
- Blizzard Challenge 2025, Leeuwarden, The Netherlands
- Blizzard Challenge 2023, Grenoble, France
- Blizzard Challenge 2021, Online event
- Joint Workshop for the Blizzard Challenge and Voice Conversion Challenge 2020, Shanghai, China
- Blizzard Challenge 2019, Vienna, Austria
- Blizzard Challenge 2018, Hyderabad, India
- Blizzard Challenge 2017, Stockholm, Sweden
- Blizzard Challenge 2016, Cupertino, CA, USA
- Blizzard Challenge 2015, Berlin, Germany
- Blizzard Challenge 2014, Singapore, Singapore
- Blizzard Challenge 2013, Barcelona, Spain
- Blizzard Challenge 2012, Portland, OR, USA
- Blizzard Challenge 2011, Turin, Italy
- Blizzard Challenge 2010, Kansai Science City, Japan
- Blizzard Challenge 2009, Edinburgh, Scotland
- Blizzard Challenge 2008, Brisbane, Australia
- Blizzard Challenge 2007, Bonn, Germany
- Blizzard Challenge 2006, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
- Blizzard Challenge 2005, Lisbon, Portugal (special session at Interspeech)