[DECtalk] DECtalk 4.2 Software for Windows

[Nick Gawronski]

Hi, I love those two demos a lot.  I have noticed with some of these 
installers that when using it with jaws with the sapi versions that the 
synthesizer is rather slow to respond to quick entries like fast typing 
or moving threw documents quickly or is that just because of the older 
technology?  I remember that there use to be a Linux version around 
somewhere but can no longer locate it does anyone know what happened to 
it?  Nick Gawronski

On 6/4/2025 10:56 AM, Aksel Christoffersen wrote:
>
> Hi all,
>
> This has, as far as I know, not been posted publicly on the list yet, 
> or in any other DECtalk related forum that I know of. I’m therefore 
> posting it here, n case anybody is interested. My apologies if this is 
> already well known information.
>
> A few months ago, Jake Gross sent me an e-mail detailing that a 
> DLL-version of DECtalk 4.2 for the Intel architecture has now been 
> found. This DLL is able to function on modern Windows like the newer 
> DECtalk DLL’s, like 4.41 and later. However, it is not able to be used 
> with speak.exe, so the most efficient way to use it is probably with 
> say.exe, which works just fine. I personally haven’t tested it with 
> SAPI5 or NVDA yet.
>
> I’ve included it in the DECtalk Archive, both in my custom DECtalk 
> Speak Windows installer, and as a standalone ZIP file. When installed 
> through the Speak Windows installer, the shortcut created on the 
> Desktop will launch a command prompt window in the DECtalk 4.2 
> directory, ready to be used with say.exe.
>
> The Speak Windows installer can be found here
>
> https://dectalk.nu/Software%20and%20Manuals/Software/DECtalk/Speak%20Windows/DECtalk%20Speak%20Windows.exe
>
> and the standalone ZIP file can be found here
>
> https://dectalk.nu/Software%20and%20Manuals/Software/DECtalk/Speak%20Windows/Individual/Digital%20Equipment%20Corporation/dec42.zip
>
> In terms of sound, I would say it sounds very similar to DECtalk 4.3, 
> though with a few small differences, such as DECtalk 4.2 not slowing 
> down quite as much when encountering an exclamation point. Some of the 
> phonemes also sound a little different when singing. It’s not really 
> similar to the various 4.2 editions for DECtalk hardware in my opinion.
>
> I would say this is now the earliest version of DECtalk for Windows we 
> have with the classic DECtalk sound, since the 4.1 speak window sounds 
> very muffled to me.
>
> Here is an audio sample of DECtalk 4.2 with my own demo text.
>
> https://dectalk.nu/Speech%20Synthesis%20Demonstrations/DECtalk/Aksel%20Christoffersen/DECtalk%204.2.wav
>
> And here is a file of DECtalk 4.2 reading Jayson’s DECtalk demo, 
> created by Jake on his own site.
>
> https://datajake.braillescreen.net/misc_audio/demo42.flac
>
> Kind regards:
>
> Aksel
>
>
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