Thank you very much of course are use eloquence with jaws but I’m trying to put together an affordable machine for people in Africa NVDA the only way to go and I’m just trying to create a better speech output then what comes with a regular Windows platform.  I observe what you were saying about sluggishness also speed pitch and tone are affected as well again thanks

On May 24, 2018, at 3:11 PM, Gene <gsasner@...> wrote:

There is wide disagreement of what the best is.  it's a matter of preference and taste.  it's like asking what is the best frozen pizza.  Do you like older synthesizers such as Eloquence or do you like newer ones, with more human sounding voices but slower responsiveness and, in my opinion, significantly degraded speech accuracy in most of them?  I don't recall the names of any of the newer ones because I dislike most of them and don't use them.  There are a lot of synthesizers you can try or get information about on the NVDA page devoted to this topic:

https://github.com/nvaccess/nvda/wiki/ExtraVoices

Also, on this page, the Eloquence add on that offers other voices as well is discussed.  There is a SAPI five Eloquence available for sale which is far superior, if you are interested in Eloquence.  Others can tell you more about it if you are interested.  And a lot of voices available for purchase have demos. 

 

I'll add that some people use a responsive voice for work, such as word processing and other tasks, but use one of the newer more natural voices for listening, such as when reading a book. 

Gene

----- Original Message -----

From: Dr. J. michael jones

Sent: Thursday, May 24, 2018 6:59 AM

To: nvda@nvda.groups.io

Subject: Re: [nvda] Best Synthesizer

Thanks I’m confused.   My question was what is the best? And I believe there is always a better maybe someone else has an opinion
> On May 24, 2018, at 2:54 PM, Antony Stone <antony.stone@...> wrote:
>
> SAPI is not a speech engine.  It's a definition of a protocol enabling speech
> applications (synthesis or recognition) to interface to other applications
> (such as a browser).
>
> Some synthesisers can only communicate with other applications via SAPI, some
> can do SAPI plus other protocols, some don't do SAPI at all.
>
> As Gene said, whether a synthesiser communicates using SAPI says nothing at
> all about the quality of its voices.
>
> Also, to add another answer to the original question "what is the best
> sounding synthesizer that NVDA supports?", I would say it's the one you like
> best and get on with best.  That may not be the same as what someone else
> likes.  These things are a very personal choice.
>
>
> Antony.
>
>> On Thursday 24 May 2018 at 13:47:29, Jaffar Sidek wrote:
>>
>> Also, Sapi is a speech engine native to windows.  The beauty and
>> flexibility of NVDA is that it allows for installation of Non-windows
>> synthesizer voices.  Cheers!
>>
>>> On 5/24/2018 7:26 PM, Gene wrote:
>>> It should be pointed out that SAPI is a way that voices communicate
>>> with the computer.  it has nothing to do with the kind of voice in
>>> terms of its speech or general quality.  sometimes, a synthesizer may
>>> have a SAPI version and a version that isn't SAPI.  There is no reason
>>> to use or not to use a voice because it is SAPI.
>>> Gene
>>>
>>> *From:* Chris via Groups.Io <mailto:chrismedley@...>
>>> *Sent:* Thursday, May 24, 2018 6:02 AM
>>> *To:* nvda@nvda.groups.io <mailto:nvda@nvda.groups.io>
>>> *Subject:* Re: [nvda] Best Synthesizer
>>>
>>> There is nothing better than sapi voices
>>>
>>> Don’t waste your time or money on anything else. Have a nice day now 😃
>
> --
> The first fifty percent of an engineering project takes ninety percent of the
> time, and the remaining fifty percent takes another ninety percent of the time.
>
>                                                   Please reply to the list;
>                                                         please *don't* CC me.
>
>
>