nvda@nvda.groups.io | Is there seriously a possibility of "DOING AWAY WITH ESPEAK"? DOING AWAY WITH ESPEAK

Home Messages Hashtags Subgroups

Date Date 1 - 8 of 8

Is there seriously a possibility of "DOING AWAY WITH ESPEAK"? DOING AWAY WITH ESPEAK

Laurie Mehta #2904 I am confused... I began noticing several e-mails defending E Speak and am wondering what brought the issue up in the first place? Many great reasons have already been given in favor of E Speak and I agree with all of them. I hope that there is not actually any consideration being given of dropping E Speak from NVDA. (smile) -LM -------------------------------------------- toggle quoted message Show quoted text On Wed, 4/20/16, Christo de Klerk <christodeklerk@...> wrote: Subject: Re: [nvda] DOING AWAY WITH ESPEAK To: nvda@groups.io Date: Wednesday, April 20, 2016, 8:29 AM Hello from another South African eSpeak has some features not found in other synthesisers which, in my view, make it an essential synthesiser to have around. It is the only one I know which can pronounce the International Phonetic Alphabet and the Greek alphabet when using an English voice, which is extremely important for anyone interested in linguistics. It reads diacritic characters correctly which expensive synthesisers like Ivona cannot even do. Apart from these linguistic features, eSpeak must be just about the most responsive synthesiser. It also probably is the most accurate in its pronunciation of any synthesiser I know; in other words, it mispronounces fewer words than other synthesisers do. I think the author of eSpeak, Jonathan Duddington, did a truly wonderful job with eSpeak. Another point: if you don't particularly care for the default voices used by eSpeak, you can install and use the MBrola voices which are also supported by eSpeak and which can pronounce everything eSpeak does. These voices have a very natural sound. I use the UK English voice. Installing MBrola is admittedly a mission, but once installed they definitely are worth the trouble. Kind regards Other Christo (by the way, it is not true that half the men in South Africa are called Christo). On 2016/04/20 1:15 PM, Jacob Kruger wrote: > Christo, > > Am also based in SA, and, yes, eSpeak is my choice when using NVDA, > partly due to it handling multiple languages, but, also, since while > it's not particularly natural sounding, it is definitely very > clear-sounding, makes it easy to be pretty sure what you're hearing it > say, etc. - which is also pretty important when working as a > programmer/software developer. > > In other words, while understand why some people might prefer somewhat > natural sounding voices, they're definitely not of too much interest > to some of us, all the time...<smile> > > Stay well > > Jacob Kruger > Blind Biker > Skype: BlindZA > "Roger Wilco wants to welcome you...to the space janitor's closet..." > > On 2016-04-20 10:53 AM, Christo Vorster wrote: >> Hi list >> >> I do not necessarily agree with the idea to do away with ESpeak. I >> believe that is a case of "horses for causes." >> >> In South Africa, more specifically, at the Institute for the Blind in >> Worcester where I am a lecturer, we extensively use ESpeak to read >> Afrikaans. And may I say, the quality of ESpeak's Afrikaans is actually >> very good. >> >> I won't mind if the developers do away with ESpeak, but before that >> happens I want definite proof that the replacement program has, at >> least, the same quality, preferably, better. >> >> Cheers >> >> Christo >> >> > > >
More All Messages By This Member
Lino Morales <linomorales001@...> #2906 I really think Michael and James need to look into getting rid of ESpeak in favor of another open source synth either created by them or someone else. I posted my reasons why yesterday and won't bore with that again. toggle quoted message Show quoted text On 4/20/2016 3:47 PM, Laurie Mehta via Groups.io wrote: I am confused... I began noticing several e-mails defending E Speak and am wondering what brought the issue up in the first place? Many great reasons have already been given in favor of E Speak and I agree with all of them. I hope that there is not actually any consideration being given of dropping E Speak from NVDA. (smile) -LM -------------------------------------------- On Wed, 4/20/16, Christo de Klerk <christodeklerk@...