[DECtalk] DECtalk USB ready

[Alex H.]

Hi,

Sorry, forgot to say this in my first post. People wishing for a
totally classic, copy for copy of the old Express days won't like this
much. As we've found out over time through various sources, the
DECtalk USB sound is based off DECtalk 5.0 and some heavily modded
stuff to make it sound more classic.  As much as I can say this isn't
classic completely, it's got some things referencing it. There is that
sort of stuffed graham crackers in mouth sound of 4.64 in there, but
thankfully it's dialed back and doesn't pause at every given second
like 4.64 does, so that's a good thing. The intonation sounds more
like 4.4 though, and most of the parameters for voice adjustment are
pretty sensative, so there's lots of control there. If I had to
compare it to a classic DECtalk era version, I'd say 4.4 mixed with
4.64.

As a note, I've used this constantly with JAWS for the past day, and
am seriously considering writing an NVDA driver if Axsol is willing to
hook me up with a nice manual to expose all the functions, this would
be a really good start to me learning more about Python and applying
it to a real-world situation. I don't just want to do express, either.
Would be great to have native USB support, just plug in and go with my
favorite screen reader. It certainly can be done from what I've been
hearing from the developers of NVDA, so now I just need to get the
required info.

Final verdict thus far: If you've got a load of money and want a cool
hardware synth to play with and use, and you're not to picky about
your DECtalk versions or can accept some change, get this. If
someone's got it used and they don't like it for whatever reason or
just don't use it and they're willing to sell it, snag it while it's
there. Grab life by the horns, I guess.

Peace!

Alex

On 11/10/11, Alex H. <linuxx64.bashsh at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> So I finally managed to procure a DEC USB and it arrived yesterday
> afternoon. I bought it used, the person who had it said it was
> collecting dust in a closet, and he never used it. Well, as much as
> I'm sad to hear of DECtalk equipment being in storage, I'm glad
> because now it's found a new home with me.  It's in excellent
> condition with only a small dent in the speaker grill, but it sounds
> great. Very responsive also, even with JAWS in a VM. It takes the lag
> out of running virtual machines, feels native now.
>
> On the off chance, does anybody know what the specs of the wall
> adapter are? I only got the unit itself+the USB cable. If not, that's
> ok, I'll probably only use this via USB anyway, and there's always the
> 9-volt option if needed for Linux/serial connections.
>
> Thanks,
> Alex
>