[DECtalk] DecTalk can speak Italian, but it's rediculous!!!

[GUI Access]

At 1:24 PM -0700 8/22/2008, Raymond Grote wrote:
>Ah, that's why Dectalk 4.6 sounded so different?
>I'd love to see what Dectalk would've sounded like now if they hadn't
>replaced it. Why do people always have to use recorded samples of humans
>now, just to create something natural that has virtually no flexibility?
>This is why I just test synths now, I'm not that serious about them. Maybe
>one day the average person will be able to freely create his/her own tts
>voices in a way that is accessible with a screen reader! Probably going to
>be a long wait though...


DECtalk 4.6 does not use recorded samples of 
humans.  For that matter, neither does DECtalk 
5.0.  In fact, no version of DECtalk does this. 
DECtalk is a formant based text-to-speech system. 
DECtalk 4.6 sounds different because Force 
Computers "improved" the phoneme and the vocal 
tract portions of the synthesizer.  I use the 
term "improved" very loosely because I don't feel 
the results were an improvement at all.

Fonix tried to undo some of the improvements that 
Force Computers introduced but there are still 
known bugs in the VTM.  I've always suspected 
that all Fonix ever received was the Force 
Computers' 4.61 source code and that anything 
earlier is lost.  Otherwise it would have been 
trivial to restore the D.E.C.-sounding voices.

GUI Access


>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "piotr machacz" <pitermach at gmail.com>
>To: "DECtalk Discussions" <dectalk at bluegrasspals.com>
>Sent: Friday, August 22, 2008 2:41 AM
>Subject: Re: [DECtalk] DecTalk can speak Italian, but it's rediculous!!!
>
>
>well. It's not something complete but here's how the voice of dectalk
>was changing.
>in v 4.3, the voices wer nice and the singing was cool close to a human.
>in 4.4, the voices went through some modefications but they kept their
>sound normal, but when singing the phonemes have more metalic robotic
>sound.
>in 4.6, simply to say when force computers took dectalk over, rediculus!
>every thing was rediculus, the voices wer synthetic, the whispering
>wendy decided to speak not whisper etc.
>
>On 8/22/08, Arnaud <arnaudb at netcava.net> wrote:
>>  french is also completly ridiculous, it's like a german teenager trying
>>  to speak french at school.
>>
>>  also looking for phonems dt references for french....
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>  --------------------
>>  Arnaud de Bonald - Paris France - WeBlog: http://www.echo-on.org
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>  Talksina a écrit :
>>>  Hi.
>>>  I found the software in DecTalk archive, it's called
>>>  dectalk4.6.4.zip, there is also the Italian speaking demo!
>>>  The voice is very very rediculous
>>>  but it's fun!
>>>  Now...someone has the multi-language phoneme reference? Thanks!
>>>  I'd try to have fun with this new toy, who cares if it's rediculous,
>>>  right excuse to play rediculous songs!
>>>
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>>>
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