> wrote: Subject: Re: [nvda] DOING AWAY WITH ESPEAK To: nvda@groups.io Date: Wednesday, April 20, 2016, 8:29 AM Hello from another South African eSpeak has some features not found in other synthesisers which, in my view, make it an essential synthesiser to have around. It is the only one I know which can pronounce the International Phonetic Alphabet and the Greek alphabet when using an English voice, which is extremely important for anyone interested in linguistics. It reads diacritic characters correctly which expensive synthesisers like Ivona cannot even do. Apart from these linguistic features, eSpeak must be just about the most responsive synthesiser. It also probably is the most accurate in its pronunciation of any synthesiser I know; in other words, it mispronounces fewer words than other synthesisers do. I think the author of eSpeak, Jonathan Duddington, did a truly wonderful job with eSpeak. Another point: if you don't particularly care for the default voices used by eSpeak, you can install and use the MBrola voices which are also supported by eSpeak and which can pronounce everything eSpeak does. These voices have a very natural sound. I use the UK English voice. Installing MBrola is admittedly a mission, but once installed they definitely are worth the trouble. Kind regards Other Christo (by the way, it is not true that half the men in South Africa are called Christo). On 2016/04/20 1:15 PM, Jacob Kruger wrote: > Christo, > > Am also based in SA, and, yes, eSpeak is my choice when using NVDA, > partly due to it handling multiple languages, but, also, since while > it's not particularly natural sounding, it is definitely very > clear-sounding, makes it easy to be pretty sure what you're hearing it > say, etc. - which is also pretty important when working as a > programmer/software developer. > > In other words, while understand why some people might prefer somewhat > natural sounding voices, they're definitely not of too much interest > to some of us, all the time...<smile> > > Stay well > > Jacob Kruger > Blind Biker > Skype: BlindZA > "Roger Wilco wants to welcome you...to the space janitor's closet..." > > On 2016-04-20 10:53 AM, Christo Vorster wrote: >> Hi list >> >> I do not necessarily agree with the idea to do away with ESpeak. I >> believe that is a case of "horses for causes." >> >> In South Africa, more specifically, at the Institute for the Blind in >> Worcester where I am a lecturer, we extensively use ESpeak to read >> Afrikaans. And may I say, the quality of ESpeak's Afrikaans is actually >> very good. >> >> I won't mind if the developers do away with ESpeak, but before that >> happens I want definite proof that the replacement program has, at >> least, the same quality, preferably, better. >> >> Cheers >> >> Christo >> >> > > >
More All Messages By This Member
Shaun Everiss #2908 Well I got used to it. There was a servey once maybe there needs to be another. At any rate espeak as it is is fine, maybe it could be improved some if at all possible. toggle quoted message Show quoted text On 21/04/2016 7:47 a.m., Laurie Mehta via Groups.io wrote: I am confused... I began noticing several e-mails defending E Speak and am wondering what brought the issue up in the first place? Many great reasons have already been given in favor of E Speak and I agree with all of them. I hope that there is not actually any consideration being given of dropping E Speak from NVDA. (smile) -LM -------------------------------------------- On Wed, 4/20/16, Christo de Klerk <christodeklerk@...> wrote: Subject: Re: [nvda] DOING AWAY WITH ESPEAK To: nvda@groups.io Date: Wednesday, April 20, 2016, 8:29 AM Hello from another South African eSpeak has some features not found in other synthesisers which, in my view, make it an essential synthesiser to have around. It is the only one I know which can pronounce the International Phonetic Alphabet and the Greek alphabet when using an English voice, which is extremely important for anyone interested in linguistics. It reads diacritic characters correctly which expensive synthesisers like Ivona cannot even do. Apart from these linguistic features, eSpeak must be just about the most responsive synthesiser. It also probably is the most accurate in its pronunciation of any synthesiser I know; in other words, it mispronounces fewer words than other synthesisers do. I think the author of eSpeak, Jonathan Duddington, did a truly wonderful job with eSpeak. Another point: if you don't particularly care for the default voices used by eSpeak, you can install and use the MBrola voices which are also supported by eSpeak and which can pronounce everything eSpeak does. These voices have a very natural sound. I use the UK English voice. Installing MBrola is admittedly a mission, but once installed they definitely are worth the trouble. Kind regards Other Christo (by the way, it is not true that half the men in South Africa are called Christo). On 2016/04/20 1:15 PM, Jacob Kruger wrote: > Christo, > > Am also based in SA, and, yes, eSpeak is my choice when using NVDA, > partly due to it handling multiple languages, but, also, since while > it's not particularly natural sounding, it is definitely very > clear-sounding, makes it easy to be pretty sure what you're hearing it > say, etc. - which is also pretty important when working as a > programmer/software developer. > > In other words, while understand why some people might prefer somewhat > natural sounding voices, they're definitely not of too much interest > to some of us, all the time...<smile> > > Stay well > > Jacob Kruger > Blind Biker > Skype: BlindZA > "Roger Wilco wants to welcome you...to the space janitor's closet..." > > On 2016-04-20 10:53 AM, Christo Vorster wrote: >> Hi list >> >> I do not necessarily agree with the idea to do away with ESpeak. I >> believe that is a case of "horses for causes." >> >> In South Africa, more specifically, at the Institute for the Blind in >> Worcester where I am a lecturer, we extensively use ESpeak to read >> Afrikaans. And may I say, the quality of ESpeak's Afrikaans is actually >> very good. >> >> I won't mind if the developers do away with ESpeak, but before that >> happens I want definite proof that the replacement program has, at >> least, the same quality, preferably, better. >> >> Cheers >> >> Christo >> >> > > > .
