Re: via voice vs. flite... annoyance and advice

["Robert D. Crawford" <rdc1x@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Tim Cross <tcross@xxxxxxxxxxx> writes:

> I don't know about flite. I did try out an early version of flite and
> didn't really like the quality of the voices and missed not having
> multiple voices. The ViaVoice TTS provides easily understandable
> voices, especially at high speech rates and nice support of voice
> locking. For me, these were two very important features - I find the
> voice locking very useful, especially when programming - its even
> helped me find bugs on occasion (well, syntax errors mainly).

I would say that the voice quality of flite has not really changed, as
they say something about being asked why the voice sounds like it is
from the 80s.  All I have ever used in the way of speech synths are
flite and whatever it was that came with the original Macs.  Both seem
to be pretty close in the quality of realism.

Is there somewhere I can get an mp3 of something being said with the via
voice synth for comparison?  I'll research this in a little while.

> However, I was quite willing to pay the $40USD for a license, which is
> trivial compared to what you have to pay for speech support on any
> other platform.

Very true.

> With respect to your flite issues - how are you moving across the
> text/links when you get this fast speech? If you are using the arrow
> keys, I would recommend getting use to useing the emacs movement keys

I use mainly the emacs keys for page, line, paragraph, and word
movement.  I have noticed no difference in the issue.  Another example
that might clear up what is happening is in page movement.  When I C-v
and the point ends up on text, the text is read.  If I C-v in the pause
between words, then the speech picks up wherever point lands(top of the
next page).  If I C-v in the middle of text being spoken, especially if
it is an anchor in a web page, the rest of the text, in this case the
url, is read before the page is allowed to advance.

Thanks for your help,

rdc
-- 
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
Robert D. Crawford                                      rdc1x@xxxxxxxxxxx

The lunatic, the lover, and the poet,
Are of imagination all compact...
		-- Wm. Shakespeare, "A Midsummer Night's Dream"
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe from the emacspeak list or change your address on the
emacspeak list send mail to "emacspeak-request@xxxxxxxxxxx" with a
subject of "unsubscribe" or "help"