[DECtalk] DECTalk 5 (Sapi) Thank you, and please help

Sun Jul 19 08:39:34 EDT 2015

I'm wondering the same thing. When a technology such as Dectalk is no longer
being developed, does that mean it will eventually become public domain in
copyright terms after a period of years? It is my understanding that Fonix
lost interest in Dectalk because they developed Fonixtalk, but I expect they
still owned the Dectalk copyright at the time of their bankrupcy. Fonixtalk,
based in part on Dectalk, was still being marketed as of 2013. See this
article:

http://www.orbitresearch.com/news_details.php?id=9

Apparently, according to the article,  Fonixtalk was acquired by a company
called SpeechFX. However, I have no idea if that company also owns the
rights to Dectalk.

Blake

From: Dectalk [mailto:dectalk-bounces at bluegrasspals.com] On Behalf Of
Mohamed via Dectalk
Sent: Sunday, July 19, 2015 6:59 AM
To: DECtalk
Cc: Mohamed
Subject: Re: [DECtalk] DECTalk 5 (Sapi) Thank you, and please help

Does Fonix still own the rights to DECtalk technology? Or is it some other
company?

On 07/18/15 09:02 PM, Blake Roberts via Dectalk wrote:

Just to clarify some things: The Flame of Hope is owned by a former member
of this list, Snoopi Botten. While his site does offer valuable Dectalk
resources including songs, there is no affiliation with bluegrasspals. On
one section of the site, he tells people how to join this list because there
is such a wide breadth/depth of Dectalk knowledge on here. The only reason
Snoopi left this list some months ago is because emails kept bouncing. This
resulted in him having to be unsubscribed even though he did not want to do
so.

The Dectalk SAPI referred to is one which Snoopi and I obtained from someone
when we were working on Enable Rehab's Dectalk project some years ago. I
participated voluntarily. Although the SAPI calls itself 5.0, it really uses
Dectalk version 4.63. I originally provided the SAPI to this list in 2011 as
something for members to play with while Enable Rehab was developing their
own Dectalk product.

Enable's final product ultimately used a completely different version of
Dectalk altogether. By that time Snoopi and I were no longer associated with
the company. We eventually chose to create our own zip file with the SAPI we
had received and Dectalk utilities acquired by Enable. The reason for our
own zip file I don't need to go into at present. This was done so that the
public can have a free SAPI version of Dectalk and utilities to use. The
file called "instructions for Dectalk Reader 1" was primarily written by
myself to help people understand what everything included did or didn't do.
Again, the instruction file was created as a public service.

As for the SAPI limitations, I've known for years that it can only sing via
an application called TTS App and only then to a limited extent. As for the
other limitations you mention, I did not know about them. The Dectalk SAPI
being referenced was developed by Fonix. It was provided to myself and
Snoopi years ago by someone on condition of anonymousness. So, even if Fonix
had not gone bankrupt a year or so ago, contacting them about fixing the
Dectalk 4.63 SAPI would serve no purpose. Snoopi and I have always thought
of the 4.63 SAPI as a beta because of the limited singing ability.
Apparently Beta is still an apt term. Since the Dectalk speak windows can
sing and accept commands like define voice, I suggest using one of those
such as 4.40 or 4.3.

My apologies for such a long email. It is lengthy because in my mind
sufficient explanation is warranted. This self-created term paper is now
complete.

Blake

  _____  

From: Dectalk [mailto:dectalk-bounces at bluegrasspals.com] On Behalf Of
Johnathan Velick via Dectalk
Sent: Saturday, July 18, 2015 7:56 PM
To: DECtalk
Cc: Johnathan Velick
Subject: Re: [DECtalk] DECTalk 5 (Sapi) Thank you, and please help

Really? I had assumed Bluegrasspals was affiliated with Flameofhope. At any
rate, the zip directory is here. <http://theflameofhope.co/dectalkreader1/> 

It does not use the actual DECTalk software but through the folder "sapi"
there is a .msi download so that the Text To Speech Application may work
with the DECTalk Voices installed, and afaik it uses a dictionary file to
work with phonemes, as the phonetic code as I mentioned before works but not
design voice or other voice commands (as in the ones used to change between
the voice presets Paul, Betty, Harry, Rita, etc).

I'm assuming the entire source code is inside these files but I don't know
how to access them to make them work with the TTSA software.

On Sat, Jul 18, 2015 at 6:38 PM, Blake Roberts via Dectalk
<dectalk at bluegrasspals.com> wrote:

Johnathan, I am also wondering where you obtained Dectalk 5.0. As far as I
know it isn't on the Internet. Since this list does not have its own web
site for downloading files, I'm not sure where you obtained it.

Blake

  _____  

From: Dectalk [mailto: <mailto:dectalk-bounces at bluegrasspals.com>
dectalk-bounces at bluegrasspals.com] On Behalf Of Mohamed via Dectalk
Sent: Saturday, July 18, 2015 6:34 PM
To: DECtalk
Cc: Mohamed
Subject: Re: [DECtalk] DECTalk 5 (Sapi) Thank you, and please help

Hmm? Where is that located? I'd be interested in trying it.

On 07/18/15 05:26 PM, Johnathan Velick via Dectalk wrote:

Hi, I've been a fan of DECTalk ever since I've heard of it and it was only
today that I found version 5 from you guys, which I prefer over the 4.40
demo I had been using before. The standard text editor options really help
too.

But I've noticed that while the phonemes and singing work, the tones, dials,
design voice and other advanced options don't work within the TTS app like
they did in the 4.40 program. This is bothersome because I've dug through
the files and I found a guide that lists these features and how to access
them in the program, but to no avail. May I have installed the package
wrong? The app didn't initially come with the DECTalk voices or dictionary
files but they were downloadable within a folder in the zip from your
website.

It would also help if I could resize the application window and use the
enter key (without ctrl) to automatically read the text field. And the
DECTalk US voices are at the bottom of the drop-down and I have to select it
each time because that's how it runs by default, which is also irritating.

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