More All Messages By This Member
Mallard <mallard@...> #2911 Doing away with Espeak, and then what? Compelling people to buy commercial voices? I think espeak is still the best non-human synth freely available. I have Vocalizer Expressive, but I only use the Russian and Hebrew voices. the Italian voices are awful to say the least. Not the sound, but the intonation. They all sound foreign, get lots of accents wrong, and after a while I just can't stand them anymore. If there's a viable, free, open source alternative, then ok. If not, long live Espeak! Ciao, Ollie toggle quoted message Show quoted text Il 20/04/2016 22:29, Shaun Everiss ha scritto: Well I got used to it. There was a servey once maybe there needs to be another. At any rate espeak as it is is fine, maybe it could be improved some if at all possible. On 21/04/2016 7:47 a.m., Laurie Mehta via Groups.io wrote: I am confused... I began noticing several e-mails defending E Speak and am wondering what brought the issue up in the first place? Many great reasons have already been given in favor of E Speak and I agree with all of them. I hope that there is not actually any consideration being given of dropping E Speak from NVDA. (smile) -LM -------------------------------------------- On Wed, 4/20/16, Christo de Klerk <christodeklerk@...> wrote: Subject: Re: [nvda] DOING AWAY WITH ESPEAK To: nvda@groups.io Date: Wednesday, April 20, 2016, 8:29 AM Hello from another South African eSpeak has some features not found in other synthesisers which, in my view, make it an essential synthesiser to have around. It is the only one I know which can pronounce the International Phonetic Alphabet and the Greek alphabet when using an English voice, which is extremely important for anyone interested in linguistics. It reads diacritic characters correctly which expensive synthesisers like Ivona cannot even do. Apart from these linguistic features, eSpeak must be just about the most responsive synthesiser. It also probably is the most accurate in its pronunciation of any synthesiser I know; in other words, it mispronounces fewer words than other synthesisers do. I think the author of eSpeak, Jonathan Duddington, did a truly wonderful job with eSpeak. Another point: if you don't particularly care for the default voices used by eSpeak, you can install and use the MBrola voices which are also supported by eSpeak and which can pronounce everything eSpeak does. These voices have a very natural sound. I use the UK English voice. Installing MBrola is admittedly a mission, but once installed they definitely are worth the trouble. Kind regards Other Christo (by the way, it is not true that half the men in South Africa are called Christo). On 2016/04/20 1:15 PM, Jacob Kruger wrote: > Christo, > > Am also based in SA, and, yes, eSpeak is my choice when using NVDA, > partly due to it handling multiple languages, but, also, since while > it's not particularly natural sounding, it is definitely very > clear-sounding, makes it easy to be pretty sure what you're hearing it > say, etc. - which is also pretty important when working as a > programmer/software developer. > > In other words, while understand why some people might prefer somewhat > natural sounding voices, they're definitely not of too much interest > to some of us, all the time...<smile> > > Stay well > > Jacob Kruger > Blind Biker > Skype: BlindZA > "Roger Wilco wants to welcome you...to the space janitor's closet..." > > On 2016-04-20 10:53 AM, Christo Vorster wrote: >> Hi list >> >> I do not necessarily agree with the idea to do away with ESpeak. I >> believe that is a case of "horses for causes." >> >> In South Africa, more specifically, at the Institute for the Blind in >> Worcester where I am a lecturer, we extensively use ESpeak to read >> Afrikaans. And may I say, the quality of ESpeak's Afrikaans is actually >> very good. >> >> I won't mind if the developers do away with ESpeak, but before that >> happens I want definite proof that the replacement program has, at >> least, the same quality, preferably, better. >> >> Cheers >> >> Christo >> >> > > > .
More All Messages By This Member
