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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Hi,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Basicly what I'm wanting to do is to take a MIDI
file and type in the DECtalk phonemic text or words and have the program
translate that into the proper DECtalk format for singing, when played via the
Speak43 application. I'm not actually looking for a way to play the
DECtalk produced output and the MIDI file at the same time through your program,
although that would be nifty but would of course make a mess with licensing
DECtalk, etc. In the program as it currently exists, you said you can copy
the generated text and paste it into another application. Is there a way
to save the generated text to a text file right from your
application?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Obviously for those of us who love making DECtalk
sing, a program like this would make the process much easier as you wouldn't
have to mess around with note numbers, durations, etc. Are any MIDI
effects handled, like pitch wheel, etc? What happens if the file contains
notes that are out of the C2-C5 range of DECtalk? Are they cut out,
brought within range by lowering the octave or what? I have recently found
a trick for giving DECtalk an extra octave of lower range, from C1 to C5
total. I forget the exact command, but it has the effect of lowering the
pitch by one octave so when it's enabled the synth effectively has a range of
C1-C4. It sounds just a bit different but could be used where a low bass
part is required, etc. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Do you have any samples of DECtalk code or audio
files of DECtalk singing which was generated by the program?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I'll try to think of a MIDI file I have for which I
know the words, and there's one track that could be the vocals. Obviously
a song which is familiar to most of the population would be preferred as if you
aren't familiar with the song and how it is properly sung, there might be issues
with not knowing how many notes to hold a syllable, etc.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Jayson.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=eulenber@msu.edu href="mailto:eulenber@msu.edu">John B. Eulenberg</A>
</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=dectalk@jaybird.no-ip.info
href="mailto:dectalk@jaybird.no-ip.info">DECtalk Discussions</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Thursday, June 02, 2005 10:47
AM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Re: [DECtalk] Midi
conversion?</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>Dear Jayson,<BR>Thanks for your questions.<BR>You're right
about the licensing. It would require a license for DECtalk.<BR>The program
could be distributed in a form that doesn't include DECtalk, if the user would
be content with just a function that merged the already phoneticized DECtalk
string with the midi file.<BR>The program works with just the first track of
the MIDI file, so in casese of multi-track MIDI files, you'll want the first
track to be the vocal track, rather than some other instrument. My current
implememtation doesn't isolate the vocal track for you, but there are MIDI
editor programs that allow you to strip out the non-vocal tracks from the song
and resave the stripped-down version.<BR>As for operating systems, this
program has worked under ME, and probably would work under 98 and 2000. I've
been using XP during the last several years, as I've refined the software, but
the code doesn't depend on it's being used under XP. <BR>The program does
assign one syllable per note, where a syllable is defined as a vowel,
diphthong or syllabic consonant, plus the preceding consonants, if any. For
syllables that need to be stretched over two notes, such as the "O" in "O say
can you see by the dawn's early light....", the solution is just to put a
number (in the case of "O", it would be "2") in the DECtalk phoneme text box
directly before the phoneme for the vowel, as in "[2ow]", and the program will
automatically assign two consecutive notes to that syllable.<BR><BR>If I have
time over the weekend, I may be able to give the list a couple examples of how
this works. <BR><BR>Does anyone have a song (with lyrics and associated midi
file) for this test?<BR><BR>Yours,<BR>John Eulenberg<BR><BR>Jayson Smith
wrote:<BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE cite=mid001901c5677b$4cca6ca0$6700a8c0@h2c8f0 type="cite">
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.2800.1476" name=GENERATOR>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Hi,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Thanks for the explanation. I do have a
few more questions. One's about DECtalk itself. Does the
software actually have a DECtalk program in it, or does it call an external
program to play the song you've just created? If DECtalk is bundled
with the program, this might present a whole mess of licensing
concerns. Most of us in this community use the freely available
DECtalk demo program put out by Digital way back when, called
speak43.exe. I have written a small program called Playdec which will
allow for command-line or Windows association playing of DECtalk files using
the Speak43 application or any similar application. Let me know if you
want a copy. The license for my program is, basically, do whatever you
want with it but if you use my code somewhere else I'd like
credit.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Is your program only usable under XP?
