[DECtalk] DECtalk 4.2 Software for Windows

[Brandon Misch]

jake gross has a dectalk express emulator that works with jfw. Also, am
trying to find a version for nvda 2025.

On Wed, Jun 18, 2025 at 4:14 AM <jamminjerry at jjhof.com> wrote:

> I haven’t figure out how you can use this with say JFW, or NVDA. Maybe I
> am overlooking the very obvious, but I just don’t know how you can do it,
> and maybe you can’t. I don’t know.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> *From:* Dectalk <dectalk-bounces at bluegrasspals.com> *On Behalf Of *Jayson
> Smith
> *Sent:* Wednesday, June 4, 2025 8:56 PM
> *To:* DECtalk <dectalk at bluegrasspals.com>
> *Subject:* Re: [DECtalk] DECtalk 4.2 Software for Windows
>
>
>
> 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
>
>
>
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>
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>
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>
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