ChrisLeo #2959 Yes, I agree, ...and then what? As far as i know, NVDA just switched from eSpeak to eSpeak-ng on developed branchs. Espeak-ng contains improvements for several languages and more languages than eSpeak. From gitHub you can watch and send issues on: https://github.com/espeak-ng/espeak-ng The R sounds mentioned in another messages for some language is a knoun issue, from here we are studing for spanish and italian trill R. Ciao, Chris. Mallard, 20/04/2016 22:41: toggle quoted message Show quoted text Doing away with Espeak, and then what? Compelling people to buy commercial voices? I think espeak is still the best non-human synth freely available. I have Vocalizer Expressive, but I only use the Russian and Hebrew voices. the Italian voices are awful to say the least. Not the sound, but the intonation. They all sound foreign, get lots of accents wrong, and after a while I just can't stand them anymore. If there's a viable, free, open source alternative, then ok. If not, long live Espeak!
More All Messages By This Member
Mallard <mallard@...> #2962 Oh, Chris, I love Espeak's "r"... It's so "posh"... And it sounds a lot like the "r" of a few of our politicians... lol-rofl!!! Ciao, Ollie toggle quoted message Show quoted text Il 21/04/2016 11:26, ChrisLeo ha scritto: Yes, I agree, ...and then what? As far as i know, NVDA just switched from eSpeak to eSpeak-ng on developed branchs. Espeak-ng contains improvements for several languages and more languages than eSpeak. From gitHub you can watch and send issues on: https://github.com/espeak-ng/espeak-ng The R sounds mentioned in another messages for some language is a knoun issue, from here we are studing for spanish and italian trill R. Ciao, Chris. Mallard, 20/04/2016 22:41: Doing away with Espeak, and then what? Compelling people to buy commercial voices? I think espeak is still the best non-human synth freely available. I have Vocalizer Expressive, but I only use the Russian and Hebrew voices. the Italian voices are awful to say the least. Not the sound, but the intonation. They all sound foreign, get lots of accents wrong, and after a while I just can't stand them anymore. If there's a viable, free, open source alternative, then ok. If not, long live Espeak!
More All Messages By This Member
Christo Vorster #2963 Hi What version of ESpeak is currently used with NVDA 2016.1? How do I get ESpeajk-NG? Regards Christo toggle quoted message Show quoted text -----Original Message----- From: ChrisLeo [mailto:llajta@...] Sent: Thursday, 21 April 2016 11:26 AM To: nvda@nvda.groups.io Subject: Re: Is there seriously a possibility of "DOING AWAY WITH ESPEAK"? [nvda] DOING AWAY WITH ESPEAK Yes, I agree, ...and then what? As far as i know, NVDA just switched from eSpeak to eSpeak-ng on developed branchs. Espeak-ng contains improvements for several languages and more languages than eSpeak. From gitHub you can watch and send issues on: https://github.com/espeak-ng/espeak-ng The R sounds mentioned in another messages for some language is a knoun issue, from here we are studing for spanish and italian trill R. Ciao, Chris. Mallard, 20/04/2016 22:41: Doing away with Espeak, and then what? Compelling people to buy commercial voices? I think espeak is still the best non-human synth freely available. I have Vocalizer Expressive, but I only use the Russian and Hebrew voices. the Italian voices are awful to say the least. Not the sound, but the intonation. They all sound foreign, get lots of accents wrong, and after a while I just can't stand them anymore. If there's a viable, free, open source alternative, then ok. If not, long live Espeak!
More All Messages By This Member
Shaun Everiss #2965 I have noticed espeak ng is mentioned where does one get compiled sapi/ dll versions for windows and nvda? The last version was last year some time aparently. toggle quoted message Show quoted text On 21/04/2016 9:48 p.m., Mallard wrote: Oh, Chris, I love Espeak's "r"... It's so "posh"... And it sounds a lot like the "r" of a few of our politicians... lol-rofl!!! Ciao, Ollie Il 21/04/2016 11:26, ChrisLeo ha scritto: Yes, I agree, ...and then what? As far as i know, NVDA just switched from eSpeak to eSpeak-ng on developed branchs. Espeak-ng contains improvements for several languages and more languages than eSpeak. From gitHub you can watch and send issues on: https://github.com/espeak-ng/espeak-ng The R sounds mentioned in another messages for some language is a knoun issue, from here we are studing for spanish and italian trill R. Ciao, Chris. Mallard, 20/04/2016 22:41: Doing away with Espeak, and then what? Compelling people to buy commercial voices? I think espeak is still the best non-human synth freely available. I have Vocalizer Expressive, but I only use the Russian and Hebrew voices. the Italian voices are awful to say the least. Not the sound, but the intonation. They all sound foreign, get lots of accents wrong, and after a while I just can't stand them anymore. If there's a viable, free, open source alternative, then ok. If not, long live Espeak! .
More All Messages By This Member

1 - 8 of 8

1

Previous Topic Next Topic

Home Hashtags Subgroups About Features Pricing Updates Terms Help Twitter