Re: Speech synth's, emacspeak, and Hal 95

["Alan Gordon" <ag3p@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Another question comparing the dectalk and doubletalk:

Dectalk is able to use 9 different voices.  Someone reported here that 
Doubletalk is able to use 1 voice but can have its pitch changed.  From 
reading the emacspeak documentation I learned that it can use different 
voices for different contexts to, say, let the user know when something 
is being quoted in an e-mail or if somthing is italicized and things 
like that.  To me it seems that this would be a useful capability.

Is doubletalk able to provide this type of tonality changing so as to 
inform the user about different contexts as the dectalk would be able 
to?

Also, could anyone comment about how effectively emacspeak is able to 
signal the user about different contexts using voice type and quality 
dynamic modifications?  How useful and important is this feature?

One comment on TV Raman's message below:  I don't see why it would be 
important to play wave files through a dectalk device since most 
computers have sound cards in them today and the wave file could be 
played through that.  Unless the program driving the speech does not 
have access to the sound card.  Is this the case with some access 
programs, like emacspeak?

Thankcs,
ag3p@xxxxxxxxxxx

>From raman@xxxxxxxxxxx Sun Jan  4 09:01:44 1998
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>To: Jude Dashiell <dashiell@xxxxxxxxxxx>
>Cc: Bryan Smart <bsmart@xxxxxxxxxxx>, emacspeak@xxxxxxxxxxx
>Subject: Re: Speech synth's, emacspeak, and Hal 95
>In-Reply-To: <Pine.GSO.3.96.980104094642.13707F-100000@xxxxxxxxxxx>
>References: <l03010d01b0d4fc092561@[209.86.26.223]>
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>Reply-To: raman@xxxxxxxxxxx
>From: "T. V. Raman" <raman@xxxxxxxxxxx>
>X-Phone: 1 (408) 536-3945
>X-Fax: 1(408) 537-4042
>
>Jude Dashiell writes:
> > Hi, I've used both dectalk express and doubletalk synthesizers.
> > The only tangible difference is that you get more voices with 
dectalk
> > products
> > than are available with doubletalk products.  The doubletalk has one 
basic
> > voice that can be adjusted in terms of
> > pitch tone and speed.  The dectalk express and other dectalk 
products have
> > 9 voices some
> > of them female.  Some of the female voices in my opinion
>have such
>
>You may not like the female voices, but they do not take up
>any space on those "dectalk chips" as you put it.
>
>The speech synthesizer inside the Dectalk is based on Dennis
>Klatt's Klatt synthesizer
>and allows a large number of voice characteristic parameters
>to be modified--
>as a demonstration of what can be done, the box typically
>ships with nine predefined voices --each attained by
>tweaking synthesizer parameters.
>
> > poor quality that they only waste space on those dectalk chips.
> > dectalk express synthesizers are equipped with features
> > like being able to
>
>You cannot play wave files ovr the Dectalk Express-- only on
>the Dectalk PC.
>This is because the Express is a serial line device and
>shipping wave files down a serial line is impractical.
>
> > play wav files
> > over the speaker given the software but accessing those features is 
next
> > to
> > impossible even with the documentation provided.
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > Jude <dashiell@xxxxxxxxxxx>
>
>-- 
>Best Regards,
>--raman
>
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