[DECtalk] List UP?

Blake Roberts beroberts at hughes.net
Wed Aug 31 19:33:16 EDT 2011


I agree with Jake about altering the default pitch. Specifically, I think
the voices could benefit from a somewhat lower default pitch. With that
said, I'm pretty happy with the voices.
Blake

  _____  

From: dectalk-bounces at bluegrasspals.com
[mailto:dectalk-bounces at bluegrasspals.com] On Behalf Of Jake McMahan
Sent: Wednesday, August 31, 2011 5:32 PM
To: DECtalk Discussions
Subject: Re: [DECtalk] List UP?


Ed, nice.  I think it is working out.  As I said in a previous email,
intonation can be modified by the user with a set of inline parameters, and
so can pitch.  That's probably the only thing I would alter, for me at
least.  But seriously, you're doing great man.  


From: ebruckert Bruckert <mailto:edbruckert at gmail.com>  
Sent: Wednesday, August 31, 2011 4:50 PM
To: DECtalk Discussions <mailto:dectalk at bluegrasspals.com>  
Subject: Re: [DECtalk] List UP?

no hints just feedback please.


On Tue, Aug 30, 2011 at 5:36 PM, Jayson Smith <ratguy at insightbb.com> wrote:


Hi,

The Val voice is still present in 4.3, so it's probably still there to this
day.
Jayson


----- Original Message -----
From: "ebruckert Bruckert" <edbruckert at gmail.com>
To: "DECtalk Discussions" <dectalk at bluegrasspals.com>

Sent: Tuesday, August 30, 2011 4:00 PM
Subject: Re: [DECtalk] List UP?


