Date
1 - 10 of 10
Slightly OT: Hardware speech synthesizer
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Felix G.
Hello everyone,
I'm thinking of getting a hardware speech synthesizer because I feel it might improve my efficiency by making me independent of existing sound resources on machines. I'm aware hardware speech synthesizers are an ancient concept, so I'd like to ask around: Are they still being manufactured for end users? If so, which ones are being produced as I am writing this? All the best, Felix
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Robert Doc Wright godfearer
I think you would be better off getting an external sound card and pointing your speech to it. You will basically get the same result.You can ha have it for speech and your main sound card for media.
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*** Jesus says, follow me and I'll help you through the rough spots. the world says, hey come with me. My way is broad and easy. So what if you get crap on your shoes. You can always wash it off, can't you! ****
----- Original Message -----
From: "Felix G." <constantlyvariable@gmail.com> To: <nvda@nvda.groups.io> Sent: Friday, January 11, 2019 5:25 AM Subject: [nvda] Slightly OT: Hardware speech synthesizer Hello everyone,
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Brian K. Lingard
Dear Felix & List:
I believe the triple talk synthesizer is still manufactured. So is the Votrax Personal Speech System by the Federal Screw Works. Brian K. Lingard From: nvda@nvda.groups.io [mailto:nvda@nvda.groups.io] On Behalf of Felix G. Sent: January 11, 2019 7:26 AM To: nvda@nvda.groups.io Subject: [nvda] Slightly OT: Hardware speech synthesizer Hello everyone, I am thinking of getting a hardware speech synthesizer because I feel it might improve my efficiency by making me independent of existing sound resources on machines. I am aware hardware speech synthesizers are an ancient concept, so I would like to ask around are they still being manufactured for end users. If so, which ones are being produced as I am writing this? All the best, Felix
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Brian's Mail list account <bglists@...>
The real question though is this. Can they be more efficient in real terms than the inbuilt espeak?
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I did some tests back in the xp days when I had access to one, and to me at least there was nothing much in it. Of course the old interface used a serial port on my old computer, so it could well be that this ancient device was a bottleneck. Brian bglists@blueyonder.co.uk Sent via blueyonder. Please address personal E-mail to:- briang1@blueyonder.co.uk, putting 'Brian Gaff' in the display name field.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Brian K. Lingard" <bkl@ncf.ca> To: <nvda@nvda.groups.io> Sent: Friday, January 11, 2019 3:22 PM Subject: Re: [nvda] Slightly OT: Hardware speech synthesizer Dear Felix & List: I believe the triple talk synthesizer is still manufactured. So is the Votrax Personal Speech System by the Federal Screw Works. Brian K. Lingard From: nvda@nvda.groups.io [mailto:nvda@nvda.groups.io] On Behalf of Felix G. Sent: January 11, 2019 7:26 AM To: nvda@nvda.groups.io Subject: [nvda] Slightly OT: Hardware speech synthesizer Hello everyone, I am thinking of getting a hardware speech synthesizer because I feel it might improve my efficiency by making me independent of existing sound resources on machines. I am aware hardware speech synthesizers are an ancient concept, so I would like to ask around are they still being manufactured for end users. If so, which ones are being produced as I am writing this? All the best, Felix
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Devin Prater
On modern computers, I don’t see much of a benefit to it, unless you’re using Emacspeak where the hardware DecTalk is still a good experience with it. On older computers, or computers with fussy sound cards, it may be a good experience.
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On Jan 11, 2019, at 10:19 AM, Brian's Mail list account via Groups.Io <bglists=blueyonder.co.uk@groups.io> wrote:
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Felix G.
Hello,
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thank you for the great advice. TripleTalk USB Mini looks promising. In any case, I now know the territory a bit more. Best, Felix Am Fr., 11. Jan. 2019 um 17:23 Uhr schrieb Devin Prater <r.d.t.prater@gmail.com>:
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Brian's Mail list account <bglists@...>
Well I find the very cheap usb Behringer sound device that can interface using good old phono plugs very good, and the only reason I do not like internal cards is that some hardware or maybe its drivers, truncate the speech at times, particularly on laptops.
