[DECtalk] DECTalk 4.2 Alpha (fwd)

Don Text_to_Speech at GMX.com
Tue Aug 16 18:29:32 EDT 2022


On 8/16/2022 2:55 PM, Blake Roberts via Dectalk wrote:
> I agree with Don about not seeing a point in emulating a Votrax speech
> synthesizer. I know it is sometimes possible to emulate a hardware speech
> synthesizer. About a decade ago, the owner of this list (Jayson) managed to
> emulate the Echo2 speech synthesis card manufactured by Street Electronics so
> that a virtual Apple IIEE can talk. That emulation had value/a point because
> those interested can use old Apple2E discs in combination with a specific
> Apple2 emulator and hear the screens spoken via Echo2 speech. Mr. Smith's
> emulation of the Echo2 hardware speech synthesizer was/is impressive to me
> because it sounds almost exactly like the hardware speech card.

You need "the other half" of the synthesizer for it to be a meaningful
undertaking.  It's like emulating a processor -- and not having any
of the *code* that ran on that processor!

In the context of speech synthesis, you'd need the LTS algorithm in
order to be able to "feed" the votrax and get meaningful "speech-sounds".

One caveat that might exist is MAME.  I suspect Qbert would be emulated,
there, and Qbert relied heavily on a votrax for his speech (cursing?).
Knowing how they have emulated other games, it is likely that they
may have built a votrax emulator that the Qbert code could drive
to mimic the actual game.

The chore, there, would be to tease out the votrax emulator from
the rest of the MAME framework.

> However, I don't see any practical value in someone "emulating" a Votrax speech
> synthesizer. I have heard one or more Votrax synthesizers in the audio
> demonstrations created by Dennis Klat before his passing in the 1980's. Hearing
> an emulated Votrax synthesizer, from my perspective, would be equivalent to
> someone deciding: "I want to remind myself of what the Braille N Speak voice
> chip sounded like." I don't remember what speech synthesizer hardware the
> Blazie Engineering Braille N Speak used, but I do remember I could not stand
> the voice because it always sounded monotone/boring to my ears.

The BnS used an SC-02 so it had the distinctive votrax "accent" (if
one wants to be generous).  In its day, it was the cheapest way to
put unconstrained speech into a device (TI's LPC offerings were likely
cheaper -- and more natural sounding -- but had limited vocabularies)

One can argue that DECtalk is similarly obsolescent as there are better
speech technologies out there, today.

Looking back, they give you an idea of the lowest you could set the
bar (in terms of speech quality) and hope to have folks use it.
Earlier synthesizers were even worse!

[There were even "instruments" that were "played" to approximate
human speech, ages ago!]

An amusing anecdote:  the movie Wargames did NOT use an electronic
speech synthesizer as the WOPR's voice.  Listening to it, one would
think that not to be the case!



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