> Such it does never created for DECtalk, however I could certainly aid
> someone in advising them on how to make it easier. For this purpose a
> special voice was created in DECtalk called variable valve(Dennis Klatt
> liked  alliteration). Since I am a totally incompetent Windows programmer
> I
> can't do it, but I will have to look in the code to see if variable valve
> still exists but it could be done anyway.
> As I said the source code for the two apps I mentioned are available to
> anyone I haven't done anything with them because of the above mentioned
> reason.   The real issue would be to develop an automatic gain tuner,
> which which again could be done with some help, just to make the whole
> process easier but it certainly can and has been done purely manually.
>
> On Tue, Aug 30, 2011 at 1:05 PM, Jitendra Kumar
> <jeet.invincible at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>>  someone already posted that a new speak window can be created,Hello
>> friends, I also have a suggestion too, if you remember, many of you
>> perhaps: that flextalk had an app called perhaps voice tool, that we
>> used to create new voices, however I never able to make it sing, but
>> such an app should also ship with DECTalk, so that we can create new
>> voices with more or less inflection and pitch settings, and perhaps
>> this option can be made available in the newer speak window itself,
>> and when we create new voices, DECTalk should register the voice so
>> each sapi5 app can make use of it. Thank you.
>>
>> On 8/30/11, Alex H. <linuxx64.bashsh at gmail.com> wrote:
>> > Hi,
>> >
>> > No, but they just have a tendency to mess with the punctuation and
>> > sort of commandeer it to their will, not taking into account that
>> > somebody might have a clever synth like DECtalk. Anyways, I hear ya on
>> > the abreviation issue. My iPod says 25 millibars instead of 25 MB for
>> > filesizes. Or how about Windows 98 Southeast? Hahah!
>> >
>> > Alex
>> >
>> > On 8/29/11, Brent Harding <bharding at doorpi.net> wrote:
>> >> I know, the automatic expansion of abbreviations drives a person up
>> >> the
>> >> wall
>> >> trying to do critical things like medical transcription. I was
>> >> listening
>> >> to
>> >> Jonathan Mosen do a demo of some self-voicing daisy editing app that
>> >> FS
>> >> bundles with the Plextalk, and kid me not, files sizes are measured in
>> >> kerobytes. Is that what Microsoft does when you put kb next to a
>> >> number?
>> >>
>> >> ----- Original Message -----
>> >> From: "Alex H." <linuxx64.bashsh at gmail.com>
>> >> To: "DECtalk Discussions" <dectalk at bluegrasspals.com>
>> >> Sent: Monday, August 29, 2011 7:45 PM
>> >> Subject: Re: [DECtalk] List UP?
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>> Hi,
>> >>>
>> >>> Just to clarify my earlier post, life would be great if Microsoft
>> >>> didn't feel the need to muck about with how SAPI5 handles punctuation
>> >>> and I'd love a singing sapi. The reality and how MS has done this
>> >>> really makes it a royal pain, at least as far as I can tell with
>> >>> little to no programming knowledge and just reading the documentation
>> >>> on how this stuff works. The great thing if we were to have a modern
>> >>> speak window for singing and skits and the SAPI for scren reading and
>> >>> other text to speech programs is that it'll still be easy to export
>> >>> songs and skits as wave files with minimal effort and ensure that
>> >>> this
>> >>> program will run in Windows operating systems in the future.
>> >>>
>> >>> Thanks Ed for all the tweaking and coding that has to go into a
>> >>> project like this. It's much appreciated. Things are looking up.
>> >>>
>> >>> Aelx
>> >>>
>> >>> On 8/29/11, Jake McMahan <mcmahan.jake at gmail.com> wrote:
>> >>>> To me, I think the whole dad gum thing is extremely impressive and
>> it's
>> >>>> coming along.  I am looking forward to getting my hands on this