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Some internal hardware also seems to be prone to buzzes whines and other pick up from inside the machine which may not notice too much on speakers, but plug in headphones and its very irritating. The Behriinger has a headphone socket and its own volume control. Brian bglists@blueyonder.co.uk Sent via blueyonder. Please address personal E-mail to:- briang1@blueyonder.co.uk, putting 'Brian Gaff' in the display name field.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Devin Prater" <r.d.t.prater@gmail.com> To: <nvda@nvda.groups.io> Sent: Friday, January 11, 2019 4:23 PM Subject: Re: [nvda] Slightly OT: Hardware speech synthesizer On modern computers, I don’t see much of a benefit to it, unless you’re using Emacspeak where the hardware DecTalk is still a good experience with it. On older computers, or computers with fussy sound cards, it may be a good experience. On Jan 11, 2019, at 10:19 AM, Brian's Mail list account via Groups.Io <bglists=blueyonder.co.uk@groups.io> wrote:
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To be honest I agree with you, the gaming box I have I tried to run without any drivers but the amplifier on that is just to powerfull to run without some filtering.
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The filtering only works for speakers, I have tried to get it in a state where I just plugged earphones but give it to much of a loud sound and it tries to cancel the noise and it sounds crappy. So if I plug the earphones in they sound quite bassy and bad but at least I have sound and I turn the volumes down a little and its ok its a lot more powerfull than the sound I had, and a thing to get used to. To be honest an older machine may be better, anything up to 6th gen includes extra ports for sound. Somewhere just after 4th gen sound card chips started emulating their sound from the display processer and that has some interesting issues. To be honest, if you don't need all the power, I'd go for a 4th-6th intel system or older amd a10 or a9 if you must as you may get some use out of that. If you really don't give a damn, 3rd gen intels though slow are fine. To be honest though if you don't need to be ultra secure, I'd use windows 7 or even xp or just pull to linux or something. A lot of my friends run everything off their phones and while thats not my choice at the best of times it may be something to look at. If you can get a system from 2000 or there abouts you may still be able to get something with semi decent speakers and analog sound cards. Andriea sells some audio 3d headsets which are good and have their own sound card. The card is pure sound, no crap but still.
On 12/01/2019 10:32 AM, Brian's Mail list account via Groups.Io wrote:
Well I find the very cheap usb Behringer sound device that can interface using good old phono plugs very good, and the only reason I do not like internal cards is that some hardware or maybe its drivers, truncate the speech at times, particularly on laptops.
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Brian K. Lingard
Dear Brian & List:
There is a USB edition of the Triple Talk hardware synthesizer. While many devices have their highest Baud rate as 9,600 BPS, newer Uarts such as the 16550 ones can easily run at 115,200 BPS, this over a plain old RS-232C serial port. Helps if you use hardware flow control rather than DC1/DC33 XX-On/x-Off software flow control. Hardware flow control is instant; X-on/x-off has to be processed by the sending computer. Have no stats on what really nice-sounding voices such as the ones that shipped with the Dec Talk synthesizers do to CPU usage. If you find you want to use a really nice synthetic voice, you can purchase a hardware synthesizer; however, not all hardware synthesizers have really nice voices. With modern PC speeds what they are, buying a PC with a moderately fast to super-fast CPU should be more than adequate to handle any synthesizer voice. Brian K. Lingard From: nvda@nvda.groups.io [mailto:nvda@nvda.groups.io] On Behalf Of Brian's Mail list account via Groups.Io Sent: January 11, 2019 11:20 AM To: nvda@nvda.groups.io Subject: Re: [nvda] Slightly OT: Hardware speech synthesizer The real question though is this. Can they be more efficient in real terms than the inbuilt espeak? I did some tests back in the XP days when I had access to one, and to me at least there was nothing much in it. Of course, the old interface used a serial port on my old computer, so it could well be that this ancient device was