Abstract: In a formant emphasis method of emphasizing the formant as the spectral peak of an input speech signal and attenuating the spectral valley of the input speech signal, a spectrum emphasis filter performs processing for emphasizing the formant of the input speech signal and attenuating the valley of the input speech signal. A first-order variable characteristic filter whose characteristic adaptively changes in accordance with the characteristic of the input speech signal and a first-order fixed characteristic filter compensate a spectral tilt included in an output signal from the spectrum emphasis filter.

Abstract: Adjusting the shape of a spectrum of a speech signal includes the steps of using a first filter with pole-zero transfer function A(z)/B(z) for subjecting a speech signal to a spectrum envelop emphasis and a second filter cascade-connected with the first filter, for compensating for a spectral tilt due to the first filter, independently deriving two filter coefficients used in the second filter for compensating for the spectral tilt from the pole-zero transfer function, and compensating for the spectral tilt corresponding to the pole-zero transfer function according to the derived filter coefficients.