[DECtalk] DECtalk 4.2 Software for Windows

[Jayson Smith]

Hi,

I have a build of DECtalk which I did in March of 2023 on my website. 
The URL is:
https://bluegrasspals.com/dectalk.zip

Say what you will about the legality or illegality of the source code 
and/or binaries built from it, but if you want DECtalk which sounds as 
close as possible to the old DECtalk PC units running 4.2, and you want 
both a Say command line program and a Speak window, this is the way to go.

Jayson

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
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Dectalk mailing list
> Dectalk at bluegrasspals.com
> https://bluegrasspals.com/mailman/listinfo/dectalk

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