Formant Synthesis

the human vocal system comprises a pitch-controlled oscillator, a noise generator, and a set of band-pass filters! The resonances of the vocal tract, and the spectral peaks that they produce, are called 'formants', a word derived from the Latin 'formare', meaning 'to shape'.

Q is a simple way to express and understand the sharpness of a band-pass filter or formant.

the parametric equaliser, which typically offers three controls per EQ: the centre frequency often called the 'resonant' frequency, the gain, and the 'Q'.