>> >>>> thing
>> >>>> when
>> >>>> it is available, and using it in my DSpeech scripts and much more.
>> >>>>
>> >>>>
>> >>>> From: ebruckert Bruckert
>> >>>> Sent: Monday, August 29, 2011 6:09 PM
>> >>>> To: DECtalk Discussions
>> >>>> Subject: Re: [DECtalk] List UP?
>> >>>>
>> >>>>
>> >>>> Okay sounds like you've done a thorough job. But I have two programs
>> say
>> >>>> the
>> >>>> command line and batch mode program and speak which are both freely
>> >>>> distributable in including source code and could certainly be
>> >>>> included
>> >>>> in
>> >>>> any distribution.
>> >>>>
>> >>>>
>> >>>> On Mon, Aug 29, 2011 at 3:43 PM, Alex H. <linuxx64.bashsh at gmail.com>
>> >>>> wrote:
>> >>>>
>> >>>>   Hi Ed,
>> >>>>
>> >>>>   I've done some digging about how to make the SAPI5 version of DT
>> sing.
>> >>>>   It won't be easy to do this I'm afraid. Too many variables
>> >>>> involved,
>> >>>>   and no program except ttsapp.exe will pipe the exact string you
>> >>>> send
>> >>>>   to it to the SAPI5 engine. That's only part of the issue though.
>> >>>>   Firstly, SAPI5, as I thought, uses some low level punctuation
>> >>>>   filtering that comes even lower in the stack than things like text
>> to
>> >>>>   MP3 programs, like Verbose or TextAloud, etc. Basically, the text
>> >>>> to
>> >>>>   speech program (like textAloud) gets the text and adds its own
>> >>>>   punctuation rules to the text and sends this to SAPI, and SAPI
>> >>>> does
>> >>>>   its own filtering/changing of the text string, so the original
>> >>>> text
>> >>>>   gets lost early on in the chain. There's not any real easy way
>> around
>> >>>>   this I'm afraid, after a good few hours reading MSDN articles and
>> what
>> >>>>   not. Even when talking about changing text to be pronounced better
>> (we
>> >>>>   could use this to make DT sing), SAPI unfortunately makes its own
>> >>>>   rules of phonemic definitions when you specify the proper tags
>> >>>> [3].
>> >>>>   This basically means that it tries a one-size-fits-all approach
>> >>>> and
>> >>>>   some synths that are SAPI compliant still won't speak the text as
>> the
>> >>>>   SAPI phonemic string intends. In short, this would be a nightmare
>> >>>> to
>> >>>>   implement using SAPI5. At least the way I see it.
>> >>>>
>> >>>>   I'm thinking for the ease of use factor for singers, maybe the
>> >>>> best
>> >>>>   idea is a SAPI dectalk installable synth that works wiht screen
>> >>>>   readers, and then a speak window bundled wiht it for singing. That
>> >>>>   way, nobody is messing with sapi protocols.
>> >>>>
>> >>>>   Sources:
>> >>>>
>> >>>>   [1]
>> >>>>   http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms719574%28v=vs.85%29.aspx
>> >>>>
>> >>>>   [2]
>> >>>>   http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms717252%28v=vs.85%29.aspx
>> >>>>
>> >>>>   [3]
>> >>>>
>> >>>>
>>
http://elearningtech.blogspot.com/2010/10/using-punctuation-and-mark-up-lang
uage.html
>> >>>>   [4]
>> >>>>   http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms723638%28v=vs.85%29.aspx
>> >>>>
>> >>>>   Sorry for the hugely complex post, but I felt it was needed to
>> explain
>> >>>>   further. As always, great work and i look forward to more testing.
>> >>>>   Alex
>> >>>>
>> >>>>
>> >>>>   On 8/29/11, jake mcmahan <mcmahan.jake at gmail.com> wrote:
>> >>>>   > On 8/29/2011 3:07 PM, ebruckert Bruckert wrote:
>> >>>>   >> These are all generated by just plopping the text into speak,
>> since
>> >>>>   >> the scaling and interaction of these things has always varied
>> >>>> slightly
>> >>>>   >> the the goal now is to try to adjust things the detailed stuff
>> like
>> >>>>   >> little overloads for the last step.
>> >>>>   >> I'm not sure if I reset Paul or left them at the custom voice
>> when
>> >>>> I
>> >>>>   >> did the weather, so I'll resend the weather being sure it's
>> regular
