[DECtalk] A history question

Brandon Misch bmisch2002 at gmail.com
Sun Jan 30 22:06:46 EST 2011


can you provide samples of it? 

On Jan 30, 2011, at 9:07 PM, Dectalk at aol.com wrote:

> I have 5.0 but I promised never to give it out, sorry.  I will say it's bad.
>  
>  
> SNOOPI BOTTEN
>  
> In a message dated 1/30/2011 8:52:41 P.M. Eastern Standard Time, bmisch2002 at gmail.com writes:
> i'm sure someone has a version of it. 
> 
> On Jan 30, 2011, at 8:38 PM, Jayson Smith wrote:
> 
> > I don't think there was ever a 5.0 demo at GW. I'm surprised nobody seems to 
> > have a copy of it laying around.
> > Jayson
> > 
> > ----- Original Message ----- 
> > From: "Brandon Misch" <bmisch2002 at gmail.com>
> > To: "DECtalk Discussions" <dectalk at bluegrasspals.com>
> > Sent: Sunday, January 30, 2011 8:36 PM
> > Subject: Re: [DECtalk] A history question
> > 
> > 
> >> wasn't that the demo that used to be on gw's site? if it was, it's now 
> >> found at dectalk.com
> >> 
> >> On Jan 30, 2011, at 8:28 PM, Alex H. wrote:
> >> 
> >>> I only wish I could grab DT 5.0, I then would have all the demo
> >>> programs. :( but it's just tantelizingly too late. Fonix used to have
> >>> the demos on the old website.
> >>> 
> >>> alex
> >>> 
> >>> On 1/30/11, Brandon Misch <bmisch2002 at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>>> if you want to hear a reading edge machine, you can find a podcast of 
> >>>> that
> >>>> over at blindcooltech.com i bring this up because that had dectalk 4.0
> >>>> 
> >>>> On Jan 30, 2011, at 5:22 PM, Blake Roberts wrote:
> >>>> 
> >>>>> I think the record Ed refers to is a collection of speech synthesis
> >>>>> demonstrations that Dennis put together. He provided brief narration
> >>>>> before
> >>>>> each demoSomeone converted that record to an old sound format (.au). I
> >>>>> think
> >>>>> it's on dectalk.com somewhere. I took the .au version, converted to 
> >>>>> mp3,
> >>>>> changed the file name and listed Dennis Klatt as the artist. If anyone
> >>>>> would
> >>>>> like to hear the mp3 version of Dennis's record, write me off-list.
> >>>>> 
> >>>>> Like Brandon, I would love to hear any other recordings of Dennis that
> >>>>> exist, or recordings of older Dectalks.
> >>>>> Blake
> >>>>> 
> >>>>> -----Original Message-----
> >>>>> From: dectalk-bounces at bluegrasspals.com
> >>>>> [mailto:dectalk-bounces at bluegrasspals.com] On Behalf Of Brandon Misch
> >>>>> Sent: Sunday, January 30, 2011 1:56 PM
> >>>>> To: DECtalk Discussions
> >>>>> Subject: Re: [DECtalk] A history question
> >>>>> 
> >>>>> can you send what you can? or is that recording all that you have and 
> >>>>> are
> >>>>> there any recordings of the old dectalks from the 80's besides that
> >>>>> record?
> >>>>> 
> >>>>> On Jan 30, 2011, at 1:45 PM, ebruckert Bruckert wrote:
> >>>>> 
> >>>>> 
> >>>>> He recorde alot before his voice went. By 1982 it was very
> >>>>> different. And I don't have a lot of backups as the medu=iums changed.
> >>>>> 
> >>>>> 
> >>>>> On Sun, Jan 30, 2011 at 12:43 PM, Brandon Misch
> >>>>> <bmisch2002 at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>>>> 
> >>>>> 
> >>>>> his voice didn't sound that bad from that record about
> >>>>> speech systems from the 30's to the 80's unless that wasn't him.
> >>>>> 
> >>>>> On Jan 30, 2011, at 9:56 AM, ebruckert Bruckert wrote:
> >>>>> 
> >>>>> 
> >>>>> All the DECtalk voices have been there since 1982.
> >>>>> In fact the Dennis voice was modeled by Dennis Klatt at the time to be 
> >>>>> his
> >>>>> closest match to his own voice as he could. When I first met him his
> >>>>> natural
> >>>>> voice was already deteriorating due to his throat cancer.
> >>>>> 
> >>>>> The DTC 01 does try to hear touchstones while at
