[DECtalk] A history question

Sun Jan 30 20:52:35 EST 2011

i'm sure someone has a version of it. 

On Jan 30, 2011, at 8:38 PM, Jayson Smith wrote:

> I don't think there was ever a 5.0 demo at GW. I'm surprised nobody seems to 
> have a copy of it laying around.
> Jayson
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Brandon Misch" <bmisch2002 at gmail.com>
> To: "DECtalk Discussions" <dectalk at bluegrasspals.com>
> Sent: Sunday, January 30, 2011 8:36 PM
> Subject: Re: [DECtalk] A history question
> 
> 
>> wasn't that the demo that used to be on gw's site? if it was, it's now 
>> found at dectalk.com
>> 
>> On Jan 30, 2011, at 8:28 PM, Alex H. wrote:
>> 
>>> I only wish I could grab DT 5.0, I then would have all the demo
>>> programs. :( but it's just tantelizingly too late. Fonix used to have
>>> the demos on the old website.
>>> 
>>> alex
>>> 
>>> On 1/30/11, Brandon Misch <bmisch2002 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>> if you want to hear a reading edge machine, you can find a podcast of 
>>>> that
>>>> over at blindcooltech.com i bring this up because that had dectalk 4.0
>>>> 
>>>> On Jan 30, 2011, at 5:22 PM, Blake Roberts wrote:
>>>> 
>>>>> I think the record Ed refers to is a collection of speech synthesis
>>>>> demonstrations that Dennis put together. He provided brief narration
>>>>> before
>>>>> each demoSomeone converted that record to an old sound format (.au). I
>>>>> think
>>>>> it's on dectalk.com somewhere. I took the .au version, converted to 
>>>>> mp3,
>>>>> changed the file name and listed Dennis Klatt as the artist. If anyone
>>>>> would
>>>>> like to hear the mp3 version of Dennis's record, write me off-list.
>>>>> 
>>>>> Like Brandon, I would love to hear any other recordings of Dennis that
>>>>> exist, or recordings of older Dectalks.
>>>>> Blake
>>>>> 
>>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>>> From: dectalk-bounces at bluegrasspals.com
>>>>> [mailto:dectalk-bounces at bluegrasspals.com] On Behalf Of Brandon Misch
>>>>> Sent: Sunday, January 30, 2011 1:56 PM
>>>>> To: DECtalk Discussions
>>>>> 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
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
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>>>>> 
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>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
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>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
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>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
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>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
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>>>> 
>>>> 
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