[DECtalk] dtc01, was: Re: A history question

Sun Jan 30 17:39:33 EST 2011

I took out the number for the DTC 01  the C was just one of the chief
engineers naming codes and really means nothing. The synthesizer sold for
$4000 to all but the handicapped community which was 1200. Open one up and
look at all that's inside. That can be done on one ship today.

On Sun, Jan 30, 2011 at 5:29 PM, Jayson Smith <ratguy at insightbb.com> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> As with many other model numbers, I have no idea what the C stood for. No
> doubt it meant something, possibly even something internal to Digital. In
> short, the DTC01 was a standalone unit, probably about the size of a modern
> VCR. It had an on/off switch, a volume wheel, one or two audio jacks (not
> sure which,) two phone jacks and two serial ports, both 25-pin. The power
> supply, which used a standard computer power cord, even had a fan in it,
> believe it or not. Not exactly what you'd call portable by today's
> standards, but probably pretty good then for a synthesizer that good.
>
> On another note, I can well remember when the DECtalk PC and DECtalk
> Express
> cost upwards of $1200. The reason was undoubtedly, Digital had the best
> thing out there and they knew it. How things have changed!
> Jayson
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Pitermach" <pitermach at gmail.com>
> To: "DECtalk Discussions" <dectalk at bluegrasspals.com>
>  Sent: Sunday, January 30, 2011 5:13 PM
> Subject: [DECtalk] dtc01, was: Re: A history question
>
>
> > Hi,
> > You can call me stupid or something, but, what, exactly, is a dtc01. I
> > guess
> > dt is for dectalk, I just wonder what is the c for.
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Jayson Smith" <ratguy at insightbb.com>
> > To: "DECtalk Discussions" <dectalk at bluegrasspals.com>
> > Sent: Sunday, January 30, 2011 11:11 PM
> > Subject: Re: [DECtalk] A history question
> >
> >
> >> Hi,
> >>
> >> Here's a short recording of my DECtalk DTC01 using firmware 2.0 from
> July
> >> of
> >> 1984.
> >> http://q-audio.net/d/18422
> >> Jayson
> >>
> >> ----- Original Message -----
> >> From: "Brandon Misch" <bmisch2002 at gmail.com>
> >> To: "DECtalk Discussions" <dectalk at bluegrasspals.com>
> >> Sent: Sunday, January 30, 2011 1:56 PM
> >> Subject: Re: [DECtalk] A history question
> >>
> >>
> >> can you send what you can? or is that recording all that you have and
> are
> >> there any recordings of the old dectalks from the 80's besides that
> >> record?
> >>
> >> On Jan 30, 2011, at 1:45 PM, ebruckert Bruckert wrote:
> >>
> >>> He recorde alot before his voice went. By 1982 it was very different.
> >>> And
> >>> I don't have a lot of backups as the medu=iums changed.
> >>>
> >>> On Sun, Jan 30, 2011 at 12:43 PM, Brandon Misch <bmisch2002 at gmail.com>
> >>> wrote:
> >>> his voice didn't sound that bad from that record about speech systems
> >>> from
> >>> the 30's to the 80's unless that wasn't him.
> >>>
> >>> On Jan 30, 2011, at 9:56 AM, ebruckert Bruckert wrote:
> >>>
> >>>> All the DECtalk voices have been there since 1982. In fact the Dennis
> >>>> voice was modeled by Dennis Klatt at the time to be his closest match
> >>>> to
> >>>> his own voice as he could. When I first met him his natural voice was
> >>>> already deteriorating due to his throat cancer.
> >>>>
> >>>> The DTC 01 does try to hear touchstones while at speaking it tries to
> >>>> cancel out the outgoing sound from the ingoing sound and in old
> systems
> >>>> used to work pretty good. Whether changes in telephony have made that
> >>>> more difficult I don't know.
> >>>>
> >>>> On Sun, Jan 30, 2011 at 8:58 AM, Jayson Smith <ratguy at insightbb.com>
> >>>> wrote:
> >>>> Hi,
> >>>>
> >>>> Okay, this is getting way out there, but when did DECtalk get the
> >>>> eighth
> >>>> and
> >>>> ninth voices? I remember hearing a sample of DECtalk in I think it was
> >>>> Dialogue Magazine on flexible disk. My parents had a copy. I heard the
> >>>> piece
> >>>> in 1989, not sure when it was actually done though. At that point,
> >>>> DECtalk
> >>>> only had seven voices, from how I understand it. Dennis and Wendy
> >>>> weren't
> >>>> present.
> >>>> Then in November of 1989 we got our Kurzweil Personal Reader with
> >>>> DECtalk