That's not a problem for me or probably for most others, but I'm just
wondering if it actually requires XP or if it's just not been tested on
older systems such as 98.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>My other question involves the translation of
MIDI notes into DECtalk code. Let's say you have an eight-note MIDI
file, and you create a DECtalk phonemic version of the text 'This is a
test'. Now, would the first note sing 'this', the second note sing
'is', the third note sing 'a', and the fourth note sing 'test'? If so,
what about the other four notes, would they be silent? In other words,
is it always assumed that one note equals one syllable?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Thanks,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Jayson.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: rgb(0,0,0) 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV
style="FONT: 10pt arial; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal">-----
Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: rgb(228,228,228) 0% 50%; FONT: 10pt arial; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; moz-background-clip: initial; moz-background-origin: initial; moz-background-inline-policy: initial"><B>From:</B>
<A title=eulenber@msu.edu href="mailto:eulenber@msu.edu">John B.
Eulenberg</A> </DIV>
<DIV
style="FONT: 10pt arial; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal"><B>To:</B>
<A title=dectalk@jaybird.no-ip.info
href="mailto:dectalk@jaybird.no-ip.info">DECtalk Discussions</A> </DIV>
<DIV
style="FONT: 10pt arial; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal"><B>Sent:</B>
Thursday, June 02, 2005 9:20 AM</DIV>
<DIV
style="FONT: 10pt arial; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal"><B>Subject:</B>
Re: [DECtalk] Midi conversion?</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV><BIG><BIG>Dear Jayson et al.,<BR>Basically, the program,
which runs under Windows XP, presents three text windows: The first is for
English orthography (regular spelling); the second is for DECtalk phonemic
code, without the musical note codes; and the third is for the fully
"enchanted" DECtalk code, including the musical notes. You can enter text
into either the first window or the second window. If you enter it into
the first window, clicking a control button creates the corresponding
phonetic text in the second window for you automatically. A separate
navigation control allows you to select a midi file on your computer.
Then, once you have thus specified the phonetic text in the second text
window and the desired midi file, clicking a second control button creates
the fully "enchanted" DECtalk text in the third text window. This text can
then be played by clicking a third control button. Any of the texts can be
copied to the clipboard for use in another application. Also, one can
hand-edit the text in all three windows at any time.<BR><BR>I am working
with Michigan State University on getting this software available either
for free (my preference) or for a nominal license fee under $15.<BR><BR>As
for accessibility of this software for blind users, I think it would be
accessible to a person using most screen reading programs. I will give it
a test with JAWS this week.<BR><BR>Yours,<BR>John
Eulenberg</BIG></BIG><BR><BR><BR>Jayson Smith wrote:<BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE cite=mid01c501c56202$3bd1f7c0$6700a8c0@h2c8f0 type="cite">
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.2800.1476" name=GENERATOR>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Hi,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>A few more questions if you don't
mind. I understand that this software is currently unavailable to
the public, and you'd need sufficient interest in order to release
it. With that said, I'd like to ask a few questions which might
let everybody know if this program would work for us.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>1. What operating systems does the
program run under?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>2. How does it work? E.G. what
is the user interface like? Is it a deal where you write a text
script which describes what phonemes or sounds are to be put on each
note, or is it a graffical representation where you somehow find the
proper notes on the screen and put phonemic symbols on those notes or
something? If that's the way it is, it probably wouldn't be that
useful to most of us, as most of us on this list probably are
blind.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I think once there was talk of writing a
program to do something similar, but putting some generic phonemic
symbols on each note so you could then go in and manually put the
phonemes in.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Jayson.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: rgb(0,0,0) 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV
style="FONT: 10pt arial; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal">-----
Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: rgb(228,228,228) 0% 50%; FONT: 10pt arial; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; moz-background-clip: initial; moz-background-origin: initial; moz-background-inline-policy: initial"><B>From:</B>
<A title=eulenber@msu.edu href="mailto:eulenber@msu.edu">John
Eulenberg</A> </DIV>
<DIV
style="FONT: 10pt arial; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal"><B>To:</B>
<A title=dectalk@jaybird.no-ip.info
href="mailto:dectalk@jaybird.no-ip.info">DECtalk Discussions</A>
</DIV>
<DIV
style="FONT: 10pt arial; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal"><B>Sent:</B>
Thursday, May 26, 2005 10:23 AM</DIV>
<DIV
style="FONT: 10pt arial; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal"><B>Subject:</B>
Re: [DECtalk] Midi conversion?</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>It hasn't been released, but it ould be. It's pretty
much a matter of clearing the MSU office of Intellectual Property. I'd
be happy to look into it if there is sufficient interest.<BR>John B.
