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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">Hi,</div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix"><br>
</div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">I have a build of DECtalk which I did
in March of 2023 on my website. The URL is:</div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://bluegrasspals.com/dectalk.zip">https://bluegrasspals.com/dectalk.zip</a></div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix"><br>
</div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">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.</div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix"><br>
</div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">Jayson</div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix"><br>
</div>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 6/4/2025 10:56 AM, Aksel
Christoffersen wrote:<br>
</div>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Hi all,</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">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.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">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.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">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.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The Speak Windows installer can be found
here</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a
href="https://dectalk.nu/Software%20and%20Manuals/Software/DECtalk/Speak%20Windows/DECtalk%20Speak%20Windows.exe"
moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-freetext">https://dectalk.nu/Software%20and%20Manuals/Software/DECtalk/Speak%20Windows/DECtalk%20Speak%20Windows.exe</a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">and the standalone ZIP file can be found
here</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a
href="https://dectalk.nu/Software%20and%20Manuals/Software/DECtalk/Speak%20Windows/Individual/Digital%20Equipment%20Corporation/dec42.zip"
moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-freetext">https://dectalk.nu/Software%20and%20Manuals/Software/DECtalk/Speak%20Windows/Individual/Digital%20Equipment%20Corporation/dec42.zip</a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">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.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">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.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Here is an audio sample of DECtalk 4.2 with
my own demo text.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a
href="https://dectalk.nu/Speech%20Synthesis%20Demonstrations/DECtalk/Aksel%20Christoffersen/DECtalk%204.2.wav"
moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-freetext">https://dectalk.nu/Speech%20Synthesis%20Demonstrations/DECtalk/Aksel%20Christoffersen/DECtalk%204.2.wav</a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">And here is a file of DECtalk 4.2 reading
Jayson’s DECtalk demo, created by Jake on his own site.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a
href="https://datajake.braillescreen.net/misc_audio/demo42.flac"
moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-freetext">https://datajake.braillescreen.net/misc_audio/demo42.flac</a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Kind regards:</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Aksel</p>
</div>
<br>
<fieldset class="moz-mime-attachment-header"></fieldset>
<pre class="moz-quote-pre" wrap="">_______________________________________________
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