[DECtalk] old synthesizers and baud rate?

[joshknnd1982 at gmail.com]

And sadly it looks like we may not get any bestSpeech source code from
Michael O'Malley but you never know. You do know and keep in mind that the
keynote products actually used Berkeley bestSpeech tts. But at least we now
have decTalk and 1982 sam source code. 


-----Original Message-----
From: Dectalk <dectalk-bounces at bluegrasspals.com> On Behalf Of Blake Roberts
via Dectalk
Sent: Friday, January 27, 2023 22:09
To: dectalk at bluegrasspals.com
Cc: Blake Roberts <BEarlRoberts at aol.com>
Subject: Re: [DECtalk] old synthesizers and baud rate?

I will share my hardware synthesizer memories from growing up.


In 1992, I was using a Braille N Speak 640. I began using a Braille Lite
model starting in the late 1990's. I don't remember the specific model; it
was the model prior to Millenium. The 1990's Braille Lite and Braille N
Speak both had the same TTS technology. I think it was an Artic speech
synthesizer.


Compared to that synthesizer, I always prefered the Apple 2E's Echo speech.
In elementary school, the resource room had an Apple2E computer. 
In the summer for a few years, another district would let me borrow its
Apple2e system; I borrowed disks from the other school district. The thing I
remember about the two Apple2e computers was that each one had a
different-sounding Echo II speech card. By that I mean, the same disk used
in both Apple2 computers produced a different pitched voice. Having been a
member of Jayson's Blind-Apple email list for many years, I realized during
the past decade that there were at least two versions of the Echo II. Echo
II and Echo II Plus.


Later in the 1990's, I used a couple of computers owned by school district
which had Keynote Gold SA. I then received a Keynote Companion for home use
which had an internal Keynote card. I remember how much fun it was to use
Keynote speech with screen readers, whether it was the box version of
Keynote at school or the Keynote Companion with voice card I had at my
residence. Sadly, the Keynote Companion went to computer heaven in 2000. I
then used a DoubleTalk speech card for a couple years before finially
transitioning from Dos to Windows. I have used software speech since 2002.


The above is my TTS history. I don't have experience using most of the
hardware synthesizers on Josh's list.


Blake



On 1/27/2023 8:14 PM, Brandon Misch wrote:
> I used the echo synthesizers for apple computers but that was for
> talking typer for the apple computers. I was only around 5-6 back in
> 91/92. I did see a braille 'n speak around 92. I used my first one in
> 94 but it was the classic with the august 13 1993 revision. I did use
> an acdcent synthesizer around 97/98 but that was for pc typer for
> windows. I mostly had software speech like access 32 with jaws 3.0 in
> 1998 and have been using software speech ever since. I did have an
> express that I got sometime in 2002-2003 but lost the cables and i
> don't know if they even work anymore. These days, I do have a DECtalk
> usb that I got from access solutions in 2012 that still works. that's
> my history with hardware and software synthesizers. sorry for the long
> message but you asked for it lol.
>
>
> On 1/27/23, joshknnd1982 at gmail.com <joshknnd1982 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Brandon, did you use old hardware synths in 1990 1992 or so? If so which
>> ones?
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Dectalk <dectalk-bounces at bluegrasspals.com> On Behalf Of Brandon
>> Misch
>> Sent: Friday, January 27, 2023 19:53
>> To: DECtalk <dectalk at bluegrasspals.com>
>> Subject: Re: [DECtalk] old synthesizers and baud rate?
>>
>> probably had to do more with printing or embossing when it comes to the
>> braille 'n speak and other products.
>>
>> On 1/27/23, joshknnd1982 at gmail.com <joshknnd1982 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> Hi
>>>
>>> You know I wonder why one or two old hardware synthesizers had such
>>> high baud rates? The old Keynote SA I had, used baud rate 38400. All
>>> the others, my braille 'n speak and braille lite used baud rate 9600.
>>> Such a high baud rate of 38400 would give no advantage to screen
>>> reader or speech synthesizer. Unless they didn't want people copying
>>> text directly to the synthesizer through the serial port so they chose
>>> a very high baud rate? I think even decTalk only needed 9600 baud.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Josh
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
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