>> >>>>   >> Paul, but in fact if everybody likes the style we can modify
>> those
>> >>>>   >> base parameters, as I already know that the pitch scaling is
>> >>>> slightly
>> >>>>   >> different so will probably have to change the pitch things but
>> >>>> that's
>> >>>>   >> the purpose of tweaking. On some of the voices that I fooled
>> around
>> >>>>   >> was so much I really don't have a feel for what's better or
>> worse.
>> >>>>   >>
>> >>>>   >> On Mon, Aug 29, 2011 at 2:52 PM, Alex H. <
>> linuxx64.bashsh at gmail.com
>> >>>>
>> >>>>   >> <mailto:linuxx64.bashsh at gmail.com>> wrote:
>> >>>>   >>
>> >>>>   >>     Hi,
>> >>>>   >>
>> >>>>   >>     First, excellent job! The custom Paul voice in the weather
>> file
>> >>>> is
>> >>>>   >>     great. It has a lot of inflection and sounds like 4.4,
>> >>>> which
>> is
>> >>>> pretty
>> >>>>   >>     impressive. The test.wav is strange though. It's very buzzy
>> and
>> >>>> hard
>> >>>>   >>     to understand. Just to clarify, for now, are we just
>> >>>> testing
>> >>>> the
>> >>>> Paul
>> >>>>   >>     voice?
>> >>>>   >>
>> >>>>   >>     The weather sample seems to be very articulate and precise.
>> It
>> >>>> doesn't
>> >>>>   >>     have any of that slurring of old versions on certain words.
>> >>>> This
>> >>>>
>> >>>> is
>> >>>>   >>     great.
>> >>>>   >>
>> >>>>   >>     Just to hear the sample at a higher rate of speed, can you
>> >>>> do
>> >>>> the
>> >>>> same
>> >>>>   >>     text at about 350 wpm to see how it stands up?
>> >>>>   >>
>> >>>>   >>     I didn't hear any of the soft tones at the end of
>> >>>> sentences,
>> >>>> and
>> >>>> even
>> >>>>   >>     ran the file and amplified silences, and it's about 48 dB
>> below
>> >>>>   >>     normal, so it's pretty quiet as it is without the code to
>> >>>> squash
>> >>>> the
>> >>>>   >>     humming.
>> >>>>   >>
>> >>>>   >>     Thanks,
>> >>>>   >>
>> >>>>   >>     Alex
>> >>>>   >>
>> >>>>   >>     On 8/29/11, ebruckert Bruckert <edbruckert at gmail.com
>> >>>>
>> >>>>   >>     <mailto:edbruckert at gmail.com>> wrote:
>> >>>>   >>     > First some baseline testing stuff. Do not over test it in
>> >>>> other
>> >>>>   >>     words in the
>> >>>>   >>     > beginning this is a rough cut so if we get into too many
>> >>>> details
>> >>>>   >>     or changes
>> >>>>   >>     > it will just all become mud. We should only make a few
>> >>>> changes
>> >>>>   >>     at a time,
>> >>>>   >>     > the other problem may become differences of opinion
>> >>>> especially
>> >>>>   >>     with some of
>> >>>>   >>     > the voices which were never very stable because we never
>> >>>> really
>> >>>>   >>     liked
>> >>>>   >>     > exactly what we had. This is an old version of DECtalk so
>> >>>>   >>     occasionally you
>> >>>>   >>     > will hear little homes at the end of things during what
>> >>>> should
>> >>>>   >>     be silence.
>> >>>>   >>     > This is a mathematical problem called a limit cycle when
>> >>>> we're
>> >>>>   >>     finished I'll
>> >>>>   >>     > add the new code I developed to squelch it. It took us
>> years
>> >>>> to
>> >>>>   >>     figure out a
>> >>>>   >>     > way to get rid of it perceptually we never could get rid
>> >>>> of
>> >>>> it
>> >>>>   >>     > mathematically. Lastly I had to change the gain of
>> >>>> voicing
>> on
>> >>>>   >>     the modified
>> >>>>   >>     > voice that was sent without going into a long explanation
>> >>>> which
>> >>>>   >>     I can later
>> >>>>   >>     > if people want the gains of the cascade vocal track have
>> >>>> never
>> >>>>   >>     ever been
>> >>>>   >>     > constant it's a mathematical issue where you're
>> >>>> constantly
>> >>>>   >>     trying to adjust
>> >>>>   >>     > them between quantization and overload and we've never
>> >>>> been
>> >>>> able
>> >>>> to
>> >>>>   >>     > guarantee them.