a bottleneck. Brian bglists@blueyonder.co.uk Sent via blueyonder. Please address personal E-mail to- briang1@blueyonder.co.uk, putting 'Brian Gaff' In the display name field. From: "Brian K. Lingard" <bkl@ncf.ca> To: <nvda@nvda.groups.io> Sent: Friday, January 11, 2019 3:22 PM Subject: Re: [nvda] Slightly OT: Hardware speech synthesizer Dear Felix & List: I believe the triple talk synthesizer is still manufactured. So is the Votrax Personal Speech System by the Federal Screw Works. Brian K. Lingard From: nvda@nvda.groups.io [mailto:nvda@nvda.groups.io] On Behalf of Felix G. Sent: January 11, 2019 7:26 AM To: nvda@nvda.groups.io Subject: [nvda] Slightly OT: Hardware speech synthesizer Hello everyone, I am thinking of getting a hardware speech synthesizer because I feel it Might improve my efficiency by making me independent of existing sound Resources on machines. I am aware hardware speech synthesizers are an Ancient concept, so I would like to ask around are they still being Manufactured for end users. If so, which ones are being produced as I am? Writing this? All the best, Felix
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Gene
I very much doubt that current Dectalk voices use
much computing power. They are the older kind of synthesizer and those
usually don't and, in addition, there were software versions of Dectalk
available when computers were much less powerful than now and they worked
well. there was even a version that worked with the SB16 sound card in
Windows 3 machines. This was a software synthesizer even though it
required the SB16 sound card and, if implemented properly, it was very
responsive when run on a 166MHZ machine. That's MHZ, not GHZ.
It wasn't implemented properly
in general but it was by Openbook at the time and by the ASAW
screen-reader.
Gene
----- Original Message
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From: Brian K. Lingard
Sent: Monday, January 14, 2019 5:34 AM
Subject: Re: [nvda] Slightly OT: Hardware speech
synthesizer There is a USB edition of the Triple Talk hardware synthesizer. While many devices have their highest Baud rate as 9,600 BPS, newer Uarts such as the 16550 ones can easily run at 115,200 BPS, this over a plain old RS-232C serial port. Helps if you use hardware flow control rather than DC1/DC33 XX-On/x-Off software flow control. Hardware flow control is instant; X-on/x-off has to be processed by the sending computer. Have no stats on what really nice-sounding voices such as the ones that shipped with the Dec Talk synthesizers do to CPU usage. If you find you want to use a really nice synthetic voice, you can purchase a hardware synthesizer; however, not all hardware synthesizers have really nice voices. With modern PC speeds what they are, buying a PC with a moderately fast to super-fast CPU should be more than adequate to handle any synthesizer voice. Brian K. Lingard From: nvda@nvda.groups.io [mailto:nvda@nvda.groups.io] On Behalf Of Brian's Mail list account via Groups.Io Sent: January 11, 2019 11:20 AM To: nvda@nvda.groups.io Subject: Re: [nvda] Slightly OT: Hardware speech synthesizer The real question though is this. Can they be more efficient in real terms than the inbuilt espeak? I did some tests back in the XP days when I had access to one, and to me at least there was nothing much in it. Of course, the old interface used a serial port on my old computer, so it could well be that this ancient device was a bottleneck. Brian bglists@... Sent via blueyonder. Please address personal E-mail to- briang1@..., putting 'Brian Gaff' In the display name field. From: "Brian K. Lingard" <bkl@...> To: <nvda@nvda.groups.io> Sent: Friday, January 11, 2019 3:22 PM Subject: Re: [nvda] Slightly OT: Hardware speech synthesizer Dear Felix & List: I believe the triple talk synthesizer is still manufactured. So is the Votrax Personal Speech System by the Federal Screw Works. Brian K. Lingard From: nvda@nvda.groups.io [mailto:nvda@nvda.groups.io] On Behalf of Felix G. Sent: January 11, 2019 7:26 AM To: nvda@nvda.groups.io Subject: [nvda] Slightly OT: Hardware speech synthesizer Hello everyone, I am thinking of getting a hardware speech synthesizer because I feel it Might improve my efficiency by making me independent of existing sound Resources on machines. I am aware hardware speech synthesizers are an Ancient concept, so I would like to ask around are they still being Manufactured for end users. If so, which ones are being produced as I am? Writing this? All the best, Felix
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