> >>>>> speaking it tries to cancel out the outgoing sound from the ingoing 
> >>>>> sound
> >>>>> and in old systems used to work pretty good. Whether changes in 
> >>>>> telephony
> >>>>> have made that more difficult I don't know.
> >>>>> 
> >>>>> 
> >>>>> On Sun, Jan 30, 2011 at 8:58 AM, Jayson Smith
> >>>>> <ratguy at insightbb.com> wrote:
> >>>>> 
> >>>>> 
> >>>>> Hi,
> >>>>> 
> >>>>> Okay, this is getting way out there, but
> >>>>> when did DECtalk get the eighth and
> >>>>> ninth voices? I remember hearing a sample of
> >>>>> DECtalk in I think it was
> >>>>> Dialogue Magazine on flexible disk. My
> >>>>> parents had a copy. I heard the piece
> >>>>> in 1989, not sure when it was actually done
> >>>>> though. At that point, DECtalk
> >>>>> only had seven voices, from how I understand
> >>>>> it. Dennis and Wendy weren't
> >>>>> present.
> >>>>> Then in November of 1989 we got our Kurzweil
> >>>>> Personal Reader with DECtalk in
> >>>>> it. All nine voices were there, in pretty
> >>>>> much the same form they kept until
> >>>>> Digital became Compaq and Force got hold of
> >>>>> DECtalk. I think the version on
> >>>>> the Kurzweil was something older than 4.0.
> >>>>> While the voices sounded a lot
> >>>>> alike, there were some pronunciation
> >>>>> differences.
> >>>>> 
> >>>>> We got our first DECtalk PC running version
> >>>>> 4.0 in mid 1993, and our first
> >>>>> DECtalk Express in mid 1995.
> >>>>> 
> >>>>> Over all, I'd have to say my favorite
> >>>>> DECtalk version is 4.2CD, the version
> >>>>> that's running on all our DECtalk Expresses.
> >>>>> 4.3 is excellent too, and it's
> >>>>> all over the place in the DECtalk Archive,
> >>>>> thanks to the speak43 program
> >>>>> making the rounds. From what I heard of 4.4
> >>>>> in the demo sent to this list
> >>>>> yesterday, it sounds pretty good. I'm not
> >>>>> exactly sure what version of
> >>>>> DECtalk Access32 uses, but by then there
> >>>>> were a few changes. We got our copy
> >>>>> of Access32 in mid 1998. In particular, the
> >>>>> B sound, as in the words bin,
> >>>>> bye, and bag, almost had an extra sound like
> >>>>> it was trying to put an r in
> >>>>> there. Not quite sure how to describe it.
> >>>>> 
> >>>>> I think my least favorite version is 4.61.
> >>>>> Don't know if I ever heard 4.63.
> >>>>> I think 4.64 sounds kind of weird, a bit
> >>>>> sluggish or something. From what I
> >>>>> heard of it, I think DECtalk 5 sounded
> >>>>> better than 4.64, though not as good
> >>>>> as the Digital versions.
> >>>>> 
> >>>>> On a somewhat related note, a few years ago
> >>>>> I purchased a DTC01 on eBay.
> >>>>> It's running DECtalk 2.0 from July 1984, and
> >>>>> you can tell it. Not sure how
> >>>>> many voices it has. It's pretty much just
> >>>>> been sitting around collecting
> >>>>> dust, unfortunately. I thought I might use
> >>>>> some of its telephone
> >>>>> functionality, but the DTC01 had some
> >>>>> limitations I didn't know about until
> >>>>> I already had it, E.G. can't detect
> >>>>> touchtones while speaking, can't
> >>>>> automatically detect hangups, etc. So that
> >>>>> never happened.
> >>>>> Jayson
> >>>>> 
> >>>>> 
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> >>>>> 
> >>>>> 
> >>>>> 
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> >>>>> 
> >>>>> 
> >>>>> 
> >>>>> 
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> >>>>> 
> >>>>> 
> >>>>> 
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> >>>>> 
> >>>>> 
> >>>>> 
> >>>>> 
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> >>>> 
> >>>> 
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> >> 
> >> 
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