[DECtalk] Midi conversion?

Jayson Smith ratguy at bellsouth.net
Fri Jun 3 17:58:59 EDT 2005


Hi,
I made the MIDI files with Quick Windows Sequencer.  It can be found at http://qws.andreLouis.com 
It's a free program written by a blind individual so as far as I know it's 100% accessible.
Jayson.

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Nick Gawronski 
  To: DECtalk Discussions 
  Sent: Friday, June 03, 2005 12:12 PM
  Subject: Re: [DECtalk] Midi conversion?


  Hi, What midi editor did you use to make these files and if it is free where can I download it and how accessible is it?  Where is a good place to get midi files of normal songs and a program to convert them to wav files?  bye 
  My web page is at http://www.nickgawronski.com
    ----- Original Message ----- 
    From: Jayson Smith 
    To: DECtalk Discussions 
    Sent: Friday, June 03, 2005 5:59 AM
    Subject: Re: [DECtalk] Midi conversion?


    Hi,
    I just made a few MIDI files for this purpose.  You can grab them at the following url.
    http://jaybird.no-ip.info/mid.zip
    There are three files.  The file row.mid is "Row, Row, Row your Boat", mary.mid is "Mary Had a Little Lam" and joy.mid is "Joy to the World" (the Christmas song and not the Three Dog Night song).  I made all these files.  They are all single-track files, and have nothing except the actual notes to be sung.  Just about everybody on this list will probably be familiar with these songs, so this shouldn't be a problem.
    Joy actually really provides the only test of syllables being sung over multiple notes.  Is there any provision for the opposite.  I don't even have a song in mind, but let's say there was a song with the word 'idea' in it, where the 'dea' part was to be sung on one note.  Now, this constitutes two distinct vowel sounds.  Is the solution to make the midi accomodate the song by putting in a double note in that instance?  Actually, an actual example of this can be found in the song "God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen" in the lyric "To save us all from Satan's power".  Here, the word 'power' is sung on one note.
    Jayson.

      ----- Original Message ----- 
      From: John B. Eulenberg 
      To: DECtalk Discussions 
      Sent: Thursday, June 02, 2005 10:47 AM
      Subject: Re: [DECtalk] Midi conversion?


      Dear Jayson,
      Thanks for your questions.
      You're right about the licensing. It would require a license for DECtalk.
      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.
      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.
      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. 
      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.

      If I have time over the weekend, I may be able to give the list a couple examples of how this works. 

      Does anyone have a song (with lyrics and associated midi file) for this test?

      Yours,
      John Eulenberg

      Jayson Smith wrote:

        Hi,
        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.
        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.
        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?
        Thanks,
        Jayson.

          ----- Original Message ----- 
          From: John B. Eulenberg 
          To: DECtalk Discussions 
          Sent: Thursday, June 02, 2005 9:20 AM
          Subject: Re: [DECtalk] Midi conversion?


          Dear Jayson et al.,
          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.

          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.

          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.

          Yours,
          John Eulenberg


          Jayson Smith wrote:

            Hi,
            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.
            1.  What operating systems does the program run under?
            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.
            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.
            Jayson.

              ----- Original Message ----- 
              From: John Eulenberg 
              To: DECtalk Discussions 
              Sent: Thursday, May 26, 2005 10:23 AM
              Subject: Re: [DECtalk] Midi conversion?


              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.
              John B. Eulenberg

John Bryson Eulenberg
Professor
Director, Artificial Language Laboratory
              Jayson Smith wrote:

                Hi,
                Has this software ever been made available to the DECtalk community at large, or is it only available for internal use?  Just curious.
                Jayson.

                  ----- Original Message ----- 
                  From: John B. Eulenberg 
                  To: DECtalk Discussions 
                  Sent: Thursday, May 26, 2005 7:15 AM
                  Subject: Re: [DECtalk] Midi conversion?


                  Dear Jayson et al,
                  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. 
                  Our program allows the user to input either at the phoneme level or at the level of orthographic representation (regular spelling).
                  Yours,
                  John Eulenberg

                  Jayson Smith wrote: 
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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-- 
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
artlang at msu.edu
http://www.msu.edu/~artlang/



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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-- 
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
artlang at msu.edu
http://www.msu.edu/~artlang/



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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