[DECtalk] Any news?

Jayson Smith ratguy at insightbb.com
Wed May 4 09:10:00 EDT 2011


Hi,

Here's a sample text. I assume you can use DECtalk commands in the text? An 
MP3 of the 4.3 speak application performing this exact text can be found at
http://www.bluegrasspals.com/dt43sample.mp3
Now here's the text.

[:phoneme on]
[:np] [:ra 250]
Hello. This is the factory default Paul voice.
I'm talking now with this voice since this is what most people are probably 
going to be using. Let's speed it up a bit.
[:ra 300]
This is probably how Jayson's JFW would talk normally. Now let's put some 
intonation in there.
[:dv pr 250] [:dv sr 50]
Okay, this is how Jayson used to listen to DECtalk back in the good old DOS 
days. With 4.3 and earlier, if you could get used to this which you would 
over time, this sounds pretty good! It'd take some getting used to again, 
not having had it for so long.
[:np] [:ra 250]
The rest of this demo was created a few months ago to compair and test the 
various other factory voices and several custom voices in different DECtalk 
versions.
I will now test the other voices.
[:nb] I'm Beautiful Betty, the default female voice.
[:nh] I'm Huge Harry.
[:nd] I'm Doctor Dennis.
[:nf] I'm Frail Frank.
[:nu] I'm Uppity Ursula.
[:nr] I'm Rough Rita.
[:nw] I'm Whispering Wendy.
[:nk] and I'm Kit the Kid.
[:np]
Now I'll let the DECtalk manual describe us.
[:np]       Perfect Paul           Standard male voice.
[:nb]       Beautiful Betty Standard female voice.
[:nh]       Huge Harry      Deep male voice.
[:nf]       Frail Frank            Older male voice.
[:nk]       Kit the Kid             Child's voice (about 10 years
old).
[:nr]       Rough Rita      Deep female voice.
[:nu]       Uppity Ursula   Light female voice.
[:nd]       Doctor Dennis   Breathy male voice.
[:nw]       Whispering Wendy Whispery female voice.

[:np]
Okay, let's test a few custom voices.
[:nf] [:dv br 0 la 0 sr 100 hr 100 ap 150 pr 95] [:ra 220] This is the voice 
of Rimmer from Red Dwarf.
Lister, we are being tested! I don't know what to do!
[:nf] [:ra 240] [:dv br 0 hs 95 ap 100 as 100 pr 220 hr 30 sr 30] This is 
Lister.
Rimmer! Come over here and help me with this new speech synthesizer!
[:np] [:dv as 0 bf 0 la 20 nf 00 ri 100 sm 0 hr 0 sr 0] [:ra 220] This is 
Holly.
This is an important announcement. All persons aboard this ship are to 
report to the voice calibration office at once. That is all.
[:np] [:dv br 100 lx 100 bf 100 hr 100 sr 100 as 100 qu 100 ap 110 pr 150 sx 
1 la 0]  [:ra 210] This is the voice of the toaster.
I don't know where this voice calibration office is. Does anyone want some 
toast?
[:np] [:dv sm 1 hs 90  br 0 ri 0 la 0] [:ra 250] I'm the cat.
Who says my voice needs to be calibrated? I want fishies!
[:nd] [:dv as 0 bf 0 la 20 nf 00 ri 100 hr 0 sr 0] [:ra 220] I'm Queeg 500.
None of you have any credit, so you may not use the voice calibrator.
[:nu] [:dv as 1 bf 10 la 30 nf 10 ri 100 sm 50 hr 100 sr 20 ap 130] [:ra 
240] I'm the newer voice of Holly.
I'm picking something up. It's another ship. Its name is Deck Talk or 
something very close. They have been conducting an experiment on us all this 
time. That would explain why we've been saying all these silly things. I 
knew I was having trouble finding a record of any voice calibration office 
on Red Dwarf.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Corine Bickley" <corine.bickley at gallaudet.edu>
To: "DECtalk Discussions" <dectalk at bluegrasspals.com>
Sent: Wednesday, May 04, 2011 7:02 AM
Subject: Re: [DECtalk] Any news?


> HI Jayson,
> I will do that. Could you suggest some sample sentences to synthesize?
> We're trying to find a way to put a "demo play" button on the Enable
> website so people can type in any text they'd like to hear, but our
> programmer hasn't been able to spend time on that project right now.
> corine
>
> On Tue, May 3, 2011 at 8:12 PM, Jayson Smith <ratguy at insightbb.com> wrote:
>> Do you have any audio samples you could share? Maybe I could elaborate on
>> what people don't like. I pretty much know what DT 4.3 sounds like.
>> Jayson
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Corine Bickley" <corine.bickley at gallaudet.edu>
>> To: "DECtalk Discussions" <dectalk at bluegrasspals.com>
>> Sent: Tuesday, May 03, 2011 7:53 PM
>> Subject: Re: [DECtalk] Any news?
>>
>>
>>>i meant - i can't hear the differences, not being so attuned to the
>>> various DT versions. i can hear ok, but i'm not clear on the
>>> differences in quality.
>>>
>>> On Tue, May 3, 2011 at 7:24 PM, Jayson Smith <ratguy at insightbb.com> 
>>> wrote:
>>>> Hi,
>>>>
>>>> Wo, you actually got 4.3 working with SAPI? What kind of quality 
>>>> problems
>>>> are there?
>>>> Thanks.
>>>>
>>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>>> From: "Corine Bickley" <corine.bickley at gallaudet.edu>
>>>> To: "DECtalk Discussions" <dectalk at bluegrasspals.com>
>>>> Sent: Tuesday, May 03, 2011 6:14 PM
>>>> Subject: Re: [DECtalk] Any news?
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> Still waiting for one of the "old" (not chronologically, just in terms
>>>>> of contact with DT) to send some more versions for testing.
>>>>> 4.3 and 4.67 work in SAPI fine but preliminary listening results
>>>>> indicate dissatisfaction.
>>>>> corine
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> On Tue, May 3, 2011 at 2:29 PM, Jayson Smith <ratguy at insightbb.com>
>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>> Okay, it's broken record time. Anything new going on with the SAPI
>>>>>> DECtalk?
>>>>>> Haven't heard anything in a while.
>>>>>> Jayson
>>>>>>
>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>> 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
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>> DECtalk at bluegrasspals.com
>>>> http://bluegrasspals.com/mailman/listinfo/dectalk
>>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
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>>> DECtalk at bluegrasspals.com
>>> http://bluegrasspals.com/mailman/listinfo/dectalk
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>> http://bluegrasspals.com/mailman/listinfo/dectalk
>>
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