>> >>>>   >>     > Lastly people can think about singing. The problem is
>> >>>> that
>> >>>> most
>> >>>> SAPI
>> >>>>   >>     > applications strip stuff out so I'm looking for
>> >>>> suggestions
>> >>>> of
>> >>>>   >>     how we could
>> >>>>   >>     > fool it and tell DECtalk that it was supposed to go into
>> >>>>   >>     phonemic mode so it
>> >>>>   >>     > can sing. I don't know what can and  cannot get through
>> >>>> the
>> >>>> various
>> >>>>   >>     > applications and while
>> >>>>   >>     >
>> >>>>   >>     > Again don't put too much effort in two critical listening
>> at
>> >>>>   >>     this stage as
>> >>>>   >>     > were not fine-tuning it just training 3n where targets
>> >>>> are
>> >>>>   >>     >
>> >>>>   >>     > On Mon, Aug 29, 2011 at 1:06 PM, jake mcmahan
>> >>>>
>> >>>>   >>     <mcmahan.jake at gmail.com <mailto:mcmahan.jake at gmail.com
>> >>wrote:
>> >>>>
>> >>>>   >>     >
>> >>>>   >>     >>   On 8/29/2011 11:52 AM, ebruckert Bruckert wrote:
>> >>>>   >>     >>
>> >>>>   >>     >> Hello everyone the good news is I had a generator the
>> >>>> bad
>> >>>> news
>> >>>>   >>     is I had to
>> >>>>   >>     >> use it. I'm having trouble with the 2008 free edition of
>> >>>> visual
>> >>>>   >>     C I can't
>> >>>>   >>     >> run the debugger. But before I uninstall and reinstall
>> >>>> it
>> I
>> >>>>   >>     want to get
>> >>>>   >>     >> this
>> >>>>   >>     >> baseline out but it's a little bit painful because I
>> >>>> can't
>> >>>> run
>> >>>> the
>> >>>>   >>     >> debugger
>> >>>>   >>     >> so I'm doing it by an archaic method. So it'll be out
>> >>>> sometime
>> >>>>   >>     today and
>> >>>>   >>     >> then I'll reload visual C.
>> >>>>   >>     >>
>> >>>>   >>     >> On Sun, Aug 28, 2011 at 4:11 PM, jake mcmahan
>> >>>>
>> >>>>   >>     >> <mcmahan.jake at gmail.com
>> >>>> <mailto:mcmahan.jake at gmail.com>>wrote:
>> >>>>
>> >>>>   >>     >>
>> >>>>   >>     >>  On 8/28/2011 11:40 AM, ebruckert Bruckert wrote:
>> >>>>   >>     >>
>> >>>>   >>     >> Ed K okay I'm ready. I have a base tuning of all the
>> voices.
>> >>>> So
>> >>>>   >>     send me
>> >>>>   >>     >> the
>> >>>>   >>     >> various files to test with and we will try and get some
>> >>>>   >>     agreement on the
>> >>>>   >>     >> voices.
>> >>>>   >>     >>
>> >>>>   >>     >>
>> >>>>   >>     >> On Sun, Aug 21, 2011 at 10:32 AM, ebruckert Bruckert
>> >>>>
>> >>>>   >>     <edbruckert at gmail.com <mailto:edbruckert at gmail.com>
>> >>>>
>> >>>>   >>     >> > wrote:
>> >>>>   >>     >>
>> >>>>   >>     >> I was visiting my grandson, back to woek today.....
>> >>>>   >>     >>
>> >>>>   >>     >>
>> >>>>   >>     >> On Sat, Aug 20, 2011 at 11:45 PM, Alex H.
>> >>>>   >>     >> <linuxx64.bashsh at gmail.com
>> >>>>
>> >>>>   >>     <mailto:linuxx64.bashsh at gmail.com>>wrote:
>> >>>>
>> >>>>   >>     >>
>> >>>>   >>     >> Hi,
>> >>>>   >>     >>
>> >>>>   >>     >> Your message came through. DECTalk is alive and singing.
>> :D
>> >>>>   >>     >>
>> >>>>   >>     >> Alex
>> >>>>   >>     >>  On 8/20/2011 11:22 PM, Doris and Chris wrote:
>> >>>>   >>     >> > I have not seen any messages from this list in over a
>> >>>> week.
>> >>>>   >>     So I was
>> >>>>   >>     >> > wondering if the list was down or if there is a
>> >>>> problem
>> at
>> >>>> my
>> >>>>   >>     end or
>> >>>>   >>     >> > with my subscription.
>> >>>>   >>     >> >
>> >>>>   >>     >> > Cheers,
>> >>>>   >>     >> >
>> >>>>   >>     >> > Doris
>> >>>>   >>     >> >
>> >>>>   >>     >> > _______________________________________________
>> >>>>   >>     >> > DECtalk mailing list
>> >>>>
>> >>>>   >>     >> > DECtalk at bluegrasspals.com
>> >>>> <mailto:DECtalk at bluegrasspals.com>
>> >>>>
>> >>>>   >>     >> > http://bluegrasspals.com/mailman/listinfo/dectalk
>> >>>>   >>     >>
>> >>>>   >>     >> --
>> >>>>   >>     >> --
>> >>>>   >>     >> Sent via Thunderbird.