Eulenberg<BR><PRE class=moz-signature cols="72">John Bryson Eulenberg
Professor
Director, Artificial Language Laboratory</PRE><BR>Jayson Smith
wrote:<BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE cite=mid001701c561fd$0361fa20$6700a8c0@h2c8f0
type="cite"><META content="MSHTML 6.00.2800.1476" name=GENERATOR>
<STYLE></STYLE>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Hi,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Has this software ever been made
available to the DECtalk community at large, or is it only available
for internal use? Just curious.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Jayson.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: rgb(0,0,0) 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV
style="FONT: 10pt arial; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal">-----
Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: rgb(228,228,228) 0% 50%; FONT: 10pt arial; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; moz-background-clip: initial; moz-background-origin: initial; moz-background-inline-policy: initial"><B>From:</B>
<A title=eulenber@msu.edu href="mailto:eulenber@msu.edu">John B.
Eulenberg</A> </DIV>
<DIV
style="FONT: 10pt arial; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal"><B>To:</B>
<A title=dectalk@jaybird.no-ip.info
href="mailto:dectalk@jaybird.no-ip.info">DECtalk Discussions</A>
</DIV>
<DIV
style="FONT: 10pt arial; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal"><B>Sent:</B>
Thursday, May 26, 2005 7:15 AM</DIV>
<DIV
style="FONT: 10pt arial; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal"><B>Subject:</B>
Re: [DECtalk] Midi conversion?</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV><BIG><BIG>Dear Jayson et al,<BR>We have been doing
MIDI to DECtalk conversions for years at the Michigan State
University Artificial Language Laboratory, using our own
proprietary software. Our main application has been for
nonspeaking people using a communication aid system such as
DynaVox. <BR>Our program allows the user to input either at the
phoneme level or at the level of orthographic representation
(regular spelling).<BR>Yours,<BR>John
Eulenberg</BIG></BIG><BR><BR>Jayson Smith wrote:
<BLOCKQUOTE cite=mid000501c561c1$47a7f860$6700a8c0@h2c8f0
type="cite"><PRE wrap="">Hey,
Did anybody ever figure out a way to convert data in MIDI files into proper
DECtalk format for singing? Obviously you'd have to put in the proper
phonemes yourself, but still it'd be nice to be able to have the notes and
durations converted.
Jayson.
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</PRE></BLOCKQUOTE><BR><BR><PRE class=moz-signature cols="72">--
John Bryson Eulenberg, Ph.D.
Professor
Audiology and Speech Sciences
Linguistics, Germanic, Slavic, Asian and African Languages
African Studies Center
Director, Artificial Language Laboratory
405 Computer Center
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824-1042
517-353-6622 voice
517-353-4766 fax
517-896-6655 mobile
517-332-1970 home
<A class=moz-txt-link-abbreviated href="mailto:artlang@msu.edu">artlang@msu.edu</A>
<A class=moz-txt-link-freetext href="http://www.msu.edu/%7Eartlang/">http://www.msu.edu/~artlang/</A>
This e-mail may contain proprietary information and may be confidential. If you are not the intended recipient of this e-mail, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this message is strictly prohibited. If you received this message in error, please delete it immediately.
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</PRE></BLOCKQUOTE><BR><BR><PRE class=moz-signature cols="72">--
John Bryson Eulenberg, Ph.D.
Professor
Audiology and Speech Sciences
Linguistics, Germanic, Slavic, Asian and African Languages
African Studies Center
Director, Artificial Language Laboratory
405 Computer Center
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824-1042
517-353-6622 voice
517-353-4766 fax
517-896-6655 mobile
517-332-1970 home
<A class=moz-txt-link-abbreviated href="mailto:artlang@msu.edu">artlang@msu.edu</A>
<A class=moz-txt-link-freetext href="http://www.msu.edu/~artlang/">http://www.msu.edu/~artlang/</A>
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