.cp# .cj .ci New Products .lj Since BAUD's last issue, the following interesting products and services have become available. .cp# .pp0 .ci1 DoubleTalk, a New, High Quality Synthesizer for the Apple .pp# In the past several months, we've heard of some new synthesizers that seem to be dramatically increasing the quality of computer generated speech. At first, there was only DEC Talk with its prohibitive price tag (around $4000.00 although available to institutions for $1600). Fortunately, each new synthesizer costs a little less than the previous. Perhaps the best known newcomer is Noel Runion's Awdapter which has impressed many with its quality and relatively low price, around $1000.00. Now, RC Systems introduces DoubleTalk, a high quality speech synthesizer on a board for the Apple II family of computers. There are several interesting and unique features about DoubleTalk, but the price has got to be mentioned first, $249.95! The price combined with the intelligibility marks DoubleTalk as revolutionary. Hopefully, the trend of decreasing electronic prices is filtering down to the special access market. DoubleTalk is a synthesizer with remarkable speech quality. Speech quality, however, is a difficult phenomena to quantify. It is easy to say, "That sounds better to me." or "I like the sound of that.", but actually measuring the characteristics that appeal to each person presents problems. One thing you can do to get a grasp on measuring the quality of speech is to list each characteristic that is important to you. This list will be somewhat different for the casual user or the sighted user employing speech synthesis for games or educational software where speech is not critical to the comprehension of the subject matter or to the day-by-day use of the computer. Intelligibility is always on the top of the list of any synthesizer's most desired qualities. Unfortunately, until the introduction of DoubleTalk, price rose in direct proportion to intelligibility. There are several ways of measuring a speech synthesizer's intelligibility factor and several things to consider when doing so. In the discussion that follows, all references to speech synthesis mean speech that is generated with a text-to-speech algorithm as apposed~ to speech that is digitally recorded and reproduced through the synthesizer. Digitally recorded speech is of little value to the blind user interested in speech access; the text of recorded speech must be known before it can be spoken. Text-to-speech, therefore, is the only method available for the diverse requirements of speech access. Intelligibility is usually measured by the number of words a person who hasn't heard the speech before can understand. Most synthesized speech eventually becomes intelligible to the person willing to work with it. This doesn't say much, however, about the quality of synthesized speech because the resilient nature of the human makes it possible to understand nearly any pattern of sounds given the need. Once understanding is mastered, however, it is critical to consider the nature of the speech with long term use. In practical terms, intelligibility is more appropriately measured by combining the time required to understand most of the words most of the time and the flexibility of control once understanding is mastered. It is the area of control that sets apart synthesizers designed for the sighted market and those designed for access purposes. One fairly accurate way to evaluate intelligibility is noting reactions to the speech. During testing of DoubleTalk, it was common for anyone hearing the speech to comment on its clarity. Coworkers who never understood any of the other synthesizers in the office were suddenly comprehending the DoubleTalk speech at a remarkable level. "It is uncanny" was a comment that particularly characterized this speech. It was also interesting to hear the "oohs" and "aaws" of some on hearing the speech for the first time. DoubleTalk is based on the SmoothTalker technology of First Byte, Inc. If you've heard that speech (BAUD Volume 5, Number 1--cassette edition), you know the quality is impressive. The sample played on BAUD was a version of SmoothTalker from First Byte which ran on the Apple IIgs and used its built-in synthesizer to generate the speech. It also used a full 768K of RAM in the computer and dramatically decreased the machine's performance. RC Systems has taken this technology and put it on a board that you can plug into an Apple //e or an Apple IIgs. The board contains its own RAM and microprocessor, so it doesn't take any computing power from your machine. While the all important criteria of speech quality proves quite acceptable, DoubleTalk really shows its stuff in the are of performance. RC Systems' experience in the special access market shows. DoubleTalk uses RC Systems' popular SCAT (Screen Articulator) software to provide access to the screen. DoubleTalk also works with RC Systems' AppleWorks Companion software, a patch to make AppleWorks work with speech. For more information on DoubleTalk, contact Randy Carlstrom RC Systems 121 W. Winesap Road Bothell, WA 98012 (206) 672-6909 .cp# .pp0 .ci1 A2 Central, A Fantastic Journal Gets Better .lj A2 Central, formally Open-Apple, is now available on disk. A2 Central is one of the best magazines for Apple II owners, especially those interested in making the machine work for them. Always a fascinating magazine, A2 Central is now even better because it includes lots of public domain and shareware software. A2 Central is published monthly on a 3.5 inch disk or in print for $24 per year. For more information, contact Open-Apple PO Box 11250 Overland Park, KS 66207 .cp# .pp0 .ci1 BIX Offers Unlimited Use for a Monthly Fee .pp# BIX, Byte Information Exchange, is a nation-wide database service much like GENIE or CompuServe. The difference is that now BIX is offering unlimited non-primetime use for a monthly fee of $15. Remember, however, that you still have to go through TYMNET which costs about $2 per hour. TYMNET has worked out a deal that lets BIX users access BIX through TYMNET for an additional $15 per month for unlimited TYMNET service. This means that for $30 per month, you can have unlimited access to a popular, national bulletin board service. One of the things most interesting about BIX is that in addition to the normal features of online databases like mail and bulletin boards, BIX contains the entire text of the popular BYTE magazine. For those of you who already know about BYTE, you know what a great resource it is, for those of you who don't, why not try it out. You can use BIX for a standard fee of $5 per hour plus, of course, the $2 per hour to access it through TYMNET. You can also give BIX a trial run. Just call your local TYMNET node; when you see a line of garbage-like characters, type a lower case "a". TYMNET will then say, "LOGIN: ". At that point, type BIX. When BIX comes on, it will ask you for a password. Type "new" for your password. If you don't know your local TYMNET access number, call 800 336-0149. BIX help line 800 227 2983 1 Phoenix Mill Lane Peterborough, NH 03458 603 924-9281 .chprinter.review