>> >>>>   >>     >>
>> >>>>   >>     >> _______________________________________________
>> >>>>   >>     >> DECtalk mailing list
>> >>>>
>> >>>>   >>     >> DECtalk at bluegrasspals.com <mailto:
>> DECtalk at bluegrasspals.com>
>> >>>>
>> >>>>   >>     >> http://bluegrasspals.com/mailman/listinfo/dectalk
>> >>>>   >>     >>
>> >>>>   >>     >>
>> >>>>   >>     >>
>> >>>>   >>     >>
>> >>>>   >>     >>
>> >>>>   >>     >> _______________________________________________
>> >>>>   >>     >> DECtalk mailing
>> >>>>   >>     >>
>> >>>>   >>
>> >>>>   >>
>> >>>> listDECtalk at bluegrasspals.comhttp://
>> bluegrasspals.com/mailman/listinfo/dectalk
>> >>>>
>> >>>>   >>     <http://bluegrasspals.com/mailman/listinfo/dectalk>
>> >>>>   >>     >>
>> >>>>
>> >>>>   >>     >>     take this, for example.  This is a weather file.
>> >>>>   >>     >>
>> >>>>   >>     >> _______________________________________________
>> >>>>   >>     >> DECtalk mailing list
>> >>>>
>> >>>>   >>     >> DECtalk at bluegrasspals.com <mailto:
>> DECtalk at bluegrasspals.com>
>> >>>>
>> >>>>   >>     >> http://bluegrasspals.com/mailman/listinfo/dectalk
>> >>>>   >>     >>
>> >>>>   >>     >>
>> >>>>   >>     >>
>> >>>>   >>     >>
>> >>>>   >>     >> _______________________________________________
>> >>>>   >>     >> DECtalk mailing
>> >>>>   >>     >>
>> >>>>   >>
>> >>>>   >>
>> >>>> listDECtalk at bluegrasspals.comhttp://
>> bluegrasspals.com/mailman/listinfo/dectalk
>> >>>>
>> >>>>   >>     <http://bluegrasspals.com/mailman/listinfo/dectalk>
>> >>>>   >>     >>
>> >>>>
>> >>>>   >>     >> I gotcha man.  If anyone can do it, you can dude
>> >>>>   >>     >>
>> >>>>   >>     >> _______________________________________________
>> >>>>   >>     >> DECtalk mailing list
>> >>>>
>> >>>>   >>     >> DECtalk at bluegrasspals.com <mailto:
>> DECtalk at bluegrasspals.com>
>> >>>>
>> >>>>   >>     >> http://bluegrasspals.com/mailman/listinfo/dectalk
>> >>>>   >>     >>
>> >>>>   >>     >>
>> >>>>   >>     >
>> >>>>   >>     _______________________________________________
>> >>>>   >>     DECtalk mailing list
>> >>>>
>> >>>>   >>     DECtalk at bluegrasspals.com
>> >>>> <mailto:DECtalk at bluegrasspals.com>
>> >>>>
>> >>>>   >>     http://bluegrasspals.com/mailman/listinfo/dectalk
>> >>>>   >>
>> >>>>   >>
>> >>>>   >>
>> >>>>   >>
>> >>>>   >> _______________________________________________
>> >>>>   >> DECtalk mailing list
>> >>>>   >> DECtalk at bluegrasspals.com
>> >>>>   >> http://bluegrasspals.com/mailman/listinfo/dectalk
>> >>>>   > again, nice job ed
>> >>>>   >
>> >>>>
>> >>>>   _______________________________________________
>> >>>>   DECtalk mailing list
>> >>>>   DECtalk at bluegrasspals.com
>> >>>>   http://bluegrasspals.com/mailman/listinfo/dectalk
>> >>>>
>> >>>>
>> >>>>
>> >>>>
>> >>>>
>> >>>>
>>
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
>> >>>>
>> >>>>
>> >>>> _______________________________________________
>> >>>> DECtalk mailing list
>> >>>> DECtalk at bluegrasspals.com
>> >>>> http://bluegrasspals.com/mailman/listinfo/dectalk
>> >>>>
>> >>> _______________________________________________
>> >>> DECtalk mailing list
>> >>> DECtalk at bluegrasspals.com
>> >>> http://bluegrasspals.com/mailman/listinfo/dectalk
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >>
>> >> _______________________________________________
>> >> DECtalk mailing list
>> >> DECtalk at bluegrasspals.com
>> >> http://bluegrasspals.com/mailman/listinfo/dectalk
>> >>
>> > _______________________________________________
>> > DECtalk mailing list
>> > DECtalk at bluegrasspals.com
>> > http://bluegrasspals.com/mailman/listinfo/dectalk
>> >
>>
>>
>> --
>> Skype:
>> Jeet.delhi
>>  _______________________________________________
>> DECtalk mailing list
>> DECtalk at bluegrasspals.com
>> http://bluegrasspals.com/mailman/listinfo/dectalk
>>
>



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