> >>>> in
> >>>> it. All nine voices were there, in pretty much the same form they kept
> >>>> until
> >>>> Digital became Compaq and Force got hold of DECtalk. I think the
> >>>> version
> >>>> on
> >>>> the Kurzweil was something older than 4.0. While the voices sounded a
> >>>> lot
> >>>> alike, there were some pronunciation differences.
> >>>>
> >>>> We got our first DECtalk PC running version 4.0 in mid 1993, and our
> >>>> first
> >>>> DECtalk Express in mid 1995.
> >>>>
> >>>> Over all, I'd have to say my favorite DECtalk version is 4.2CD, the
> >>>> version
> >>>> that's running on all our DECtalk Expresses. 4.3 is excellent too, and
> >>>> it's
> >>>> all over the place in the DECtalk Archive, thanks to the speak43
> >>>> program
> >>>> making the rounds. From what I heard of 4.4 in the demo sent to this
> >>>> list
> >>>> yesterday, it sounds pretty good. I'm not exactly sure what version of
> >>>> DECtalk Access32 uses, but by then there were a few changes. We got
> our
> >>>> copy
> >>>> of Access32 in mid 1998. In particular, the B sound, as in the words
> >>>> bin,
> >>>> bye, and bag, almost had an extra sound like it was trying to put an r
> >>>> in
> >>>> there. Not quite sure how to describe it.
> >>>>
> >>>> I think my least favorite version is 4.61. Don't know if I ever heard
> >>>> 4.63.
> >>>> I think 4.64 sounds kind of weird, a bit sluggish or something. From
> >>>> what
> >>>> I
> >>>> heard of it, I think DECtalk 5 sounded better than 4.64, though not as
> >>>> good
> >>>> as the Digital versions.
> >>>>
> >>>> On a somewhat related note, a few years ago I purchased a DTC01 on
> >>>> eBay.
> >>>> It's running DECtalk 2.0 from July 1984, and you can tell it. Not sure
> >>>> how
> >>>> many voices it has. It's pretty much just been sitting around
> >>>> collecting
> >>>> dust, unfortunately. I thought I might use some of its telephone
> >>>> functionality, but the DTC01 had some limitations I didn't know about
> >>>> until
> >>>> I already had it, E.G. can't detect touchtones while speaking, can't
> >>>> automatically detect hangups, etc. So that never happened.
> >>>> Jayson
> >>>>
> >>>> _______________________________________________
> >>>> DECtalk mailing list
> >>>> DECtalk at bluegrasspals.com
> >>>> http://jaybird.no-ip.info/mailman/listinfo/dectalk
> >>>>
> >>>> _______________________________________________
> >>>> DECtalk mailing list
> >>>> DECtalk at bluegrasspals.com
> >>>> http://jaybird.no-ip.info/mailman/listinfo/dectalk
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> _______________________________________________
> >>> DECtalk mailing list
> >>> DECtalk at bluegrasspals.com
> >>> http://jaybird.no-ip.info/mailman/listinfo/dectalk
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> _______________________________________________
> >>> DECtalk mailing list
> >>> DECtalk at bluegrasspals.com
> >>> http://jaybird.no-ip.info/mailman/listinfo/dectalk
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>
> >>
> >>> _______________________________________________
> >>> DECtalk mailing list
> >>> DECtalk at bluegrasspals.com
> >>> http://jaybird.no-ip.info/mailman/listinfo/dectalk
> >>>
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> DECtalk mailing list
> >> DECtalk at bluegrasspals.com
> >> http://jaybird.no-ip.info/mailman/listinfo/dectalk
> >>
> >> __________ Information from ESET Smart Security, version of virus
> >> signature database 5266 (20100709) __________
> >>
> >> The message was checked by ESET Smart Security.
> >>
> >> http://www.eset.com
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >
> >
> > __________ Information from ESET Smart Security, version of virus
> > signature database 5266 (20100709) __________
> >
> > The message was checked by ESET Smart Security.
> >
> > http://www.eset.com
> >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > DECtalk mailing list
> > DECtalk at bluegrasspals.com
> > http://jaybird.no-ip.info/mailman/listinfo/dectalk
>
> _______________________________________________
> DECtalk mailing list
> DECtalk at bluegrasspals.com
> http://jaybird.no-ip.info/mailman/listinfo/dectalk
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://bluegrasspals.com/pipermail/dectalk/attachments/20110130/74fac4ee/attachment.html>