[DECtalk] Open source synthesizer

Tony Baechler tony at baechler.net
Tue Feb 28 03:39:37 EST 2006


Hi.  Basically, I would like to see an open DEC-Talk.  If a few 
programmers had the firmware source, they could do all kind of things 
with it.  Just look at http://rockbox.org/ for mp3 players.  It adds 
features and makes them more accessible.  If that can't happen, I 
would like an emulation of Access32 or similar.  I've looked at 
FreeTTS and it's OK I think but Java-based.  There are a few others 
out, but also either based on Java or of poor quality.  Java right 
now is totally useless to the blind.  There is nothing wrong with 
AT&T Natural Voices or IBM Viavoice except that they use a lot of 
memory and aren't easily programmable.  You can't just send commands 
to them as you can with DEC Express.

At 07:44 AM 2/27/2006, you wrote:
>Personally I would like
>to see a good, high quality open source synthesizer, either using
>already existing hardware such as the DEC-Talk or easily programmable
>software with good speech quality.
>
>What programmable features would you like to see in an "easily programmable
>software" version?
>And, does "good speech quality" mean: 1. one of the older DECtalks (like
>4.40 or 4.3, NOT the new 5.0), or 2. some other kind of synthesizer, like
>ATT Natural Voices?




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